12 rules to help you enjoy life in Kuwait

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12 rules to help you enjoy life in Kuwait

This article provides basic recommendations on how to enjoy your life in Kuwait. The lack of development in all aspects of life in Kuwait has meant that people here – Kuwaitis and expats alike – have a harder time and less options for enjoying life than their fellows in other neighboring countries like Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. I mean, as Kuwaitis, we are stuck here, but for the expats, why would you come here if you could be in Dubai or Doha instead? 

Life in Kuwait can sometimes be pretty boring. No matter how biased one can be in favor of one’s homeland, it’s always beneficial to acknowledge the limitations and deficiencies of it. Such acknowledgements serve as a gate to self-criticism, which is a necessary prerequisite to making recommendations and offering solutions as to how to improve the experience of living here.

Having pretty much given up on all those governmental promises, I’ve formulated some suggestions and rules of my own for helping to enjoy life in static Kuwait, apparently frozen in its very own time warp, so here they are:

1.    Follow Politics. Do not miss political intercourse in Kuwait. All political actors here have their special sense of humor, whether comical lies and promises by ministers, or stupid proposals by MPs. It gets even funnier when people take to the street to protest, you get women dancing, swearing at ministers, and all kinds of amusing slogans.

2.    Don’t get involved in the Kuwait stock market. Do not let your life become dependent on colors, today green, tomorrow red. Rational economic and political order is missing in this country, which is reflected in the market. But let’s face it, it’s always fun to watch how people react to instantly making or losing money when it’s not your money.

3.    You NEED (wasta) connections. You cannot enjoy your life in Kuwait without having wasta. You will certainly need to renew your driving license, get a job for your visiting younger brother, extend his visit if he cannot find a job; these simple procedures will turn into pure suffering if you do not know someone who can help facilitate the process.

4.    When June comes, get out as fast as possible. It’s oven-hot, and there is neither water nor electricity, do not come back before September.

5.    If you do follow rule number four, do NOT use Kuwait Airways. Truly a horrible experience!!

6.    Friendships? If you are a Kuwaiti, make friends with expats; if you are an expat, make friends with Kuwaitis. The interaction and exchange of views and insights are fun.

7.    Visit a diwaniya. At least once a week even if you don’t like it, it’s important. It’s where you achieve Rule #3.

8.    Do not watch Kuwaiti football. Do not watch Kuwaiti football league as it is extremely weak and very boring.

9.    Join one of those health clubs or spas. Well, if you can afford them, of course. They are nice and you will enjoy your time there, but they are ridiculously expensive.

10.    Movies: forget about cinema in Kuwait. The Kuwait Cinema Company is months behind its counterparts in the west and even those in the region. Get smuggled DVDs from one of those places in Hawally or Salmiya. Sorry, IPR guys!

11.    Starbucks: Make peace with Starbucks, you have to like it, they are everywhere, and chances are you will end up in one of them, so accept the fact that Starbucks is a part of your life.

12.    Read Kuwait Times – every day! It will keep you up to date on local politics, provide funny stories about not-so-smart criminals, give you material to discuss with your Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti friends, and it can easily be found in any Starbucks.

(Editor’s Note: Kuwait Times occasionally publishes articles and columns from our archives. Please let us know if there is a ‘blast from the past’ you would like to see again by emailing us at local@kuwaittimes.net.

Originally published in the Kuwait Times in January 17, 2007.)

By Meshary Alruwaih

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/12-rules-help-enjoy-life-kuwait/

KCamp kuwait

Kidz Nursery kuwait

Q8 KIDS CAMP

Kuwait kids camp is back with its 3rd Ramadan camp! 

KKC Ramadan is a day camp that runs at the Marina Hotel for 3 weeks
from June 29th to July 17 st, Sunday to Thursday, 12.30pm – 4.30pm.

We welcome campers between the ages of 3 and 14, to join us in fun
filled activities. We have some very exciting field trips, a Gergian festival
and much more to keep campers of all ages entertained.

Want to be a volunteer?

Parents and Kids Event at FSRI

Rongali Bihu celebrations in Kuwait

The Assamese community of Kuwait celebrated Rongali Bihu this year with much fanfare under the aegis of Asom Association Kuwait. Rongali Bihu was celebrated over two days, on 18^th April and 29^th May 2014.

The onset of Bohag, the Assamese spring season was celebrated by organizing a day long festivity of ‘Khel-dhemali’ in the Al Fintas Park where the Assamese community gathered for outdoor fun and games activities on 18^th April. The members were welcomed with a plateful of different varieties of pithas, larus, doi, chera, kumol saul and other snacks prepared by the ladies. The bright sunny morning in this expansive park was a perfect setting for the members to relax and network, while the children played to their heart’s content. The attraction of the morning was the innovative games devised by Dr Anjol Saikia and  Anjan Tamuli. The program ended with a wide array of delicious lunch prepared by the members.

The main Rongali Bihu function was celebrated as “Bornali Kalita Xondhiya” on 29th May 2014. The venue for the celebrations was the magnificent Indian Embassy Auditorium. The programme started at 5:30 pm with the felicitation of the guests, Hon’ble Ambassador of India to Kuwait, His Excellency, Sri Sunil Jain and the guest artist - melody queen from Assam Ms Bornali Kalita. It was followed by lighting of the ceremonial lamp by them. President of the Asom Association Kuwait Mr Anup Bora in his inaugural speech welcomed the gathering and outlined the importance of this celebration. His Excellency Sri Sunil Jain in his speech lauded the efforts of the Association and spoke about our beautiful Assam and the mighty Brahmaputra. He also expressed his pleasure in seeing the display of handicrafts and artifacts from Assam arranged as an exhibition by Mr Jayanta Bardalaye and his team. The annual Souvenir of the Association “Jetuka”, edited and published by Chinmoy Dutta and his team was released by the Hon’ble Ambassador. He commended the effort and appreciated the available literary talent. He also distributed the prizes of the Drawing competitions to all winning children and to the members for on-the-spot creative writing competition.

The in-house cultural programme co-ordinated by Mitali Goswami comprised of the chorus “Srimoyee Asomir” and “Aajee Jibon Butolebe” sung  by Hiren Rajkhowa, Jayanta Madhab Saikia, Alok Das, Bijan Goswami, Atul Shah, Jayanta Thakur, Bhaskar Hazarika, Chiranjit Barua, Mriganga Das, Bharati Sharma, Geeta Rajkhowa, Nilakshi Bora, Pallabi Saikia, Rubi Dutta, Masum Rajkhowa, Debahuti Das, Preety Shah, Mouchumi Sarma, Kanika Thakur, Atreyee Barua and Priyanka Konwar, accompanied by Amitabh Talukdar on Tabla and Abhijit Sharma on guitar. A scintillating performance of Husori was performed by the group comprising of Pompy Hazarika, Mousumi Talukdar, Kalpana Talukdar, Leena Saikia, Parimita Barooah Bora, Niva Tamuly, Amitabh Talukdar, Bhaskar Hazarika, Bhaskar Jyoti Sharma, Mriganga Das, Basab Sharma, Anjol Saikia.

The children amply demonstrated their talents by performing our beautiful traditional Bihu dance (Trishala, Shreya, Upasana, Ananya), Tiwa Bihu by Mehr, Runa, Ruhi and Bagoromba Dance by Anchita, Anuska, Ashmita, Diksha, Meghna, Isha. A fusion of our traditional and modern dance was performed by Rudrakshi, Jigyasa, Taniya, Rinky, Subhangi, Riya, Riha and Devanshi. A patriotic song was performed by Adit, Krishnanshu, Nupur, Rishi, Rounak, Rhitam, Rudrakshi, Anshita, Subhangi and Meghna. All the children put up their best performance and it was a treat to watch them perform. They beautifully demonstrated the diverse Assamese culture, tradition and unity with their alluring performance. The programme was hosted by Alok Das and Bijon Goswami.

A memento was presented to Ms Bornali on behalf of the Association, in appreciation of her participation in these celebrations and as a token of our love and affection. Another guest of the Asom Association, Aakash Panwar, President of Aapna Bharat Society was felicitated.

After the in-house cultural programme, the stage was opened for “Bornali Kalita Xondhiya” and the versatile singer drew attention of all in the crowd. In her maiden appearance she showed her versatility in full measure as she sang from a whole range of hit Assamese songs. She bonded well with the crowd as she sang playful Bihu numbers and captivated the crowd. As she rolled out the latest Assamese and Bollywood hits everyone including adults and children trooped onto the stage as they sang and danced to the tune of her music.

Prizes were distributed for the Quiz series “Xandhan” organized by Iqbal Hussain through our website http://www.kuwaitotasom.com.  Many received attractive gifts from the Association in the raffle arranged effectively by Rajib Rajkhowa and Dwaipayan Bora. The programme ended with ‘Vote of Thanks’ by the General Secretary of the Association Abhijit Sharma. As we remained engrossed, we failed to notice that it was time for dinner. The grand finale to the celebrations was the sumptuous dinner arranged by Ranjit Dutta and his team.