Front Page News

RAIN IN DOHA!!!!

It rained on Friday for about three hours. The event drove the world recession off the front page of the Qatar Tribune.
The paper reported the event in breathless prose and a photo of a woman wheeling her groceries from a supermarket in the rain.
The report said that: "Rain in the capital all but spoilt yet another weekend on Friday. Smart showers forced many people indoors and caused water-logging in several areas. However the situation eased later when the clouds dissapated and the sun shone, though feebly, even as icy winds blew lowering the day temperature. However, with the sky clearing, flocks of people families as well as bachelors came out of their houses to throng the Corniche, Al Bida Park, the malls and hyper markets.
Children, who had lost all hopes of a pleasant outing on the weekend after five days of schooling, got bibbly with the first ray of sun emerging from behind the dispersing clouds. Their joy was, however, short-lived as they found the parks wet."

The paper also gave a quarter page to a report of an urdu poetry session held to support victims of floods in India. The reporter quoted lines from the best poems and commented on the poetic style of each poet.

This is the second big story I've read about poetry in the Gulf.. the first was about the Poet Millions competition held in the UAE which has a poetry competion dedicated to traditional arabic poetry with a prize purse of several million Drhms.