August ends on a sombre note with people the world over remembering two enigmatically powerful women who passed away 10 years ago.

Princess Diana died in a tragic car crash in Paris, France on August 31, 1997. She was only 36.

Thousands of kilometres away a frail Mother Teresa died of cardiac arrest in the slums of Kolkata, India on September 5, 1997. She was 87.

I can count the number of friends I have on the fingers of one hand and still have some to spare.

I consider myself lucky that my few real friends have stuck by me through wealth and poverty, illness and good health and even on those days I’ve ranted at them like a banshee when things went awfully wrong in my personal and professional life.

These friends are not related, there is no blood connection. However there is chemistry, an understanding, a feeling that they can always be depended on… to tell the truth, to catch me if I were falling off a cliff or just be there when I need them.

Since the subcontinent was divided on religious grounds 60 years ago in 1947, two generations of Indians and Pakistanis have suffered war, political intrigue and poverty fuelled by the burgeoning cost of defence.

The third generation however is already looking back at the relationship of these two countries and as soon as they find their voice will say "Enough!"

A day after both India and Pakistan celebrated their independence day with a lot of pomp and colour, it has not escaped me that the bogeyman rhetoric that they have both used against each other in the past 60 years has now been softened to discuss the winning of peace.

I’m an angry woman. Not the best type of manager to be, I’ve learnt - much to my chagrin. But I’ve also found out that since I am an angry woman - with reasons to be - then I’m all right. But, on the other hand, I’m still no better than an unreasonably angry man.

Now you’re going to ask me what makes me so reasonably angry. Simply put, I am upset that I was raised with three elder brothers and had to work ten times harder than the sum of them to get the family at large to listen to my voice of reason.

I thought I had died and arrived in heaven when I went to an all girl’s school and gender inequality was never mentioned.

Almost one billion kilograms of household waste is generated every year in this our fair city. This colossus will finally find a resting place in the number of recycling plants that are being set up not just to deal with overflowing landfills but also to create job opportunities and profit.

True to form Dubai, with its astute business sense, has come up with a solution to a burgeoning problem many people said would soon become a major environmental disaster.

So, the recycling plants are all planning to make gold from the mountains of household, industrial and other waste (our cover story).