Yeah, I know there’s no prelude to the last statement on this blog. All the data that was relevant to my stint in Dubai has been a little too vague I thought; and thus this blog. This chapter would hopefully encompass the first month spent here in Dubai, as a First Semester student (I can’t call myself a First Year student since the entire course is only for one year…). So here it goes…
It’s been exactly 1 month and 5 days since I left my motherland, India. I would prefer calling it India instead of Bharat since it sounds too corny (a subtle hint to prove that I’m well on my way to becoming an NRI…!). Anyways, back to the point. Right… so it’s been a month and 5 days, and the experiences in this one month have fairly ranged from amusing to neurotic. Let’s look at them one by one.
Week one was too hectic in terms of grasping things. The situation was similar to the anxiousness a new born baby shows when he enters the world. He wants to know everything. And so did we. 3 days of constant Orientation, and then the visit to a mall, going to some sub-urban areas for shopping using local transit and a party towards the weekend was probably a lot to handle for me emotionally.
True, these events practically speedup the process of making friends and stuff, but the problem was I was still haggling with the fact of me leaving my loved ones back home. Suffice to say that I’m still living with it.
Week 2,3 and 4 were pretty much the same, except for the fact that every weekend we used to go to a different mall. And each and every mall had a different way of running itself. So it was pretty exciting to compare different malls with one another (the MBA mind in action..!). But frankly, these people certainly do know how to take care of such a huge and I mean huge colossus.
There are basically 3 major malls in Dubai. Diera City Centre Mall (for economy conscious buyers like us), The Emirates Mall (as the name suggests, it’s a little more on the premium side) and BurjUman (also a premium segement targeted mall). The best part about all the malls is that although they have been positioned to cater to a different crowd, each of the mall houses a hypermarket (as good as a Big Bazar) which is its key anchor point (a Mall Management jargon..!). thus regardless of how the mall is positioned one will always find people from all the classes of the society shopping there.
Next, nightlife. The nightlife is awesome here, provided you are above 21 and have enough cash to spare. Its not costly per se. But definitely you can have a better time if you’ve got more green paper. I guess more money holds constant for anything in Dubai. The more the better. There’s no limit to it.
The best part I think about living in Dubai is visiting the suburban areas. They are small towns on the outskirts of Dubai, which also house their own shopping malls, big enough to be compared to any Big Bazaar in India. The mode of transport is either the bus (which has a low transit frequency) or getting illegal cabs. Yes, there are illegal cabs as well here. You get to know how does the majority of the country live. I think the best way to know what the country is all about, is by beginning from the bottom of the pyramid. And that is what we do by going to shopping centers in the sub-urban areas.
The country seems weird in many aspects if you ask me. One, the local residents of UAE or Dubai themselves are not very socializing amongst themselves even, forget the expatriates. Two, they are heavily deprived of education, and that is one major reason why such Academic Cities are coming up. I hear London Business School has also set up and EMBA program here in Dubai.
Basically I think the economy and the social fabric here is running on steroids. Why? Consider this. The Sheikh one day realized that Dubai is a very important hub for trading and that there are very few oil reserves in Dubai. He also realized that tourism could help the economy, and that there’s a dire need for manpower (skilled and unskilled) which the local residents alone would not be able to provide.
So he said, Liberalize..! and voila.! Dubai became liberal. So how did Dubai become liberal? They abolished Burkha for women (OMG.. what a giant leap towards a liberal society). Expatriates could own homes now! They are being given greater powers (and why not.! 80% of the worker class in Dubai are expatriates. If one day they decide to leave, Dubai will be doomed.!!)
Bottomline, all that they had was the money. The brains are being provided by Europeans and the manpower by the Indians (South Indians in majority). So technically they ain’t doing nothing..!
Maybe I’m intimidating the Arabs a lot. But whats a fact is that according to me, the social fabric hasn’t evolved at all. For the development of the country there has to be a sea-change in the outlook of everyone; from the king to the local resident with regards to culture.
But all that they have done is giving the reins into the hands of the Europeans and Asians and said, “Go.! Run my country while I screw my wives..!”
More in the next run…
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