Here to Stay?

On the 1st of April 2010 I completed twenty one years in Dubai. That seems like an infinitely long time, and I came as did most, with the intent of staying for a period of two years. And here I am at the end of ten times that, with no intention of moving out. I have spent the majority of my adult life here with every desire to continue on. I still remember so tangibly, my first days here as being miserable, as I missed my family and friends back home, and it took me almost two years to get warmed up to this place. But after that, there really has been no looking back for me.

There have been lots of comparisons done between the Dubai of old and now, and there are many emails circulating on the internet about the amazing transformation of this place. But as an individual who has lived through that transformation I do not need photographs to remind me of what this place was like. People like me, who have seen these changes in front of our eyes took for granted the fact that buildings cropped up in months and new roads laid almost overnight. What would be deemed impossible in any other place, was a matter of normality in Dubai. This city was a classic example of the result of the amalgamation of resources, both financial and physical, with an indomitable will to achieve things.

However in 2008 the tide turned, and since then Dubai has received a lot of vilification and adverse publicity. It seems to me that the same people who in the past were completed enamored by this place turned around and become its most rabid critics. In the last year or so I have seen so many such “derogatory” articles that I have lost count. Each of them have been written to elucidate to the world how terrible a place it is and how artificial and greedy its people. Some of these articles have been written by ex-residents from a residents perspective, but most by people who had never stayed here. In these articles I have sensed pleasure in the tone of these pieces as they tore through the many faults that they perceived. There was a sense of come-uppance as if to say that Dubai deserved to be pushed down, as a price to be paid for the temerity of having such huge ambitions. How could such a small place dare to have such huge dreams?

It is a fact that a lot of people lost a lot of money in Dubai, when the bets they placed went the other way. But that was not specific to Dubai, as people lost their savings and their property values in the US as well as Europe. Asian markets collapsed too, but bounced back quicker. But I did not come across the sort of scathing articles that seemed to be reserved for Dubai. There have also been lots of negative press in International publications, grossly exaggerated and of course to a Dubaite like myself completely uncalled for. However I take it the way one tolerates a precocious child, with a bit of irritation and some amount of condescension. I have never understood this human desire to take personal credit for all good decisions and blame someone else for the bad ones. I mean, do they really believe what they have written, or are they just venting their frustration?

As I recall the blessings that this city has showered on me I am completely humbled. I earned my first salary here, met my wife here, both my children were born here. Even my fitness regimen started only when I moved here, (as there was no question of affording a club back home). Almost everything that surrounds me has been made possible by this place. I sometime contemplate my own alternate histories, and think of what my life would have been had I never come to Dubai. Even if I had been successful back home and had all the trappings of wealth and success, how much would I have enjoyed the same? Lots of my friends have good cars or a good bike in Bombay, but where are the roads to enjoy the same? How long can you enjoy the trappings of a good home, if the minute you step out you are in the middle of filth? What is the use of having good clothes and perfumes when basic necessities like water are not guaranteed? What is the point of exercising regularly when the very air you breathe is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day?

If I had chosen to emigrate somewhere else, a completely different set of questions hits me. What would I become if I now have a different passport? Would I be any less Indian? What sort of identity would I provide my children? What would be the point of having a big house, if I hardly spent any time in it, and the time I did spend was to clean and mend? What would be the point of being a successful executive in the day, and a cleaner / cook / gardener / launderer at night? What would be the point of moving for the sake of my children, (if that is the excuse I wanted to use) when there is no guarantee that they will not in turn move away for better prospects and leave my wife and I alone in a foreign land? (Can you imagine the irony if our children were to return to our Motherland to rediscover their roots, while we are ekeing out a lonely existence in a foreign land?). What would be the point of paying taxes to a country, if I had no intent to retire there and benefit from their welfare system?

So you cannot blame me for abiding such strong emotions for a place that has provided me with what I have sought in my life. And as this city has grown, I too have grown with it. Even though I feel, like most other residents, that the city has grown away from its roots and the pace has been too much for any man to follow, it has been my own lack of effort that has kept me lagging behind.

The Rulers of Dubai never aspired to build a city at the expense of another, they never said that "a particular city was bad" and that they would do better. They just aspired to build a first of its kind metropolis, a place that would attract people from all over the world, and which would offer something for everyone. They wanted the best and they wanted it now. They were driven only by their dreams and their ambitions, and as the news of their initial success spread, so did the desire of people to flock here. The population exploded and the City tried its best to gear up for it. Civic services, infrastructure, communications, health services all felt the impact and groaned under the weight of expectations of a more and more demanding populace. The city grew in all directions, communities sprang up, new roads were built, networks were spread, and still the people came. There were traffic snarls, inflation was rampant, utility and fuel prices soared, the airport was busting at its seams and still they came. Property developers were mushrooming all over, finance houses and Banks were opening shop by the day, selling (no giving away) credit, construction companies widened their search ever further for cheap(er) labour, and still they came. The dollar was weakening by the day, making all of Europe and Asia salivate at the prospects of the "value" deals that were available, made cheap by the exchange rate, and the prospect of a killing and so they still came. It all started to unravel, when the giant (USA) sneezed. The Ponzi schemes, the unbridled greed that defined the ethos of the part-timers, the grossly overblown sense of entitlement of Bankers, eventually brought the whole world, and along with it Dubai, to its knees.

Is it the perfect place to live in? I cannot truthfully answer for everyone, and maybe not. I have not lived in a variety of places to compare and contrast. I left the shores of my own country to come here - and I have pitched my tent here ever since. I have had though, the opportunity to visit and work in many countries and cities, and have admired them for their natural beauty or their development, their culture or their sophistication, but have yet to come across one that made me so feel at home and plant roots.

But that is just me!!