A month ago, Ma, Baba and I visited jethumoni's home for the last more than 30yrs, Dubai. Of course, it was exciting to visit him--but my main attraction point was meeting my niece--adorable,charming and lovely!
Dubai can be described in one word-- 'ambitious'. The amount it has developed (I'm referring to the stereotypical notion of the term) is unfathomable. It is a disciplined country where policing and surveillance is remote-controlled. I saw Indians not spitting, not littering and behaving themselves and wondered why can't they be like this in their own country?
Tall buildings, state-of-the-art technology, enviable cars, clean and wide roads, huge malls that will take you a week to cover and shopping will blow your mind. The USP of the city lies in the buildings, each different from the other-- embracing varied cultural and architectural influences. Many would feel, wish India was like this--ummm...I differ from this, may be because I simply love the chaos!
However, the masterpiece of the city is the Burj-Khalifa--a man made masterpiece. The experience of going on top of the highest building in the world (around 160 floors) and reaching 124the floor in 40seconds is inexplicable. It is nothing short of a miracle as this building was made in just 10yrs!
Life in Dubai, I'm guessing like any other 'developed' nation is devoid of friendly neighbours, cultural activities, options to enhance social interactions and it is something I felt the most when I saw my niece playing all by herself at home and I felt sad for her! But may be I am wrong...I do not know.
So what attracts you then?--the shopping, hell yes! sad for your pockets but this is an ideal place to be addicted to 'stuff' and get sucked into the consumeristic frame of mind--ideal situation for capitalism to flourish. Yes, the carefully crafted city appeals you to no end but what really impressed me most was the dedication, discipline and ambition of the Monarch to make this city the best in the given capacities without looking at personal gains! Something that we need to learn!
4 comments:
very well written. one could feel the experience you had in Dubai. For those who haven't been there, will have the ambition to visit once to the ambitious - Dubai for themselves.
Keep writing ....
thanks Charu :)
Ambitious and capitalist – I agree. Since everything is so glamorous why wouldn’t one want to live it up. In the brief 8 years I have spent here versus Shantanu & Baba’s 30+ years, it makes me underline why someone would want to stay in this country and question the idea of moving back to India.
Developed nation this is not, developing rather. More importantly the social life and cultural scene is pretty vibrant here. As such Dubai is so ideally located that it makes it a melting pot of cultures. Sneha on the other hand has a brilliant time at home with the added advantage of having her grandparents pampering her 24 x 7. Of course she did not end up going for a play date since we had guests.
It was probably the time that we spent with yourselves that made you assume otherwise.
Extremely glad that you guys came over and look forward to having you all back soon.
Didi---thanks for sharing your view! I wrote in my blog initially only that a week doesn't give you the whole picture! but im glad you mentioned so many things :)yiay! I did have a fabulous time and look for more in future :)
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