Dubai....

So extending my maniac day trip culture to outside India, I did what counts in my books as a day trip to Dubai last week. First the rants :

1. No, not all people flying to "gulf" are malayalees...so don't assume I speak/ understand the language
2. So you probably got your job as an office in the customs department through reservation, bribing or sheer luck.....so if you don't understand what investment banking is and why I need to spend only a day in various countries after flying for hours together, its not my fault....its an existential question I ask myself too, but that doesn't absolve you of your dumbness
3. No, just because your bag is overloaded and mine isn't, I will not agree to carry your liquor and duty free stuff for you...yes we are all sons of the great mother India, but there ends our brotherhood...
4. And please someone tell me how can I break the jinx of sitting very close to a baby which feels like bawling every time I am desperate for sleep on a airplane? I love kids, and all that but please please please....

Ok now back to what I wanted to say....

It amazes me how the city has changed, I was there 2 years ago and boy it looks different. Billions ( trillions? don't think) of dollars have been invested and it shows. As my local contact said, Dubai offers western lifestyle, Indian culture, Arab belief in some things and proximity to India...better to stay there than in India...Has the downturn affected it, yes it has, you can feel it, but I am a believer in the sense that capital gets reallocated and infrastructure gets used - let others have access to it...and I think Dubai will go that way too....it will be back to its path to glory sooner than all of us scenario builders see it...

But the shock of completely illiterate/ low educated Indians going there in hope, the anticipation of redemption from a life of no hope in India to a better future, the knowledge that it might be back breaking work but visit home is just 2-3 years away and the scene back home will show the results of the hard work keep people going. Those last phone calls from the aero bridge, plane seat,the looks at the immigration stamp, the looks given to that boarding pass...I didn't realise what was a 4 hour trip for was a life changer to a lot of people...make it lot more back home who were related to those people....

On the return leg - the emotions were different - frantic buying at duty free, stuff for everyone without burning too much of the cash which can buy more back home, the 2 weeks/ months planned at home...it was a melee of emotions..

I found it very interesting, the range of human emotions, a cacophony of languages - the underlying thoughts seemed same. I was a snob in bits, the rants emerge from there, but as a person who has seen middle class life, I could not help but identify with some of those emotions. Have we failed as a country to educate this mass, create options to earn a decent living while living with loved ones, the quality of life .... but then those are questions I don't/cant/ want to answer...I am running my own race...

Narayan murthy, the Infosys founder, once said that it takes the sacrifice of a generation to uplift a family's standard of living, I would also add education and luck to that mix but I think what I saw was a plane load full of people who had sacrificed the happiness that proximity to family brings, the joy of being with people like you, walking the same streets with your kid as the ones you did with your parent to ensure the quality of life goes up for everyone....It was hope that one day you will return to what you love and this is a means to that end. Maybe not all felt that way, I am sure a few did...