Dubai

 

Dubai the El Dorado of Gulf malayalees will forever remain my most favourite city .

Its a story of a fairy tale land springing forth out of dry hot desert by the will of its founders .

Its an inspiration like nothing else of how a country can grow woth all thats needed is good leaders who love it .

Sheikh Mohammed and Sheik Rashid of the Maktoum dynasty owning the Emirate of Dubai are to me two men who are the object of my admiration and adulation .

 I worked in Al Ain a part of Abu Dhabi emirate the biggest in UAE a country united by another great leader Sheikh Zayed .

It was his dream which made the nation .

The seven Emirates which I had the fortune of touring extensively is a testimony of the message left by the great leader Sheik Zayed in being united but maintaining thier own individuality mutually respecting and helping the other .

The country has given life to millions all over the world who found solace in its shores for livelihood and made their life much better than it was .

Its the love and hard work of these migrants for the culture the tolerance the oppurtunity available in the country and the chances given to them that made it what it is .

In this country to me Dubai stands out as a beacon of hope of leadership of ideas and of sincerity .

Without all this no country can transform itself into what Dubai has becomein decades .

I lived when the mega chsnges happened like construction of the talest building in the world the metro the Jumeirah islands and the msking of Dubai into amodern behemoth a manhattan rising out of desert sands 

Though it went through bad economic times it bounced back like the proverbial phoenix that rises from its ashes .

It all started when a busy small time port dealing in dungaree shiping to nearby countries from.its dhows and in home doved pearls and gold trade got a leader who gazed at the stars and wanted notbing but tge best for his nation .

When advisors reminded him of his country having no oil like its neighbours he put them off telling them we have trade and we are the best .

The archetypical hard nosed Arab who can bargain for the best was symbolic of the Dubai enterpreuner with his sharp nose and falcon demanour .

Western advisors told Shiek Rasheed that he needed a Trade centre to engine his progress

Yes we shall build one he said and he did but 25 km into the empty hot sand dunes of the desert his small town was surrounded with .

Many were aghast and asked him why he was building a trade center so far away from tge then Dubai .

The answer of Sheikh Rasheed should be part of MBA programmes tge world over on the positivity of any leader .

He said for the question

Why is it so far from the city

MY CITY WILL GROW TO IT .

Look at his foresight 

Its a lesson for every leader

And Dubai did much much better than Sheikh Rasheeds dreams then for the Eorld Trade center in Sheikh zayed road is today the beggining of modern Dubai stretching almost all the way to Abu Dhabi .

It was Shiekh Mohammed the illustrious great leader who made the magic of Dubai .

He wanted nothing but the best and he worked hard inspiring his countrymen and thousands of other country men who madd his country their own for its making them live and thrive .

And thus the fairy tale of Dubai the el dorado gtewfrom its small dusty desert harbour into a multi behemoth metropolitian maginificience .

He built the tallest the best in everything .

He faced losses downfalls but with his leadership brought rebirths amazing examples to the world itself .

I love Dubai and stayed many days in its finest 

I love the freddom the neatness the very spirit of the city

Its just right up my alley 

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 I love the older parts of Dubai too 

Deira waterfront with its busy wharfs.

 Crowded with smallers dungarees and ships laden with cargo bound to Iran Iraq and other  Arab countries etc .

The smell the clamour the dust all takes you back in history when tired dust laden caravans came to the harbour to give and take goods.

The mirage is broken as one gazes at the multistories looming behind in shining facades.

The gold souk with its glittering fantasies the spice markets with its exotic temptations the dinghies that lap one across the Dubai creek to Bur Dubai the sea birds that fly past in grace its oriental exotic Fashionable as Dubai is ..

The Bollywood like Burr dubai has the essence of a little India with its saravana bhavans serving yummy masala dosas its temple giving spiritual solace its covered market in waterfront selling Dubais history..

My memories of Dubai in pictures  .