Things that I noticed in Dubai

The largest man-made island and only the second structure that can be seen from the space (The Palm Islands), a plane landing/taking off once in every 3-4 minutes, the world’s tallest tower, roads controlled by radar ….Welcome to Dubai!

It’s almost one month that I’ve been in Dubai. so, how have things been?

I’m not going to repeat thing that you might be aware of them before like roads are good, right hand drive, Fridays are holidays, etc…., but some of the things that you might have know before.

India and Dubai

• There are many Indian (South Indian in particular) restaurants here. Some of them are Saravana Bhavan, Kerala Bhavan, Annaporna, Upidi restaurants, etc.. I don’t know the situation in the other place, but in Deira itself, there are so many Indian restaurants.
• The crowd in these restaurants are more than those in the other restaurants!
• As far as I’ve noticed, things are atleast 2-3 times costly as there in India. We can tell anything is cheap, when the prices are same as in India!
• This place (Dubai) is like India only. There are so many Indians who here wandering, wearing the desi lungis in streets - only that I can’t come to India whenever I wish.

Roads

• 85% of the Dubai roads is ruled by cars only. There are hardly any two wheelers. They say that it’s difficult to get license, and only organizations like Courier firm, restaurants get them as they might need it for logistics.
• The motorist “respect” the pedestrians. They give way whenever the pedestrians want to cross the road.
• The roads (Highways) here controlled by Radar. So need for police/highway patrols.
• The petrol/deisel is measured in Gallons unlike Litres as in India.

Telecom and Internet

• There is only one Telecom company - Etisalat (Govt. owned).
• The signal strength is good and the network strength bar is always full anywhere you’re in UAE.

Miscellaneous

• Many people have the perception that electronic goods are cheap here. I have gone to couple to places here, it’s selling at the same rate as we might buy them in India. Only TVs have noteable price difference. But things can get cheap at this Year End Dubai Shopping festival.
• There are no stray (or even pet) dogs that I have seen. There seem to be only cats straying around in the streets.
• In all this time, I have seen only one Beggar. That he came to the restaurant. He was not persistent as our desi beggars! Really I have not noticed any vagabonds or beggars here.

No place like Home

Have you ever thought why our Bharat Army or members in Discussion boards like BwTorrents BwTorrents are so patriotic? Even if their coutry doesn’t do well, they defend and still support their team?

Only if you’re away from your country, you’ll realize how important our motherland is. You’ll miss your country. The same thing happened to me also. I how good my Broadband connection (BSNL Dataone) was (no fun here!), my parents advice/words, my PC (al though it was old, I had no complaints), my Chennai, everything.

The freedom (that you get in your motherland) is something that’s a luxury once you’re out of your country. Once such simple thing to explain this on the occasion of Diwali. People here were afraid to burst crackers, as there was a fear that it’s not welcome (and in worst case, you might be deported), but the local people were bursting crackers that too in a public place.

Not that I’m homesick (I know people who are homesick even after staying away from home over 6-8 months), but I really miss everything that I used to enjoy and not enjoyed. On the other side, I’m now more independent and do things which I never thought I’ll again in my life. Some example is that I eat Curd Rice and drink Butter Milk which I never did before in my 22 years. After my mother came to know about this, she was really happy!!