Why Dubai matters to those who come here

It was on a cold night that I began my evening walks in Dubai. Least realising that I will make several friends during my walks, it soon became a habit. Soon I started bumping into the most interesting people. These were individuals I would have never met in life otherwise. Why I say I might not have seen them is simply becyase Dubai has a very international vibe about it and it is not uncommon to meet people from all over the world in this part of the world.

So a few days back as I finished my walk and sat down on a bench in the park, I met with a rather friendly bloke from Sri Lanka.

A resident for the UAE for more than a decade, Ranga, our friend from Nuwarya Eliya, came to Dubai in 2012 with Dh500 in his pocket.

He didn’t know too many people here and the night he landed, expecting his friend to pick him up from the airport, he got disappointed when no one came to receive him.

A stranger in a big city, he waited at the airport for 5 hours, walking up and down the arrival lounge, unable to fathom the situation and too exhausted and embarrassed to ask a friendly soul for phone to make a call to his friend. Finally he gathered courage to ask an airport janitor for help.

A new city

His friend, he learnt, had met with a mishap at work and was in hospital. Ranga managed to get the address from the person (a roommate of his friend) and took a cab to his friend’s home.

“Here I was ... a few thousand miles away from home. And my friend — who had asked me to come and try my luck in this amazing city — was lying in a hospital.”

He visited the hospital the next day. A few weeks later his friend was discharged.

One thing led to another. Ranga got a job offer in two months. Starting off as an administrative assistant, he was able to work his way up and get regular promotions until he was in a position to save enough and remit money to send back to Sri Lanka.

Now comes the interesting bit. Ranga’s daughter is in a medical school. Three years ago he didn’t think he would be able to fund his girl’s education although he always knew, he told me, that his daughter was a bright student and would get into a professional college.

Sense of jubilation

If there is one thing that Dubai and the UAE signifies for me, it is this sense of hope and jubilation. People come here from all over the planet and realise their dreams.

Ranga told me that he is planning to save some more and have a small home constructed in his native Nuwaya Eliya. Now that is what I call building your dreams, one brick at a time.

If you look around there are several examples like Ranga. UAE is a melting pot and it is not surprising to come across such stories from Sri Lanka to Swaziland. There are people of Ukraine whose co-workers are from Mexico. It won’t be surprising to even sit in the Dubai Metro between a Russian and an Indian.

Like all great places of the world that have a truly global cultural — places like New York and London and Paris — Dubai has a cosmopilitian pulse about it.

A bold, even daring city, that offers opportunity to anyone who has talent and is willing to step out of his or her comfort zone.

Ahmad Nazir is a Dubai-based freelancer