Coronavirus: Dubai flatmates bond during movement restrictions

Dubai: ‘Home is where the heart is,’ goes the saying. With movement restrictions in place in Dubai and with half the world practically in lockdown for almost four weeks now over the coronavirus outbreak, these are extraordinary times. While staying-home times and distance-working and learning have come with their own set of challenges, there are people who have taken the new routines to heart and are determined to make the most of the prevailing situation.

Here in Dubai Marina is a bunch of professionals who have found remote-working and stay-home times an apt opportunity to not only stay fit and make the most of their leisure hours, but in their pursuit of a perfect work-life balance, these young and energetic individuals have found a way to bond big-time with their flatmates, whose diverse backgrounds and interests have coalesced to help a community feel flourish under one roof. These are people whose professional assignments have brought them over to Dubai from places as varied as Florida, Bengaluru and Karachi, to name just a few places. And yet, they are all like an extended family – living and loving every moment of their stay-home days and nights in these unusual times.

While under normal circumstances, a casual “hi” or “hello” and a chance banter over the tea-coffee maker or over dinner was all that these professionals would manage, given their hectic daily schedule, the stay-home restrictions have helped ensure that there’s no dearth of camaraderie and fellow-feeling around the clock as time increasingly gets mapped not by the hour-hand on the watch, but by the level of illumination outside, and friendships begin to be traced more over TikTok and Instagram posts than a shared socio-cultural landscape.

The huge living-cum-dining room on the 71st-floor of this sprawling penthouse gets transformed into a remote-working hub of sorts every morning, when these young professionals are all ‘wired up’, connecting with their respective places of work and clients spread all over the globe.

As you step on to the balcony overlooking the stunning aquamarine waters of the Arabian Gulf on one side and the breathtaking skyscrapers of the Marina neighbourhood on the other, you will be pardoned for assuming that this is more a place where one would let his or hair down rather than conduct serious business! But just forget that mesmerising view outside for a moment and take a stroll down the middle of the living room with your ears perked up. You will be zapped by the unmistakable chatter of a business-process hub, with deals being sealed, inventory being checked and rechecked and vital technical and logistical details being shared with people sitting half a continent away. And these activities go on until late into the night and sometimes well into the wee hours of the morning as some are busy getting work done and finer points thrashed out across multiple time zones.

Around 8.30 every morning, Jatinder Singh Saini from Himachal Pradesh in India, an electrical designer with PEG Engineering in Dubai, gets ready to log in with his steaming-hot, first cup of tea for the day. Around the same time, Tajadin Muhammad, an American from Florida, who works as a real estate broker with Fam Properties in Dubai, is all set for his ‘jog’ up several flights of stairs at this 85-storied residential tower -- an improvised fitness drill as all walking and jogging tracks around the city remain closed.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Around midday, the same Rekha who was ‘wired up’ for long business calls all through the morning, puts on the boxing gloves and helping her get some of those jabs and upper-cuts right is none other than a true-blue professional boxer. Nouman Ali Sher Khan from Pakistan is a certified boxing coach who is currently based in Dubai and residing at the same Marina apartment, along with Rekha, Sundeep, Jatinder, Muhammad and the others. Khan, from Karachi, is happily sharpening his skills at home and making sure he is fit and raring to go once the movement restrictions are lifted. “The current situation is hard on everyone. But I am trying to make good use of my time by staying fit and making sure that once these restrictions are lifted, I should be able to get back to the sport, harder and stronger,” Khan said, speaking to Gulf News.

As the afternoon passes by and the day’s business end makes way for the evening leisure hours, the waters of the Arabian Gulf in the vicinity begin to reflect the Palm Jumeirah lights and life on the 71st floor takes on a whole new meaning. Chill-out time, or so one thought.

If ‘home’ indeed is where the ‘heart’ is, then this multinational diaspora has made the stay at its Dubai ‘home’ a hearty tale of mixing pleasure with work and forging bonds of friendship that transcend socio-cultural barriers.