Oh my god, look.
What?
No way!
@#$%ing hell!
Wow, cool.
These are some of the comments I over hear as I walk along.
Few words peppered in English. And the rest camouflaged in a secret code of dialects which are exchanged in a manner to give you the underlining message – “We don’t want you to understand that we are talking about you!”
I have no issues with that reaction.
That is at least bearable.
But what isn’t is the unforgivable, unbearable and undeniable power of the worse thing one human being can do to another.
A stare.
And the stares I get from people are not the regular stares as you would normally classify them.
They are the declassified stares like the ‘I-just-got-kicked-in-the-wrong-place’ stare, ‘you-must-be-joking’ stare, ‘are-you-for-real’ stare or in worse cases ‘The-devil-actually-lives-amongst-us-strange’ stare And this happens to me regularly at a shopping mall, the fish market or a cinema house.
At first these reactions were funny.
Then it became an experience.
Now it is becoming more of an observation.
And a rather nagging question
Why is it different people looking at the same person can elicit so many kinds of reactions?
Why?
Could it be because of the fact that 80% of my body is tattooed. Which not only includes my arms, chest, back, neck and legs But also my fingers, toes and yes, the left region around my face.
Or could it possibly be because I am in Dubai?
I think the answer is very simple.
Dubai is a place which houses thousands of nationalities, millions of cultures and billions of opinions. This is the only place in the world where you can choose from an over-priced 3$ latte to a 15 cents kadak chai (local indian tea), the only place where you can get an original pair of Nike or Addidas shoes to amusing yourself with a pair of duplicate originals like Pike & Adibas branded shoes, the only place in the world where you can purchase a 3 huge watermelons for 3$ to purchasing a Japanese watermelon for 32$ (yes, I have been stupid enough to try this one out!) and yes the only place in the world where once Camels cruised the desert and today Land Cruisers do the same.
So my friends, what am I trying to tell you here?
Dubai has too much to offer and there is no way in the world you can experience all of it in one life time.
In my case, spending 32 years here has been an amazing experience and I still learning to cope up with the exponential growth that is still taking place.
So as I continue typing this article in the shopping mall coffee shop, sipping the hot over-priced latte that gives me permission to sit in this nice peaceful outlet, and as I do my best to ignore those four people staring at my direction talking in the language I understand so well (which unfortunately for them, they assume I don’t) while the young boy at the side tries to take a secret video of me while acting like he is checking his iPhone, I just think to myself…..Well for this strange silent spectator.....its just another day in Dubai.
