Dilshad Aalam

 

For the Assamese version, please click here.

 

Dilshad Aalam

Saurav Morikolongia

Arriving at the land of deserts

22nd April, 1998. The cricket match between India and Australia is paused due to sandstorm. It is no ordinary match for India. We need to win this or at least keep the run rate very good to reach the Coca-Cola cup final – so, a question of life and death. Adverse environment, complex situation but in the crease, there is Sachin Tendulkar – the God of cricket, the hero of a billion Indians.

 

Standstorm subsided. The match resumed. Tendulkar could not win the match for India but through a quickfire century he ensured a better run rate which saw us through to the final. But he did not stop there. Two days later, on his 25^th birthday, he won the championship for India with another brilliant century. This is the famous ‘Desert Storm’ phenomenon in the world of cricket. And, the venue of that phenomenon is Sharjah.

 

But Sharjah is not always a messenger of happiness. Sharjah has broken our hearts many a time. I mean, which Indian cricket lover will forget that last ball six from Javed Miandad on 18^th April 1986, thereby snatching the Australasia cup from us ?

 

Whether it is happiness or sorrow, Sharjah always means intensity and excitement. Finally, together with my family, I arrived at the land of goosebumps on 27^th December 2019 via Brussels and Istanbul through a nice Turkish Airlines flight.

 

Historically one of the richest cities in the region with existence of habitation for over 5000 years, Sharjah today is a major business hub, the cultural capital of the UAE and is also recognized as World Book Capital for 2019 by UNESCO.

 

Ok, back to Sharjah airport. As we landed there, my large-hearted, short-statured friend, who was our lovely and caring host, too arrived with his big Mitsubishi Pajero.

 

Stepping out of the airport, it felt so good – because, of course I met my friend but also I met God Helios in his full grandeur! After all, we have come from sub-zero temperatures of Europe!

 

My friend was good with the accelerator (but of course within speed limits) and we reached Dubai in around 45 minutes. And, we arrived in his expansive apartment in downtown Dubai. With full view of the Persian gulf from the apartment, not to mention about the glitters of the glitzy world (like Hilton Hotel), I was very impressed. It felt as if I arrived in a wonderland.

 

First breakfast and then lunch. Along with other delicacies, my friend’s wife had prepared ‘kawoi’ fish (a kind of Tilapia) – one of the most favourite dishes of Eastern Indians. It felt as if I had come to Morikolong, my native village in India. It was just the beginning. We were amazed at my friend, friend’s wife and their little one’s hospitality during our entire stay there.

 

Glitzy Dubai

 

With its civilization dating back to the times of Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilizations, with which it had strong trading links, Dubai today has become synonymous with glitz and sumptuousness. Ibn Batuta Mall, Global Village, Dubai Mall, Mall of Emirates, Gold Souk and so many more ! Resplendence is not my cup of tea but I would still like to mention about one of them in a little bit of more detail to show the extent of the grandeur.  Dubai Mall – it is of the size of around 50 football fields. It has a luxury hotel with 250 rooms. There are 120 restaurants, a humongous aquarium with many exotic species from the sea including sharks!  As a person who suffers from acute ‘mall-ophobia’, it was too much to handle !

 

And then, there is this magnificient sailing-boat-looking 280 meter tall Burj Al Arab – one of the most beautiful hotels on earth. Long time back, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played tennis in the helipad at the top of the hotel. But Dubai’s splendor does not stop there. 163 storied Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on earth is as high as 830 meters – that is, almost a kilometer! Skyscraper in true sense ! And the list goes on and on. But that is just one façade of Dubai. Dubai has many more shades of life.

 

Peaceful co-existence of India, Pakistan

Hundreds of thousands of Indians and Pakistanis have been living peacefully in Dubai. We got one such glimpse in the Global Village – the melting point of tourism, leisure activities and culture of around 100 countries. We went to a Pakistani leather shop there. The owner was a like a true blue seasoned north Indian businessman. Very nice and sweet talk. To impress upon, he too spoke in his broken English, “Name Lucky Leather. You buy, you lucky.” He was very successful – we got swayed. We bought five leather jackets in total from him.

 

After shopping in Pakistan, we had our dinner with dahi bhalla, papdi chat etc. in the neighbouring India.

Digital Detox

In the night before our travel to Dubai, my phone fell in the waters of a place (which cannot be disclosed socially) and got damaged. I cleaned it, wrapped it and took it with me thinking that in Dubai it would be repaired in a jiffy. My friend took me to a shop on the day of arrival itself but people there told that it would take around two weeks as the required parts were not available. I took back my phone – anyway if at all I needed to buy a phone, I would buy in Eindhoven for smooth after sales support. But that meant six days without a phone, without any connection to social media. I spent my time completely with my family, my friend and my friend’s family. And such quality time it was!

 

My phone got damaged but it paved the way for a much needed Digital Detox!

Kashi Kaba ek hai, ek hai Ram Rahim

One day, the ‘Magnificent Seven’ of the two families set out in my friend’s huge car to experience something very memorable. Our destination was Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi.

 

In my life, I have visited countless namghars and temples. Even I have visited so many churches around the world. I have said a quick prayer in front of any mosque that I would pass by but I never visited one until I was in Sheikh Zayed mosque. So, there was both devotion and excitement in my mind.

 

Sheikh Zayed mosque – the largest in the UAE, can hold upto 40,000 worshippers at a time. It is built with the best of the best marbles from around the world. It has a serene look probably comparable only to the Tajmahal. The carpet in the main prayer hall is the largest carpet in the world. Every huge chandelier in the mosque has millions of Swarovski crystals in it.

 

Many aspects of Islam interest me – one of them being the ritual of keeping fasting (roza), just like the Navratri fasting in Hinduism. Hunger makes one realize many things which is not possible otherwise. It helps make our minds, normally full of wishes and desires, come and rest in the ground for some time. That is why, I went to the mosque with empty-stomach.

We wore quite decent dress for the mosque visit. Otherwise also, there is good arrangement in the mosque for dresses which cover most of the body parts, especially abaya for the ladies. Regardless of religion, wearing this abaya and getting photographed is kind of a fashion statement among the ladies. At one place inside the mosque, I came very close to my abaya clad wife and took a photograph together. Immediately, one mosque employee came near us and told politely, ”Please keep distance and take photograph.” We completely forgot that this was not Dubai and that too, this was a mosque. Dubai is just like any other European city from that perspective.

 

At a certain point, we reached the main prayer hall. I asked one of the employees,” Can I pray here?  I am not a Muslim though.” He said,” Yes, you can.” Me, my friend and his son – we all three went inside the hall. Almost for half an hour, I meditated there. Many people were offering namaz in and around me quite silently. There was only peace and tranquility there. I wished if the entire world had been like this!

Kashi Kaaba ek hai, ek hai Ram Rahim,

Maida ek pakwan bahu, baith Kabira jeem.

(Kashi and Kaba are same, so are Ram and Rahim,

There are like different snacks made from the same wheat-flour.)

 

N.B.: There are expensive shops with international brands even in the mosque campus, albeit underground! Traahi Madhusudan !  Allah Rakha ! O’ God – save us !

 

Sand Play

Someone said,”There is nothing quite like watching a baby play in the sand for the first time.” Playing with sand is a great relaxation. In fact, there is a psychological method called sandplay therapy. What my friend organized one day had that kind of unwinding effect. Yes -  desert safari – quad biking, dune bashing, camel ride and at the end, a show of belly dancing.

 

The day started with a humongous Toyota Land Cruiser picking us up from the doorstep of my friend’s apartment complex – a complete royal treatment! We first reached the place for quad biking. It took some time to get a hang of this mechanical beast with four huge wheels but once we did, it was only fun, fun and fun afterwards. Seven of us were there in three quad bikes. Go up the sand hill, then down, race in different directions – everywhere there were only quad bikes and their noise. My little one was holding me tight. All of us elders were wearing kefiyeh on our heads – we could almost pass for Arabs.

 

After some time, quad biking adventure came to an end. Near the entrance there were sugarcane juice stalls just like in India. We all drank one glass each. Properly hydrated, we started again – this time for sand bashing.

 

Our tour guide cum driver turned the car off the road and went into pure desert – sand, sand and only sand till the horizon. Except for the sun, there is no other known thing and that too it was dusk. So time for sun was also up. There was a unique feeling of excitement and vulnerability at the same time. And suddenly, our driver started sand bashing, simply put, driving wildly and very fast through the ups and downs in the sand. A different kind of roller coaster ride!  It was super fun!

 

We stopped for a while in the ‘sand-sea’ and got a photo clicked of four of us. When I look at that photo even now, it instantly reminds me of a song from Dr. Bhupen Hazarika where he said that he became a Bedouin in Sahara desert-like life with no address of own.

 

Next destination was camel ride and belly dance. The car was going on a standard road with normal speed – our intestines got some opportunity to relax.

 

Belly dance – the name says it all. It had started in Egypt and today different parts of the Arab world has different flavour of it.

Dinner was arranged in the belly dance venue. The lady who was performing was inside an area that more looked like a boxing ring. There were small dinner tables around the ring. We sat around one of them. While I was watching the dance, it kept coming to my mind – why a dance with so minimal dress is acceptable to the Arabs when they prefer that women cover their bodies fully with clothes.

 

Anyway, there is little chance that things are going to change because of my thoughts. So, we came to camel ride. And that was just for a photo op. The ride was just for a minute or so. But the photo with us on doing camel ride came out very good.

 

Dubai – Two Worlds

31st December night. We were getting ready to go to JBR beach to welcome the new year. From my friend’s 9^th floor apartment, I saw even at that time, labourers were busy with their work in a nearby construction site. These are the two worlds in Dubai. Within a few hundred meters, the richest of the rich were celebrating and some were struggling to make both ends meet both for themselves as well as for their families in their homelands. It is a tough life for the labourers in Dubai. It is hard work from dawn till dusk – summer or winter (well, if that exists ;-), does not matter.

 

There is no concept of permanent residence or granting citizenship in the UAE because 85% of the population are foreigners. So, if foreigners are given citizenships, the native people will become minority in their homeland. From 2019 onwards, there is a bit of relaxation in terms of getting permanent residence but that is out of reach for common people. So, Dubai (and the UAE in general) is generally considered a place to earn money and not to settle down.

 

The ‘new’ Dubai kept us busy. We hardly got a chance to visit ‘old’ Dubai (Bur Dubai). Bur Dubai – where probably life is more ordinary, which may not be very glitzy, where probably the rough side of life is more clearly seen, where there is more chance to get a glimpse of the 100-150 year old Dubai, where probably we get a more closer look at life. That ‘Yarrow’ remained unvisited, at least for now.

 

“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”  - Jim Henson (American puppeteer and cartoonist)

1^st January 2020. After the celebrations of the previous night, we were all a bit tired. But the ladies were still very upbeat about one last round of shopping before we bid adieu to Dubai. They went ahead with their plan. Me and my friend, together with the kids, went to the palm beach – the man-made palm tree like beach where the famous Atlantis hotel is also situated. We parked our car a little ahead of Atlantis and went to the beach (well not exactly to the sand but to the pavement next to it). Dubai seemed to be taking rest after heavy partying of previous night. Also, where we were sitting was like a corner. So there were hardly any people there. We both started talking about the world, about Dubai, about life. One of our friends used to live in Dubai until a few years back. My friend told me how he and our other friend would come to that exact same spot with a flask full of tea, do chit-chat while emptying the flask.

 

My friend visits the Netherlands quite frequently because of his work. So, among all my friends, I meet him most regularly. But meeting for half a day within both our busy schedules and meeting exclusively for six days – there is a big difference. The peak of that exclusive meet were those moments that we spent in the palm beach. A few lines from the famous Assamese poet, Hiren Bhattacharyya, keeps playing hide and seek with my feelings. That day, they (roughly translated below) did again -

 

There are different countries, many vibes.

I have roamed around theirs nook and corners.

Walked holding hands with many a friend.

Took rest by the sea side, under the palm trees, in the foothills.

Talked my heart out with my dear friends.

Then, I have started again a new journey.

 

Dubai will remain a unique experience. 'ant wahat fi alsahra' tusamaa alhayat – you are the oasis in the desert called life. You are the abode of peace!

Got many happy memories from Dubai. Let all such happiness from everyone of us make a ‘Dilshad Aalam’ – A happy universe!