Ok, I won’t even deny it, I went to the bathroom to drink water. It is the holy month of Ramadan and it is illegal in Dubai to eat or drink in public during the day. I repeat, it is illegal and a jail-able (is this even a word?) offense. I was running errands all the day in anticipation of leaving Dubai and I was parched. Out in public, I could not drink water in front of anyone, so I ran to the restroom in the mall and took a swig out of my water bottle. An hour later I am walking around and here the familiar prayer sound and hurriedly look at my watch, realizing it is 7pm. It is time for iftar, I peer down from the 3rd floor and suddenly I see people eating. Thank God! Things you would never think twice about in life, here I am..thinking about them.
On my last day of work I sat at my desk, again staring at the marina and the wonder of Palm Jumeriah for insight into my current state of mind. If I didn’t have the best of experiences this summer then why am I somewhat sad about leaving? Perhaps it is sadness for my experiences not matching my expectations by a long shot. And reconciling these differences has been a challenge of sorts. But Dubai isn’t all bad…two good points being minimal crime and diversity of people here (as I had mentioned before). But anyway I don’t think I can think about this place with a clear head until I am back home.
I finally get up from the iftar tent filled with hundreds of MBA alumni, bid farewell to friends from my summer internship and get ready for the next leg of my journey.
So I leave Dubai with more than the future prospects of getting lung cancer; I leave with a sincere appreciation for civil liberties and freedom that comes with living in the USA, insights into the culture and how to do business in this region.
Some interesting learnings worth mentioning:
- KSA does not mean “Kellogg Student Association” to the rest of the world…(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
- Remove any mention of Israel from any presentation
Goodbye Dubai..this summer has been, let’s say “out of the ordinary”. Maybe I’ll see you again one day. Inshallah.
No comments:
Post a Comment