I’m visiting home – at a time when my father is returning from a foreign trip, a couple – to say the least, and when my mother is recovering from a bout of an illness that has made her rather weak. It’s an interesting time to be heading home, I think it always is interesting to go back home in the middle of the semester. But I joked with my mother that my presence would help her feel better, so let’s see how true that ends up being (spoiler alert: pretty true).
I still can’t get around my relationship with Dubai. One day I want to be able to describe everything I feel about the city, but to say the least, if my relationship with the city had to be captured in a relationship status, it would be “complicated” on Facebook, but rather easy in real-life. The drama in the relationship is probably just stuff I’ve manufactured in my brain to figure out whether or not I like the place. Whatever my relationship status is, it’s where my parents reside, which is home.
This trip also marked the first time I would be taking a guest home – my batchmate, Shits, who my parents have interacted with sufficiently, and who was eager for a break from campus, just as much as I was. What I’m really looking forward to is three things: first, hosting a friend at home, something I haven’t done in a very long time, second, showing a friend around where I grew up, and third, spending time with Shits. We had a lot of fun in America last year, and I enjoy his company – it appears to be mutual, so it should be a really good time.
Day 1 was basically this. Arrival in Dubai, Sleep, Dubai Frame (a frame museum thing), Al Fahidi Mosque, and then Dubai Mall. Highlight: we ate Shake Shack burger – a burger we both love and last shared in New York City.
Landing into Dubai, my father took Shits & I out for breakfast to a Kannadiga joint I used to frequent when I was young, albeit a different branch. And there’s nothing that can make you feel like home when you can hear your tongue spoken in a foreign land, and eat your own sambhar.
My realizations at the end of today were simple. First, that we’re more adaptable, and a lot faster than we thought we were – so this itinerary I’ve made is going to go through a lot of revisions over the next few days. Second, that Shake Shack is a really good burger. And third, that Dubai has done a good job of capturing the little, 40 year old history it does have. Whatever it does have is something that the Government has attempted to really, really highlight, and they’ve done it in a very extravagant way.
My last realization: the weather is weird here.
Tejas Rao 