Dubai - It's been a part of my growth and who I am today, says Ameera
Published: Sun 16 Apr 2017, 8:34 AM
Last updated: Mon 17 Apr 2017, 4:46 PM
Reading the paper is a habit Ameera Al Aidarous gets from her father, the original KT loyalist. "At home, we only get Khaleej Times. It's been a part of my growth and who I am today," she says, describing a scene right out of one of those ads shot in a filtered, faded palette to convey nostalgia: as a little girl, Ameera and her brothers would wait at home for their father to return so that they could sit by his rocking chair, he holding a cigar, and the Young Times section for the kids to scramble around and pore over. The lucky sibling would get to do the crossword, with a little help from the rest of the family.
Ameera Al AidArousUnited Arab Emirates
In UAE: Born and brought up
KT reader: 30 years
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Ameera's daily start with the newspaper has become a lifelong habit, with two cups of coffee in the morning. It's something she's known for, in the family, at least. Even on days when the logistics professional has hurried mornings, she scans headlines of every section and returns to the paper at night, once she gets home from work, and is able to carve out an hour-or hour-and-a-half for the paper. "I'm on my way to Ras Al Khaimah just now, in fact, and the paper's coming with me." The Aidarous family has a summer home in RAK. Whenever they drive up there for a week or a fortnight, instructions are left with the delivery person to drop the paper off there. Ameera's mother is the other fan of KT. Even though she can't read too well now, she will look at the pictures, the prayer timings, gold prices, and always the date on the front page.
For a newspaper and the people who work in it, Ameera is an ideal reader. She gets excited at a thick newspaper - that much more to read. And everything gets read, she says, every single thing, including the classifieds, which she notices have become a bit slim of late.
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As someone who still reads the paper - tactile, hard copy - she knows she's in the minority. It's not like she doesn't read online, but that's only for breaking news. There's a different feel to spreading it all out on the floor, picking up separate sections and folding those into a readable size. "I can talk to the office boys about Virat Kohli's spat with the Aussies, and I can talk to vice presidents of a company about tennis matches or the latest thing Trump has said" - all because of what she gleans from KT.
It's been important to Ameera that she be able to stand her own in conversations with diverse people. She likes to be able to engage the clients, vendors, colleagues from all over the world. And she makes it a point to know what's happening in that person's part of the world, and whether, say, there's been a recent earthquake or a drought or something less bleak, and to make mention of that as small talk before work exchanges begin. I don't want to give work people the impression that whoever you speak to in the Gulf is an idiot."
Newspapers to Ameera have meant exposure. From an early age, she's been interested in knowing what's happening "and Khaleej Times has been my window to the world". She remembers knowing about the Gulf War and seeing pictures in KT before she could read.
Her brother's daughters Ayesha, 9, and Sara, 6, have come along with their Amati (Arabic for aunty) to check out the printing press. They pose that old riddle to Amati: what is black and white and read all over? Amati knows the answer, plays along, doesn't shout "a newspaper!" too soon. Her nieces hang on to her every word. "I want them to be as involved and as engaged with newspapers as I was at their age.
One of them asks, "Who is Zuma, where is he going?" Jacob Zuma, Amati explains, is the president of South Africa, "and he should have gone a long time ago." No sooner is that answered, another questions pops up: "Who's a Gaza strip, Amati? " Amati responds, correcting gently, "Not 'who' is a Gaza, 'where' is the Gaza Strip. and it's a place, where there is a dispute, and they can't decide where it is."
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com
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