Dubai - Thanks to all the Malyalees in the UAE, Kerala is a well-known travel destination for Emiratis.
Published: Wed 25 Jan 2017, 7:35 PM
When you speak to Emiratis in UAE about their experience of travelling to India, a lot of them offer insights you hadn't thought about, little anecdotes and memories, some of which bust some stereotypes of Emiratis.
For one, conversation goes beyond love for Shah Rukh Khan (a love exceeded only by a love of butter chicken). Emiratis love India so much that a common theme at Emirati weddings, did you know, is a 'henna night', where women wear bangles, Indian-style dresses, and have their palms temporarily tattooed with henna - all very Indian, the night right out of a Karan Johar/ Yash Chopra movie.
But that's women for you. Across gender though, food really does crop up often, and not just butter chicken, the shorthand for 'Indian food'.
A 26-year-old Dubai-bred pilot with a UAE-based airline, Marwan Al Owghani, went to Mumbai in 2016 and loved "the easy going feel". And growing especially passionate about the food, Marwan "never knew something called pani puri existed!"
Since his Mumbai trip, Marwan's been checking out pani puri joints in Dubai in search of the best one. He's not unfamiliar with Indian food, "but to have Indian food in India was a different experience. Pav bhaji became a favourite of mine, even though I usually avoid vegetables."
Marwan also said, " I am a pilot. I travel around the world but what I ate in India beats everything else I've tried." Surely there must have been something that was not an altogether pleasant experience? Okay, he says - "I used to complain about Dubai traffic, but oh, Bombay."
Even a short five-day visit to India gave Marwan perspective enough to pass for an Incredible India advert.
HELLO, HOSPITALS
It's no secret that Emiratis have faith in Indian doctors and the hospital facilities there. It just becomes more apparent when every second Emirati you speak to, it turns out, has been to India or knows someone who's been to India, not for a vacation, but for medical tourism - to a speciality centre in Bangalore or Mumbai.
Dr Suhail Kazim, group medical director for Medcare Hospitals and head of department of surgery (and yes, an Emirati), visits India frequently. He's been to Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kashmir. Dr Kazim loves the fact that in Mumbai, people are so active, "doing yoga and walking on Marine Drive at 4.30 am".
According to him, "Many (Emiratis) like to go to India for treatment, as they feel more 'at home' there with the language". He also says though that "the number of people going to India, or anywhere abroad for medical treatment has reduced a lot, and is not what it used to be in the past.
Healthcare in the UAE has started to progress by leaps and bounds". Exact statistics are difficult to come by, but "it's quite common for Emiratis to go for comprehensive check-ups and for cardiac diseases (to India), as time and cost play a major role in their choice as well".
Nooh Al Sayegh, 36, a project manager with Emirates group has been to India at least five times. The medical tourism angle bubbles up here too.
In the 1990s, Nooh would accompany his dad on hospital visits to Mumbai. (They used to stay at the Taj near the Gateway of India in SoBo - south Bombay - but, of late, Arabs are spread out closer to hospitals and the airport, in Bandra and Juhu).
Nooh travels to Bombay on work, as well. And despite Dubai being touted as an unparalleled retail destination, shopping in Bombay is often on the agenda. Nooh, for one, likes to stock up on perfumes.
The fragrance of 'Dehn El Oud', for instance, bought from Hajji Ali, Mumbai, he says, is more concentrated, of a better quality, and hence more desirable. The hospital angle apart, when you ask an Emirati, 'what's with everyone talking about Bombay or Bangalore or Delhi?' There an India beyond the big cities. So why isn't anyone travelling there? A local who didn't particularly want to be quoted said, "You have to understand - we Emiratis travel heavy.
Changing domestic flights within India becomes a problem, as they allow only limited baggage. Then there's the issue of convenience, and prayers - the women don't want to be inconvenienced by a lack of amenities, which they fear India will be full of."
Speaking broadly, he also said, there's also a preference for luxury holidays, a 5-star resort. Day-trips to quaint smaller towns with a lot of history largely elicit something of a 'meh' reaction.
Cities are convenient. Emiratis aren't fans of slumming it, as it were.
LOVE IN THE TIMES OF KERALA
Mariam Al Shenasi, president, Dar Al Yasmeen Publishing and Distribution, travels often to Kerala, to Calicut University to sponsor an Arabic culture and translation festival. She says she's been travelling to India, "since my childhood with my father, who travelled to Bombay often for his textiles and perfume business.
And now I've been travelling quite often to India for more cultural reasons- writing, translation, supporting people to understand and study Arabic literature".
Thanks to all the Malyalees in UAE, Kerala is a well-known travel destination for Emiratis. Like Bader Ahmed Al Masoum, 26, who works in the aviation industry, and has fond memories of his trip to India.
Bader loved the houseboats in Kumarakom. He stayed overnight, and can't forget how the staff caught the fish and cooked it right there on the boat. His other favourite place, again in the south, is Munnar. He loved the coffee and tea plantations, the weather, the time he got to relax at the resort.
An image that endures for Bader is of clouds rolling in through the open windows of the hilltop resort. He said he hadn't seen anything as lovely.
Abdullah Mohammed, 29, who works in an oil company here in Dubai, offers some personal memories. He used to visit Hyderabad with his father (after hospital trips to Bangalore). His father has a farm and two houses there.
Abdullah remembers the beautiful mosques in the city, biryani in Hyderabad at a restaurant called Taj Mahal, and how this one time - early 90s - he saw the film without subtitles, "with tickets bought on the black market," he says, a confession that makes him laugh. Did he understand the movie, and what Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan were on about mouthing their lines?
Somewhat, yes, because his father had an Urdu tutor for him when they went to Hyderabad.
CONNECTIONS RUN DEEP
There's no doubt that Emiratis have a special bond with Indians - and India. The connection runs deep. A telling anecdote springs from the house of Humeira Al Aidarous. An Emirati woman who considers herself fortunate to have worked in the private sector - Humeira is the regional projects manager at a logistics company, and an atypical Emirati woman in many ways (not least because of her curiosity about the future of the Congress Party in India and her knowledge of 'patiala salwars').
She has travelled to Bombay for a wedding of a friend. She remembers going to Dharavi (the slums) because she wanted to, and was struck by the image of a band of schoolgirls outside Dharavi, with their neatly plaited hair ending in white ribbons, and she says, "I could see what the Indians I see in Dubai work so hard for" - to send money back, so that the kids can go to school and be neat, and wear those white ribbons.
She lets on that the other day, her father went to the fish market, and griping about how expensive the fish was, said, do you know it's now "100 Rupaiya?!" Rupaiya, is of course, what UAE currency was before it became the present day Dirham.
With all the history of trade ties, and so much exchange and overlap of cultural influences, isn't what Humeira's dad said a sign of just how deep the ties between the two nations run?
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com
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