Video: Dubai expat captures metro launch with RTA parking tickets

Dubai - He managed to capture the historic day in the form of parking tickets with dates - 09-09-2009 with the expiry time being 09.09.

As the city will be marking the ninth birthday of the Dubai Metro on Sunday, for one UAE family, this day will be extremely special as they captured the day and dates in the form of iconic tickets on the day it came into existence.
On September 9, 2009, as Cleofas Suryawanshi dropped his daughter to her school in the morning, he was planning to surprise his family by taking them on a ride on the Dubai Metro that was launching that day.

However, due to the rush and security issues, he knew it would be difficult to get hold of tickets. So as he drove past the headquarters of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), where a replica of the Metro was displayed, he stopped at the parking lot and waited for the right time. As the clock struck 8.09am, Cleofas started feeding in coins (Dh1 each) at the parking meter to get the ticket with the date and time he planned to celebrate the launch of the Dubai Metro. And he managed to capture the historic day in the form of parking tickets with dates - 09-09-2009 with the expiry time being 09.09.
"It takes roughly 8-10 seconds to get one ticket from the machine so I managed to get five tickets with 09-09-2009 with the expiry time being 09.09 in about a minute. For me, that was a big achievement. That was just my way of celebrating metro's birthday. Indeed the launch of the metro had a sense of timing and determination."
Since it was hard to preserve the iconic ticket, Cleofas decided to frame them. Being an advertising professional, Cleofas and his daughter Smarnika Suryawanshi designed a frame - on the lines of The Dubai Frame - that tells the story of the Dubai Metro. Titled "Glorious Times" by Smarnika, the frame displays two finely hand-sketched portraits of the Dubai Ruler and the Crown Prince of Dubai.
On one side, above the portrait of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, it is printed 'How it all began' and on the other side of the frame it says 'How it all continues', under which is the portrait of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. Under both the portraits is an excerpt from Sheikh Mohammed's poems. The gap between both the portraits is plugged by the five RTA tickets that Cleofas took on the day the Dubai Metro was launched. Below the five tickets is another fine sketch of the Dubai Metro that is shown racing towards the Dubai Expo 2020 sign - showing the progress of the country towards the golden era of the UAE's future.
saman@khaleejtimes.com 

• UAE
• Dubai