Like most of my friends around me I am also an expatriate living out of my native country and making a living here. We all come to this place planning over a three year window and making promises to ourselves that we will return once we are done with the contract. But then contracts and jobs change and we get used to the unbearable summer (sometimes touching 50 degrees) and the hostile neighborhood. Our kids grow here and we realize as they grow up that we are missing our roots back home.
There are many reports across global media screaming that Dubai is all but, over but then as a marketer I believe publicity is a price which every nation pays. Dubai and UAE has witnessed tremendous growth over the years in the region and the land scape changes once every year. New flyovers, new roads and new transport systems are planned and executed for greater comfort of people working here. This is one country which I strongly believe should be an ideal role model. The leaders work towards the development of their country, patriotism is high amongst the citizens of this place coupled with hands on rulers who drive this country. What we lack as a country in terms of good governance and human resources development turns out to be their key focus. Because of the strategic location this country is also the Middle East Shangri-La.
As an expat we get the opportunity of working on greater landscape and looking at countries across the region. The working culture differs from our native countries, we tend be putting on more working hours to ensure we deliver on our objectives. Since the economy is tax free the conversion of our local currency to our native currency is what drives all of us to stay here apart from convenience and a better life style.
What we miss would be our families get together, weddings, functions et al., we miss connecting with our relatives and friends and spending weekends with them. Our kids miss their grandparents love and warmth apart from getting connected to our roots. They also miss the hard ships we went through like catching a city bus to go to our school, or cycling to schools and also they miss the freedom we had while we were kids – we were left almost un attended in a large play ground but here due to paucity of space and traffic around the number of parks and play grounds are limited. They also miss our unofficial national sport – Cricket which is played in every nook and corner of our country they also miss the flavor of our country – different climates, different languages, many festivals and many holidays too.
We get entangled in this vicious loop of better life style, greater comforts, money conversions and post some time it’s the kids who resist the idea of going back since they consider this place more of their home.
When is a right time to go back? Interesting though but even after nine years of my stay here I have no answer – (unless I am made redundant now in my current job)
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