This was my first trip to Dubai- Not a regular holiday trip but a family reunion. It was my daughter’s fortieth birthday and we all decided to congregate in Dubai. A cheap fare led to us flying into Abu Dhabi (not Dubai ) airport in the middle of the night. After a very long walk through the huge airport we reached our hotel in the wee hours of the night only to discover that our seemingly intact bags had been rifled through .

In all my travels this has never happened and I was visibly disturbed imagining various possible doomsday scenarios and their consequences. Vistara Airlines washed it hands off the case since we did not report it at the airport itself and we are still wondering why our bags were singled out – Was it an act of mischief at one of the three airports on our journey or was it our common surname or simply a random (routine?) customs inspection.

In all my travels I keep an eye for some interesting usage of the English language and this is what I found at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Yas Island where we spent the night! After a late start the next day we set out for Dubai. It was just a few days after the great Dubai deluge and the journey took much longer than the usual due to detours necessitated by the floods. It was fortuitous that we chose Abu Dhabi as our point of entry as Dubai airport was closed. Though we did come across a few patches of water off the road it seemed that the city had recovered. On the way we passed the recently consecrated BAPS temple but had to just drive past it. It was built with immense support from the rulers and is a symbol of religious tolerance in this Islamic country.

My son Jayant who reached Dubai in time for the rains shared with us his pictures of the flood. Per his opinion such events happen even in Mumbai with regular frequency but what caused panic and distress more than the rain and floods was the feeling “How can this happen to us (Dubai)!” Our next few days saw most of the city had recovered but there were still some attractions underwater(notably Legoland much to the disappointment of my grandson). Our hotel too had not fully recovered from the rescheduling of bookings due the closure of the airport and took us inordinately long to check into the magnificent suite overlooking the Dubai Marina -our home for the next few days.

To be continued –