The Expat life chose me!

I moved to Fujairah, UAE from Madras, India in the year 1992. I was 5 years old.

My first memory of this move, was being reunited with my dad who had moved a little earlier to settle into his new job. 

I loved our new home, the new city, the park right around the corner & mainly the fact that we were all together again. Do not recollect missing my school or anyone else! I had all my people with me. This is clearly a great age to move somewhere new 😊 

We lived in Fujairah, UAE for a few years -  the most magical years of my life. It was a small town, a small parish & we were so close with all our friends & neighbours. The doors were always open for us kids to hang out & play. It was a time & place where it was safe for kids to get on their bikes and venture out alone. I made sure to be out to play at 4pm sharp every single day & be back at 6pm aka sunset - no permission to stay out beyond that. I'd then wait eagerly for my dad to get back home. My life was perfect, with my biggest problems & worries circling around a one dirham egg toy that I hoped my dad would buy for me each week, which I would sincerely pray for at mass every Friday 😂

Some of my best memories are from this small town, that had nothing much to offer; a small shopping 'mall', an even smaller park, a pizza place, an amazing bakery and a beach. Come to think of it, the recipe for joy always seems to have minimal ingredients. 

As the years rolled by I changed schools, moved cities within the UAE and went to school in Dubai for my last few years as a student there. Throughout this period, we always travelled back to India almost every year to visit our extended family & I loved my summer breaks, but I was always happy to go back home.

The sounds of people speaking Arabic, Tagalog, Malayalam, Urdu bring me more comfort than the sound of my mother tongue. For me, home is a place where people from different cultures come together, each one sharing their culture, food and experiences with each other. Where we are all different & yet the same. Growing up in the middle east, Islam is a religion that I respect & the sound of the azan somewhere closeby is always comforting. 

We moved back to Chennai, India in 1999 right before the Millenium bug for a few years, and I continued schooling there. Adapting to my new home and what everyone warned me would be a fiercely competitive & high standard of education, was pretty much the same CBSE syllabus I studied in Dubai, but the atmosphere was different. My classmates found my answer to 'Where are you from' so strange when I said I'm Indian. And I slowly began to understand that in India, one simply cannot identify as Indian. You have to be from a particular state, and then from a city, and then religion and caste came into the mix - exhausting.  In all my years of interacting with people from around the world, I never felt as judged as I did with my own race. At this stage, I knew I was Indian and yet felt like I did not belong.

The culture shock of moving from an all-girls school to co-education, the expectations from school, the loud, crowded and dirty streets were all rather foreign to me. And for the first time, I experienced feeling unsafe simply because I was a girl. But a few months in, and I quickly adapted, made some amazing friends & loved seeing my extended family often. 

A few years in, I was living on campus in Bangalore, India where I went to University. By this point, I loved everything about India. Bangalore is a mixed pot, I met people from around the country and made friends for life. India will make you fall in love - that is guaranteed! 

I moved back to the UAE in 2010 to live with my parents & start working, and this was tough too. I now missed India, my sister & my friends! (The expat life is an emotional rollercoaster indeed) but was so happy to have POFAK back in my life lol (only middle east kids will get this) 😬

I was so fortunate to land an amazing boss, who took a chance on me and really helped me grow. I built a career, met a few but great friends, fell in love with the shiny city of Dubai, bought my first car, met my husband to be for the first time and had so many other key 'grown-up' moments & accomplishments this time around. This experience was nowhere near how carefree my first experience of this country was, but it was probably the best lap, it helped me grow into an independent woman & feel proud of myself for the first time in my life!

My next move was to Colombo, Sri Lanka when I got married and subsequently, we migrated to Toronto, Canada this year. But despite the multiple cities/countries I've lived in, the UAE has always been home in my heart because despite moving away I would always go back to visit my parents & friends there. 

So, the reason I even sat down to think about this; is because amidst all the madness 2020 has brought with the COVID lockdowns my parents have retired and moved back to Chennai, India for good. Said goodbye to their home in the UAE after close to a 30year relationship and this has left me feeling like I've moved out for the first time, and my home no longer exists overnight. 

There is something wonderful, exciting and yet bittersweet in the entire experience of being an expat.

I guess, for all of us who have experienced this cycle; we know that it will not last forever; tell ourselves not to get too attached and yet we do.

Thank you UAE for being our HOME, keeping us safe, giving us opportunities, allowing us to grow, learn, gain so many experiences and spoiling us with the best of everything from around the world. We will especially miss the shawarmas, olives, khubus, pofak, and so many endless everyday pleasures.

But above all, thank you for the Memories💞 for what is more precious in this life.