There is one story that I wanted to write during my time in Abu Dhabi but never managed to start, let alone finish, and will now always represent “the one that got away”.
My failure to write in any detail about the life of Mr R, a successful but disaffected painting, maintenance and relocations specialist, is not for want of material or conversation.
The septuagenarian businessman was always happy to talk to me about his many decades in the capital and the travails of his family and of middle class, non-resident Indian (NRI) life.
But despite visiting him several times in the tidy, filing cabinet-filled office from which he ran his business empire, I never asked Mr R to tell me about his life on the record, with a story in mind.
Looking back, I can offer no reason why as all the elements for a story were there. An aspiring young man from the foothills of the Himalayas, Mr R left India for the UAE in 1970, soon after he met his wife.
A demanding beauty from the Deccan Plateau, she eventually joined him in Abu Dhabi where she bore him three children, a daughter and two sons, all of whom went to university in North America and each of whom, he secretly hoped, would take over the family business.
A specialist in the timely and economical renovation of property, and the relocation of household goods, Mr R’s business thrived so much that he was able to buy land and build a house in Bangalore, but over the years the idea of moving to his palatial villa appealed less and less.
Despite the offer of a handsome dowry, Mr R struggled to marry off his handsome and intelligent daughter, the apple of his eye, because she had grown up outside India as a NRI, one of the people the anthropologist Neha Vora has described as the UAE’s impossible citizens.
Mr R’s daughter may have had an Indian passport, but there was no mistaking that her accent, her cultural references and her outlook on life were different - characteristics that might have been valued anywhere else but in a crowded and highly-competitive wedding market.
Even more to Mr R’s chagrin was the fact that neither of his sons were really interested in taking over the business that, perhaps even more than his family, represented the greatest achievement in the seventy-something’s life.
Despite the security and the considerable income on offer, the eldest decided to stay in North America while the youngest, who at least gave it a go, refused to relocate to Abu Dhabi from Dubai and eventually gave up, overwhelmed by the daily four-hour commute.
So what became of Mr R? The last time I saw him was fleetingly, three or four years ago, in a local supermarket.
As always he was immaculately turned out in slip-on shoes, cavalry twill slacks and a business shirt - white collar and cuffs - his thinning hair preternaturally glossy and black.
Was it finally time for him to move to the house that had consumed so many years and millions of rupees I asked, facing him over a pyramid of imported vegetables and fruit.
Mr R feared that it was not. He had never lived in Bangalore, he said, and had no desire to feel like a stranger in a place that, after more than 40 years, was his home in name only.
What would he do, he asked, without his business and without at least two of his children nearby?
I thought of him again recently, when it became time for me to make my own move back to the UK. I had long since lost his contact details and Mr R’s firm was not to the sort to have a website, but I wanted to see how he was and whether he had also decided to make the move back home.
Having no other way of reaching him, I decided to visit his office in Al Markaziyah.
Arriving in hope rather than expectation, I held my breath as I turned a corner at the junction of Khalifa and Liwa Streets only to find a scene I had half expected.
Rather than the flaking, three-storey concrete building that housed Mr R’s enterprise, all that remained was an empty patch of sand, sandwiched between two towering construction sites.
I asked local shopkeepers for any clues about his whereabouts, but even amongst those who did remember Mr R nobody knew anything.
Whatever his whereabouts, Mr R faced the same fate that befalls all UAE-based expats: even amongst the long-serving, when it is time to go we leave very little trace.
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Read more of Nick's columns:
An Iraqi legacy celebrated on Abu Dhabi’s streets
Abu Dhabi hidden gem Bayt Al Jenaibi should be preserved
Welcome to the neighbourhood – a catalyst for Abu Dhabi’s urban renaissance
Examining the past should be an uncomfortable experience
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Remaining fixtures
Third-place-play-off: Portugal v Mexico, 4pm on Sunday
Final: Chile v Germany, 10pm on Sunday
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 715bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh1,289,376
On sale: now
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fasset%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2019%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mohammad%20Raafi%20Hossain%2C%20Daniel%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%242.45%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2086%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Pre-series%20B%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Investcorp%2C%20Liberty%20City%20Ventures%2C%20Fatima%20Gobi%20Ventures%2C%20Primal%20Capital%2C%20Wealthwell%20Ventures%2C%20FHS%20Capital%2C%20VN2%20Capital%2C%20local%20family%20offices%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Bombshell
Director: Jay Roach
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie
Four out of five stars
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Uefa Champions League last 16 draw
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur
Basel v Manchester City
Sevilla v Manchester United
Porto v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
