Like most people, I fear getting old; that no matter how many "special" creams I use, and despite regular exercise and a healthy diet, the day will come when I will look in the mirror and not recognise myself. I hate the idea of being a burden on someone and not being able to take care of myself - and worse, losing my teeth! I fear that somehow my life will be reduced to boring routines and ticking the "senior citizen" box on official forms.
But then I met little old Mr Hamad. "So, how are you?" I asked. With a big smile (missing a few teeth) and a twinkle in his eyes, he replied: "Al hamd Allah, I am wonderful." Mr Hamad suffers from arthritis, so he can barely use his hands and relies on a very stylish cane for moving around. He got it as a gift from a friend. It has a golden carved head of a falcon on its top, and fancy calligraphy. He is proud of his cane, and likes to tell the story behind it.
"When we were in our twenties," he told me, "my friend and I decided to climb a mountain in the northern emirates." The two young men struggled along the loose, rocky side of one of the mountains, near a mosque that served as a landmark. Five hours into the climb, they found an old house made of rocks that had probably belonged to one of the area's mountain tribes. The house was falling apart, but even as it was dying away there was something dignified about it, Mr Hamad told me.
The two friends ate and relaxed inside the small house with its low, crumbling ceiling. They shared secrets, troubles, and their dreams for the future. They carved their names on one of the stones, and dated it, as many others had before them. "I don't think I have ever been that honest in my life again," Mr Hamad says. The two friends returned home the next morning, but not before they made a pact to come back to the same spot when they were 50 years old, even if they had lost touch in the meantime. They decided on a particular day in spring, in the year when both would turn 50.
Back home, as they pursued their education and their work, got married and had children, slowly they went their separate ways. Decades later, as Mr Hamad celebrated his 50th birthday, he remembered the pact - and it turned out his friend had too. They reconnected (this time by mobile phone), and met at the same spot. Mr Hamad told me: "Nothing much had changed with the mountain, and even the mosque seemed to have been maintained. But when I saw my friend, and he saw me, we barely recognised each other. We had both gained weight, we were bald, we had dyed our beards to look younger. But then, in a way, we hadn't changed at all. It was as if we had never lost touch over the years."
They didn't have it in them to climb again, but they did go up a few steps and found a level area where they relaxed, and exchanged gifts. They gave each other a cane, and laughed and cried about the good and bad times they had gone through in their lives. It turned out neither of them had followed their dreams, but had ended up doing what was "expected" of them. Mr Hamad says: "We kept saying, there is time, next year I will do this or that, but time just flew and I never did what I really wanted." However, inspired by the reunion with his old friend, at the age of 50 he started to paint, and he even took up singing (though out of tune). And he and his friend visited the same spot regularly, climbing a few more steps each time until they reached the old house in the mountain.
"It was still there, falling apart, but still standing, and it was an inspiration to us; an example that even when we are falling apart, we should do it with poise and dignity," Mr Hamad told me. They carved their names near their old carvings, with the new date. "Getting old makes you appreciate the things you did when you were young, and it also pushes you not to keep on postponing your life, and to do things you were scared to do in your youth," Mr Hamad says.
What does he love most about being old? It is that he has earned the right just to be himself. "An antique object increases in value as it ages, so why should a human life's value decrease as it ages?" he says with a smile. Now 75, Mr Hamad is proud to be "an antique", and is always smiling. I know that as we grow older, the stories we tell of our past are embellished, but I still love listening to this one. Despite losing his teeth and struggling with illness, Mr Hamad remains young at heart. And since he still looks 50, staying young at heart seems to be the ultimate facelift.
rghazal@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Final: UAE beat Qatar by nine wickets
Third-place play-off: Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by five runs
Table
1 UAE 5 5 0 10
2 Qatar 5 4 1 8
3 Saudi 5 3 2 6
4 Kuwait 5 2 3 4
5 Bahrain 5 1 4 2
6 Maldives 5 0 5 0
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
The stats: 2017 Jaguar XJ
Price, base / as tested Dh326,700 / Dh342,700
Engine 3.0L V6
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 340hp @ 6,000pm
Torque 450Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.1L / 100km
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
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
Results
Male 51kg Round 1
Dias Karmanov (KAZ) beat Mabrook Rasea (YEM) by points 2-1.
Male 54kg Round 1
Yelaman Sayassatov (KAZ) beat Chen Huang (TPE) TKO Round 1; Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) beat Fahad Anakkayi (IND) RSC Round 2; Qais Al Jamal (JOR) beat Man Long Ng (MAC) by points 3-0; Ayad Albadr (IRQ) beat Yashar Yazdani (IRI) by points 2-1.
Male 57kg Round 1
Natthawat Suzikong (THA) beat Abdallah Ondash (LBN) by points 3-0; Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Ahmed Al Jubainawi (IRQ) by points 2-1; Hamed Almatari (YEM) beat Nasser Al Rugheeb (KUW) by points 3-0; Zakaria El Jamari (UAE) beat Yu Xi Chen (TPE) by points 3-0.
Men 86kg Round 1
Ahmad Bahman (UAE) beat Mohammad Al Khatib (PAL) by points 2-1
Men 63.5kg Round 1
Noureddin Samir (UAE) beat Polash Chakma (BAN) RSC Round 1.
Female 45kg quarter finals
Narges Mohammadpour (IRI) beat Yuen Wai Chan (HKG) by points.
Female 48kg quarter finals
Szi Ki Wong (HKG) beat Dimple Vaishnav (IND) RSC round 2; Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Nastaran Soori (IRI) by points; Shabnam Hussain Zada (AFG) beat Tzu Ching Lin (TPE) by points.
Female 57kg quarter finals
Nguyen Thi Nguyet (VIE) beat Anisha Shetty (IND) by points 2-1; Areeya Sahot (THA) beat Dana Al Mayyal (KUW) RSC Round 1; Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Ching Yee Tsang (HKG) by points 3-0.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors