I am lost in admiration of some of the things I see in Dubai…I agree, they literally have all the money in the world, but then, that money has been put to good use. The superb roads are the first thing I see…the 130 km journey from Dubai to Ras al Khaima, the Emirate our friends live in, took about 50 minutes! (The United Arab Emirates are seven Emirates, ruled by 7 Emirs…Dubai, Abu Dhabi,Ras al Khaima, Sharjah, Ajman, Al Ain, and Al Quwain …the last I am not sure about..Abu Dhabi is the richest!)

Also, cleanliness. Agreed, it is easier to be clean when one has large spaces to work with…but still things are so clean!

And it is amazing that a desert has been converted, with such focus, into a place where the world would like to visit….

But having said that, the fact that commerce, and commerce alone, drives the Emirates is a little difficult for me to take. Money doesn’t talk here, it IS everything. Everyone is on the hustle, everyone is here for the money…

And it is difficult to miss the feeling that the Arabs are the kings, and all the other nationalities who are here are the hired help….

The thought occurs…what if the world discovers a different fuel? What will then happen to all this progress, all this arrogance? Ozymandias is the poem that springs to mind…

Oh, well, will be putting philosophy aside to visit the vast monuments of Capitalism on the sea-front of Bur Dubai (the actual city), meet a lot of friends, and give everyone a great lunch…

And another of my friends will be flying in this afternoon; this is, actually, my father’s classmate at engineering school in Benares Hindu University in the forties..he must be in his middle eighties now. He can walk 10 km even today, loves his pipe and his peg of whisky in the evening, can debate me under the table, and has a wicked sense of humour…he was the principal of BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science) for a while, and worked for a large public sector company, Heavy Engineering Limited…here’s a salute to Janaki Ram, one of the most impressive men I have met. Looking forward to his almost immediate leg-pulling as we pick him up at the airport (we are staying with his younger son who shares that same wicked sense of humour!)