Scaling Mount Abu (Dhabi)...

After Emiratis itrsquos really Malabaris in the economic pecking order of Abu Dhabirdquo says our Pakistani cabbie driving near a street lined with billboards advertising Malabar Jewellers starring Bollywood heroinesBy Malabar he means north Kerala with a strong MuslimMapilla population wherefrom presumably an early wave of Indian migration took place to the United Arab Emirates UAE Malabar Coast held trade ties with Arabs even before oilboomAbu Dhabi with largest oil reserves is UAErsquos capital What if I told you New Delhi was once the capital of UAE That would be factually incorrect but technically trueAs in Abu Dhabi Dubai Sharjah Ajman Umm Al Quwain Ras Al Khaimah Fujairah mdash together known as UAE since their independence in 1971 mdash were once separate sheikhdoms called lsquoTrucial Statesrsquo of the BritishBrits signed trucepeace treaties beginning 19th century Whereby they operated foreign policy and military Sheikhs owned and controlled the lands Which made them protectorates as against coloniesBrits had political reps in the region who in turn reported to the Viceroy in New Delhi until 1947 As late as 1966 the Indian Rupee was the local currency of Trucial StatesTaxi drivers are usually unreliable reporters of their cities But this nth Pakistani on our nth Uber ride I realise is a philosopher of sortsHe unwittingly explains why the antiimmigrant wave being experienced on the streets plus politics of most democracies including the USA has left UAE untouched or gone in the opposite direction in factHe says ldquoBeauty of this place is it belongs to a family Sheikhs from Al Nahyan family They are secure about it and work to make it the best As against politicians who come and go and make the most of profiteering from their limited time in powerrdquoTherersquos an IndiaPakistan match the following night in Dubai a drive down He cares two hoots He says he has no time Hersquos there to work upwards of 1214 hours a day then shacking in a labour ldquocamprdquo remitting savings home or making a better earning for himselfYou can tell he doesnrsquot envy the localsEmiratis who are wonderfully well taken care of from how the UAE benefits from expatsHe doesnrsquot longingly eye execs in whitecollar jobs or millionaires white in colour parking their wealth better from Britain postBrexit Russia Ukraine postwar eitherThere is no intermediate class between the fancy Uber and privatelyowned SUVssports cars mdash there are no hatchbacks or smaller sedans on streets It appears even the middleclasses show up from other parts of the world to effectively elevate to the upper class massively saving on taxes investing working smarter Belongings in general are safeEmiratis seemingly honour this deal instead of resenting it They comprise merely 10 per cent of UAE with about a whopping 90 per cent expats 50 per cent plus South Asians mdash who for all their lifersquos stay shall always hold passports of the country of their originTherersquos no ambiguity Orderrsquos apparent Expats donrsquot have voting rights Neither do locals Dissent be dismissed for more real rewards perhapsLaws are mostly clear if not yoursquod rather err on the side of caution Sheer disappearance if not deportation executed by the state is too strong a deterrence You barely see cops in Abu Dhabi You neednrsquotYou observe Emiratis inevitably among themselves at bars restaurants malls in the traditional flowing whites having given up on fashion for their lifetime with a marker on their headgear surveying the land they own that grows with talents and workhorses they invited over for it Respect appears mutualWas it always like this in the unbearably hot prickly desert paved with gold For at least Abu Dhabi I guess it wouldrsquove started around the late 1950s Donrsquot know what they should be more thankful for mdash discovery of oil or invention of airconditioners simultaneously a fastmoving consumable product by thenPractically everywhere you go between Abu DhabiDubai in 2025 whether a hotel or museum office highrise or huge convention centre yoursquore inevitably toldldquoThere was nothing here 1520 years agordquo Clearly there was an inflection point thenBesides vision and benevolence which is the only way monarchies have benefitted masses throughout history mdash I suppose the rulers realised entertainment is how expats can leave home yet feel free in another countryTo work and spend mdash while highend malls are bustling past midnight as we walk into the Apple store with spas open until 3 am offering nationalities in their menus as if they were serving cuisinesWe barhop nonstop still mdash parking ourselves at Velocity totally packed for an Indian DJ Phillora who I thought was Armenian mixing global plus Punjabi tracks for a primarily Philippine female audience on a lsquoladiesrsquo nightrsquo with Pussycat Dolls x AR Rahman on silent TVsA city with that many ethnicities is an education in music firstI wonder what the neighbouring IslamicGulf countries feel about UAErsquos seamlessly social opennessliberalism Already people talk about Saudi Arabia as the next UAE Ras Al Khaimah nextdoor being planned as the next Las VegasIrsquom looking at images from my flightwindow descending on Abu Dhabi with nothingness for as long as the eyes can see just a road crisscrossing through a desert Man this can grow foreverMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass cultureHe tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper