LETS TALK TO EACH OTHER

LETS TALK TO EACH OTHER

Its early morning in Dubai, vehicles are seen all over the street moving hurriedly along Dubai’s highways as various people are trying  to get to their various places of work. On the other side of the road, the metro is seen snaking its way through various metro stations as passengers move in and out of the metro station. Am currently in front of Nassima Royal hotel, Sheikh Zayed road and am headed to the World Trade Center Metro station. The weather is not bad as the sun is a little gentle with its morning rays and decides to give people time to get to their various places of work. However, you can feel the minimum heat, especially if you have a dark skin as mine.

The automated door opens and I walk in. The Air Conditioner welcomes me with a slap of freezing air on my face, for a moment I think am in Europe and its winter. I step on the ever moving escalator and have a few seconds ride up to the platform. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! That’s the familiar sound from inside the metro station as people tag their cards in and out of the machine. I quickly move to the pay machine to confirm my nol card balance. I place it on the machine and it gives me a disappointing feedback of a balance I wouldn’t want to put on public display. Well of course, since am a job seeker, I add ten dirham to the card and it barely hits the twenty dirham mark. But am sure it can take me to Jumeira Lake towers.

I look around, and of course, I admire the metro station and everyone is busy, moving from one point to another. I punch in my card and the machine opens the gate and Boom! Am in the metro station. I check the map and am supposed to be on the right side taking the train to UAE Exchange.   I see a couple of black people and I automatically know these are Africans, they are headed towards me, and so I adorn an affordable smile since in Dubai everything is expensive. So I want to subsidize the value of my smile.

What amazes me is the fact that, these guys look at me and just pass. Am course, am not offended, but I just feel weird. I mean, you are in a foreign world and you meet people you can reckon with, and they just pass you. May be, my opinion is a little awkward, so I won’t discuss much of it anyway.

I hear some Arabic terminology from the hidden speakers in the metro station and of course, I cannot understand and since the RTA knows everyone cannot understand Arabic, an English translation follows suit and it goes, “Your attention please, the train to UAE Exchange will arrive at UAE Exchange platform.” “My train is here” I say to myself. I get in the train and find myself a seat and chill. An Arabic term of course comes next and they translate it. “Doors closing”

The door closes and the train leaves. Everyone is busy on their phone, some just looking around and am trying to imagine, “are they thinking like me?” Of course, may be. “I like that shoe, I love that watch, and this guy seated beside me looks like he had a fight with his wife, oh! That must be a job seeker like me, this guy looks like a C.E.O” and so on and so forth. Something tells me to strike up a conversation with this guy seated beside me but am thinking twice since no one seems to be talking to the other in the metro, so I’ll follow suit and mind my own business.

But let’s stop to think for a minute, we are human beings, it costs nothing to say Hi to each other. I’d rather, we start talking to each other in the metro or even buses. Who knows? May be your next employer is seated just beside you, may be the next world’s best idea could be hatched between you and that guy wearing an expensive watch. May be that job seeker has brilliant ideas that could help your business. May be that beautiful lady could be an amazing super model, may be this sad man has ideas that could transform Dubai Metro, you never know. Anyway, these are just thoughts in my head. So next time you step into a metro. You can do as they do, or you can think like me.