Whether it was Rip Van Winkle’s long sleep, or Penelope’s
long wait for Odysseus, or our own Lord Ram’s banishment for 14 years, it
seemed an impossibly long time and I could hardly imagine so many years as a
child or teenager. That was, of course, much
before I moved to the middle-east.
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| Ibn Battuta mall, Dubai |
While Oil-rig workers work 28-day cycles, and those in the
merchant navy work 6-month shifts, those in the middle-east go home once a
year. In this part of the world, one sees more often than not, the
circumstantial “bachelor”. Either due to
constraints at work, or different needs of the family, men from all over the
world leave their families behind. While, these men, without doubt, selflessly resign themselves to a life of loneliness, my sympathies lie with the wives and children who almost run single-parent households. The poor blue-collar worker is begrudged a homeward return ticket only
every other year. On the other hand,
many families enjoy the luxuries afforded by the precious family visa, driving
around in luxury cars, discovering hidden delights in Arabian sands and flying
home for a month-long trip home every year.
