I have seen a lot of people residing in the colder parts of Europe and America quetch about how much they loathe the winters/monsoons, and wish it was summer already! Everytime I step out of my home in Dubai, these people INSTANTLY come to my mind! EVERY SINGLE TIME!!
As most of you know, Dubai is a desert. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that it is sweltering hot here during most days of the year. It is scorching hot during the day, and the temperature continues to soar as the day progresses.. Using a parasol wont do you much good. There is no SHADE ANYWHERE!! Even the nights aren't spared. It is sultry even at around 11pm! Trust me, I am NOT hyperbolising.
While the ice-bucket challenge is quite popular globally currently, UAE residents have been undertaking the " Blistering" bucket challenge, day in and day out! You don't have to switch on the water heater here during the summer ( which lasts for roughly about 9 months! ). All you have to do is turn the tap, and there you go! Steaming hot water gushes forth! Extremely attractive to those who are looking for ways to cut down their electricity bill, isn't it? However, this will be more than compensated for by their energy bill for having kept the AC switched on, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!!
Anyway, the story about the unbearable summers in Dubai doesn't end there! If you venture out of your home for a few minutes, you begin to wish that you lived in Iceland instead! Worse still, you return looking like a burnt potato ( thereby also shattering a woman's dream of finding a fair skinned daughter in law for her son, who probably shares the complexion of a Raven ).
The situation is exacerbated if you're brown like me. You HAVE to apply three layers of SPF 50+ sunblock before you bless the outdoors with your presence. You struggle to fit in your sunblock lotion into your bag that already is hardly accomodating your brolly, sunglasses and several bottles of water ( rather, life-fluid! ) Over here, life is honestly easier for the White-skinned ones! They don't have to shell out a penny to fake a tan. They don't even have to bother visiting the beach-side! ALL they have to do is step into their balconies for a few minutes! Voila! Mission accomplished!! Life is unfair like that. I once picked up a tanning lotion mistaking it for a sunblock! Imagine what an earth-shattering realization it would've been when I noticed my almost unforgivable folly!! However, I have never understood why the white skinned people yearn for sun-kissed, brown hued skin, while those who are blessed with brown skin long for that pinkish complexion! India's obsession with white skin can be attributed to the numerous Fairness Cream Ads that are televised everyday in Indian Channels. "Not fair = Not good" is the idea perpetrated notoriously by these ridiculous ads, thereby cultivating feelings of inferiority in the minds of those who are not fair. The promises made by these ads are ridiculous, to say the least. Immensely pressurized to look fair, and let down by these products that caused all this tension in the first place, most brown girls step out of their homes mildly resembling this girl who has draped herself in a white blanket:
Anyway, this post doesn't intend on debating whether fair skin is a desirable quality or not, which must have been quite evident from its title!
So, cutting the cackle, if these people cant stand the perennial winters or the constant downpours in their country of domicile, ALL I want to tell them is - YALLA HABIBI!! Come to Dubai!!!
Images sourced from Google.
