Dubai: On Wednesday, October 7, exactly 50 years after they first arrived in Dubai, the Mohiuddin family gathered in the Arrivals Area of Terminal 1 at Dubai International Airport. The arrival stamp of October 7, 1976, was still on the pages of their passports.
Then, the Indian expat family of five from Tamil Nadu set off to their first home in Dubai, retracing the route as if they had just walked out of the arrivals hall. After that, they also visited their second home in Dubai.
MM Mohiuddin and his wife, Shameem, were joined by their children, Dr Tasneem Jamil, Mir Arif and Tabassum, for the drive to the two homes that sheltered them in their first years here.
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Mohiuddin's own journey to Dubai from Tamil Nadu had begun in 1975, when most activity centred on a few areas on either side of the Creek. Meetings with local businessmen passionate about the future convinced him of the opportunity here, and he joined ETA-ASCON.
His wife and two children followed the next year, and Tabassum was born a year after that, at Rashid Hospital. He had expected the whole family to return to India after a few years. It has now been 50.
Fish Roundabout days
As they retraced the route, the family's first stop was a building opposite the water tank near the Fish Roundabout.
"Our whole life used to revolve around that building. Nothing else was there," Dr Tasneem, deputy managing director of Prime Healthcare Group, told Gulf News. New towers have since risen around the building, but it still stands. The family living there welcomed the Mohiuddins in.
The second home came when Mohiuddin rented an apartment in the residence tower of Al Ghurair Centre, the city's first mall which opened in 1981. "It was a whole new world for us," Dr Tasneem said.
Her father still remembers his tenancy contract number: 003. The family were the building's third tenants. A Chinese family now live in apartment 609 and gave the Mohiuddins the same warm welcome.
The building was almost empty for the first six months. Dr Tasneem's paternal grandmother, who lived with them, would go along the corridors after breakfast, ringing doorbells in search of a neighbour. Coming from India, neighbours meant everything to her. She eventually found their first neighbours at the far end of the corridor.
"Everything looked the same yet had changed over the years," Dr Tasneem said of the visit to their home till 2002.
Firsts and favourites
The Dubai the children remember was small and simple, with more sand than buildings, so that you could almost walk in a straight line between places. Children cycled and played football in the streets.
Driving towards Abu Dhabi, they would see the Dubai World Trade Centre standing alone, with nothing around it as far as the eye could see.
Home delivery meant Shameem stepping onto the balcony and shouting her grocery order to the corner shopkeeper, who would bring it across the street. So, the arrival of Al Rawabi, the first supermarket in their Deira neighbourhood, was an event. The children were amazed to walk the aisles and pick up fresh milk, chocolates and produce themselves.
Al Fajer Department Store on the Bur Dubai side, with the city's first escalators, was another favourite, and the children rode up and down for fun. Dairy Queen in Jumeirah was where they first tasted fast food.
With Choithrams, Indian ingredients were never a problem for Shameem, a keen cook."I think Dubai provided us with everything from day one,” Dr Tasneem said.
Weekends meant Mushrif Park, where the children learnt to swim and the family enjoyed countless barbecues. The picnics were frequent and doubled as gatherings with friends.
In the evenings, with only two television channels, the children gathered to watch Baba Yaseen, a children's variety show, even though they could not follow Arabic.
Building a life
Not everything was easy, though. It was several months before the couple had their own car, and taxis were few and hard to find. Getting three children to school was a logistical puzzle, solved by friends who shared the school run on alternate days.
They worried briefly about the children's education, as their son's classroom was a portacabin, but the schools expanded quickly. The warmth of neighbours, shopkeepers and colleagues' families made Dubai feel like home sooner than they expected.
Dr Tasneem and Arif, then aged seven and five, were largely unaware of their parents' concerns while settling down. They remember being happy with their flat and making friends on their first day at The Indian High School. Some of those friendships have lasted 50 years.
Lessons learnt
Their father, an engineer, set up new divisions at ETA, from air conditioning to power projects, and by retirement had more than 8,000 people reporting to him.
His daughter remembers a man who shuttled between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and visited construction sites even in the sweltering summer, yet still made time for cultural and community events, often with the children in tow.
"There are no shortcuts to success," Dr Tasneem said of what he taught her and her siblings. He also showed them the value of building networks, and that Dubai rewards hard work and perseverance.
After retirement, he wrote two books: ‘Triumph of Humility: The Making of ETA’ and ‘Sense and Nonsense.’ Shameem also published a cookbook, ‘Shameem Mohiuddin's Dakhni Delights,’ preserving hard-to-find recipes of traditional South Indian Muslim cooking.
Faith in Dubai
All three children completed their schooling in Dubai before studying abroad. Dr Tasneem studied medicine in India but built her practice here, and Tabassum also returned. Arif built a finance career in New York and keeps a home in Dubai.
Their parents never spoke of going back to India, which told the children where home was and would be. Every year the family visited Madras (now Chennai). But as each holiday ended, Dr Tasneem said, they were eager to return.
Her husband, Dr Jamil Ahmed, founder and managing director of Prime Healthcare Group, needed some persuading. He arrived two or three years after their wedding in Chennai, saying he was only coming to see. Once he saw the city, Dr Tasneem said, his attitude changed.
Through the Iran-Iraq conflict, the First Gulf War, the global financial crisis, Covid-19 pandemic and the more recent regional tensions, the family's faith in Dubai has not wavered.
"Our family's future has always been intertwined with Dubai's, and we have never doubted that this is our country," said Dr Tasneem. During the latest period of uncertainty, she spent time in person with colleagues at the group's branches to reassure them that services would continue.
Excellence, convenience
She also admires the city's focus on infrastructure and quality of life, and its attention to detail and timely execution. She cited the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai: "The race for excellence has no finish line." It is, she said, a mantra her team has embraced.
Convenience, she said, is a big reason people stay, she observed.
Growing up among many nationalities has left the siblings with friends of every faith and background, and a pride in telling people overseas that they are from Dubai. Her own children, all doctors, hope to settle here after advanced training abroad.
Some things have not changed. The family still gathers regularly at Chicken Tikka Inn, a Pakistani grilled chicken restaurant they have been visiting since 1976.