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Home / INTROSPECTION by Mehwash Khan

INTROSPECTION by Mehwash Khan

The Roads Oft Taken

Driving from home to work usually takes about 30 minutes on a quiet morning. Driving back may take longer. It’s a good time to reflect on events that have happened or may be coming up. It’s also a very good time to think of the people in my life, appointments that I must keep, commitments that I have made, shopping lists, the menu for the week, take exit 32…..and I missed that again!

There are many routes that I can take to work. Each of these routes gives me a different perspective of the city that I have lived in for so long.

The road network that I use to commute to work is layered. There are three main layers and each one has its own unique characteristics. I like to personify each of these routes and over the years that I have been driving through them, I’ve learned to appreciate each for its peculiar identity.

The Beach Road is the innermost layer. You need time on your hands to make a trip down Beach Road. The speed limit of 70 kms till Burj Dubai and then 80 kms from there on enforces a leisurely cruise. As I drive down this road, it’s difficult to ignore the innumerable shopping outlets, restaurants, hotels, boutique shops, art galleries, villas, spas, mosques, dental clinics, aesthetic surgery clinics, realtors’ offices, small, corner groceries and more. I marvel at the ingenuity of so many entrepreneurs who have started their businesses here. Glimpses of the sea and the tranquil blue waters add to the many sights to look out for while driving down this layer.

This road is the heart of the city. It is the road that reflects the essence of the city. It is symbolizes someone who is very busy, extremely versatile, hospitable, ready to provide any kind of service to people, innovative and yet, so relaxed, laid back and confident that moving at a gentle, unhurried pace is not threatening.

The middle layer is Sheikh Zayed Road. A drive down this busy road takes you through a jungle of tall buildings, complicated interchanges, the overhead metro line, billboards advertising the latest products, impressive neon signs, sudden green patches that roll onto the tarmac of the road, scaffolding around structures in a hurry to be completed, gas stations that sell more than just petrol and some very imposing looking schools. The huge slope of Ski Dubai stands out as a symbol of imagination and will. Overhead signs constantly remind commuters that they have a few free exits left before the next toll gate.

I’ve always compared Sheikh Zayed Road to a power driven, competitive, individual who is ready to seek out opportunities and build on them as rapidly as possible. Life on Sheikh Zayed Road is always in the fast lane and there is enough place on this road to allow plenty of driven people to seek their future and fortune in this city.

The last layer is the newest one. It’s called Al Khail Road. This is the longest drive. Large areas of sand remind drivers that much of the built up area of the city has been reclaimed from the desert. You drive over a fabulous bridge that goes over the vast, winding creek and connects the two land masses on either side of the creek. The traffic on this road is faster and you zip past huge residential areas built specially for the men who came to Dubai to work in the various development projects. Large trailers, cement mixers, trucks and buses go around the huge roundabouts that are now regulated by traffic lights. Very often, you will drive under masses of power grids. Palatial villas sit in the middle of sand and unlike other parts of Dubai, there is no symmetry in the façade of these villas. Branches of the road provide exits away from Al Khail into Dubai.It are not the road of choice of new or nervous drivers!

Al Khail is the new kid on the block, fighting very hard to establish its identity. Because it is still a ‘work in progress’, it hasn’t yet been able to establish an identity of its own. Every week it changes its appearance and the effort is to improve, fit in. Al Khail is not as attractive as Beach Road, neither is it as streamlined or sophisticated as Sheikh Zayed Road. It has the demeanor of a tough, ready to take risks individual. It’s like a person who stands on its own and sees things from the outside.

So, what road do I take? It depends on how I feel on a certain day. Whatever my mood, whatever I may be thinking, I know that there is one road in Dubai that will take me where I need to go!

Posted : 11 September 2009