Sandstorm in Dubai

Since the last three days Dubai has experienced sandstorms.

Staying indoors till the late afternoon yesterday, I had no idea what Nature was concocting outside. Only when at five in the evening, when I stepped out for a short stint of household shopping to the nearby supermarket, did I realize what havoc a sand storm can create.

The light was an eerie white and the intense wind, albeit subdued, because of the highrises on either side of the road, concocted insane swirls of breeze. Inside my mind I could only imagine the banshee whistle that such a wind would have made in, in open spaces. Waves of white sand swept across roads in brazen jaywalk. The churned up warm air created a palpable stifling pressure...and I couldn’t help thinking about a porous self raising yeast flour-all warm on the inside and bloated on the out! From their parked cars to the insides of their homes, people rushed along, hairs and dresses flying, tugging and hurrying curious children or lugging shopping-laden plastic covers. Even the vehicles, some with early headlights on, had a sense of urgency about them.

Brewing is the perfect word for a storm in making. And that the word carries with it a threat of serving a surprise shortly is excitement enough! The city was covered by a blanket of haze. Gone were the skyscrapers! Even the Burj Khalifa, that is visible from outside my flats, was nowhere in the horizon! A hint of sun peered from in-between dense white-grey clouds. A fine layer of white dust has gleefully settled over the tops and bonnets of the spanking cars.

And by eight, the first smatter of raindrops lashed on the Earth much to the delight of the residents who stood at their balconies cheering and whistling at the rain and the clap of thunder and dazzle of lightning. The clothes lines went into a tizzy and dresses trapped fine sand into the pockets and folds. We dragged in the clothes stand and before long had fine dust all over inside too! I wondered how much of this fine silt settled in the overhead water tanks…no wonder people of Dubai, without exception, always drink bottled water and not the one provided by the municipality which ensures with all earnestness that water is potable.

Storms have a hangover, apart from the devastation that they leave. This morning was no different. Were it a holiday, the people would have snuggled in bed and kept indoors too. But they all seemed to have dragged themselves reluctantly out only to be welcomed by a smog clothed eerie white dawn. Routines never get disturbed here sandstorm or heavy sandstorm!

The raindrops had pockmarked the dust layer on car tops and had run down in ugly streams that had now dried up. Will take one hell of a time to clean the cars, all the while ensuring to minimize the inevitable thin scratches during the process, I thought as silt on the portico floor made walking slippery. Would women wear stilettos even today, I was curious and kept a lookout today. Yes, they did. Fashion too never underplays here, sandstorm or heavy sandstorm!

The hourly weather forecast on my phone read dreary throughout the day and it only matched my mood of the past few days. As if physical isolation from homeland wasn’t enough, the geographical eccentricities only heighten that isolation.”What would the weather be like in Bangalore ?” I wondered and looked up world weather. Only to find that today, Bangalore was hotter than Dubai!!Dubai’s maximum and minimum is 26/21 versus Bangalore’s 36/23 degrees! Torn between loyalties, I give a mental shrug!

In the afternoon, as I was being driven back on the Sheik Zayed road, where the minimum mandatory speed is 100 kmph, I purposefully looked for any tell-tale signs of yesterday’s storm. None. There were no sand heaps anywhere on the edges of the road, no fallen shrubby trees or hoarders…which again left me wondering-“When do these people do all the maintenance work? The roads are pothole-less, spanking clean even after a sand storm!”

And suddenly it catches my eye. As we pass beneath a giant electronic hoarder sign board, it says: “Reduce speed. Drive carefully. Look out for ponds of water.” I realize it is not just geography that needs orientation, my English needs to acclamatize too!!