You know you have lived in Dubai for ages when…

Few newbies have a clue when a trip into the bowels of Bur Dubai or Deira results in directions that takes you past the old Falcon and Fish Roundabouts and onwards to the junction that once paid homage to a giant Flame.

This was a time when entertainment zones that are Sega Republic and the Ferrari World Theme Park were mere twinkles in the eyes of a dreamer, with residents and expats eagerly packing picnic lunches for an enjoyable day at Al Nasr Leisureland; the really adventurous, of course, would battle the barren sands and hike it up to Al Ain Hili Fun City.

“The Friday family ritual would see us pile into my father’s beat-up orange Mercedes and drive into Naif Road for the best Felafel cafeteria in the city,” recalled Lata Bhatia, a UAE resident since 1975, the year she was born.

“We didn’t have many places to hang out socially at the time, so dad would drive us to the corniche in front of Hyatt Regency and we would all indulge in a family picnic with our Felafels and juices. Life was that simple and content back then.”

Bhatia, much like many UAE old timers, reminisces into an era gone by, a time she says, when the number of your license plate didn’t matter and Ski Dubai was an unfathomable dream.

“All we had back then was the Galleria Ice Rink, a place to see and be seen at,” she laughed.

“Sometimes I feel positively ancient when I talk about attending children birthday parties at Thunderbowl Bowling Centre when young, or climbing into a 4x4 jeep to conquer a sandy desert that would one day become Al Barsha, Dubai Marina and Arabian Ranches,” said Saif Kazim, a 34-year-old Emirati.

He added: “Dubai would end at the Trade Centre roundabout and you pitied workers who had to travel through a lone strip of a road to reach the end of civilisation, which was Jebel Ali.”

Yet, even as this city experiences a population boom with more and more expats settling down in the emirates, there are many old timers who continue to live the past, where the Dubai Dream was nothing but a vision of many things to come.

Emirates 24|7 catches up with a few old timers, as they relive an era that has slipped away with the sands of time:

“I remember good ole Channel 33, which would run programmes only between 4pm until 9pm and Richard Coram would read the nightly news; in fact, the afternoon cartoons, followed by “The Bold and The Beautiful” and “Dallas” were our guilty pleasures.” – Andrew Dellany.

“Al Ghurair Centre always featured on a shopping expedition, because it was the only mall we had at the time; that and Al Manal Centre in Naif Road. I remember crying a few years later when the old Lamcy Centre burned down.” – Dana Mithra.

“How can we forget how cheap a taxi ride was? But back then we would still baulk when the driver would quote us a fare of Dh8 from Deira to Bur Dubai. We would always try to negotiate the price down to Dh5.” – Arjun Bellara.

“None of us even understood what traffic was at the time. It would take us all of seven minutes to cross from Trade Centre roundabout into Deira or 15 minutes to simply get into Sharjah. And let’s not forget, most of these roads were single or double landed highways. Ah, the good times.” – Karam Zaki.

“Every Thursday night, Dad would take out the rotor that was hooked up to the antenna on the roof and we would twist it this way and that to catch the Hindi film that would show on Channel 33. It would be a family event in almost every Asian household.” – Anju Khanna.

“No one care about the Coke and Pepsi back in the day; it was always ever Dixie Cola. How great was that.” – Kashif Mansour.

“I simply loved shopping at Dadabhai as a kid; it was our Toys R Us. I was gutted when the store shut down.” – Ashraf Mohammed.

“Way before the monumental occasion of McDonalds opening up in Dubai, when people queued up for hours, it was always about Stop 5. It had, by far, the best burgers in town.” – Caspian Thomas.

“Who can forget Rex Drive-in Cinema near Madina Badr, the end of civilisation. But we would still head there once every month and strain our ears to hear anything every time a plane passed overhead.” – Manish Gajani.

“My highlights were strolling down the creek in Bur Dubai eating hot pakoras (fried Indian dumplings) and catching the occasional sight of the late Sheikh Rashid, who would make it a point to greet everyone.” – Khalid Bouhuri.
 

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