Dubai: When Indian national Rasha Salim thinks of Dubai, she remembers her father.
The marketing professional said: “I think of a young man who arrived here in the 1970s, full of hope, and who saw something special in this city, long before it became what it is today.”
Today, her father, Salim Ayoub, is no longer with them, but his daughter said she sees his legacy in the city she calls home: “For me, Dubai is where my father’s dreams took root, where my own story unfolded and where my children’s futures are being shaped.”
A home away from home
Salim’s father arrived from Mumbai, India, in 1977, in a city that looked very different from what it is today. He settled in Karama, and worked in the advertising industry.
Salim said: “He would tell me stories about travelling by abra, how simple life was, and how everyone seemed to know everyone. One of my favourite stories was about the Chicago Beach Hotel – apparently that was the place to be on weekends!”
She finds it remarkable that “from the day my father arrived, he saw Dubai as a land of opportunity. He believed this was where he could build a beautiful future for the family he had yet to start – and he was right.”
After getting married in 1984, he brought Salim’s mother, Rubina Khan, to Dubai, too. Both of them thrived in their adopted home. While her father built his career in branding and advertising, her mother became a model, and later, a fashion designer running her own fashion label, RubinaK.
Salim said: “My parents were not just building a home, they were building their dreams – each in their own way.”
When Salim was born, their family was complete. She remembers her childhood in Dubai fondly. “One memory that stands out is attending the annual powerboat races at Mina Seyahi with my family. My father was involved in branding and advertising at Masafi [a UAE-based bottled water company], and those events became part of our family memories.”
She said she also remembers “the simplicity of life, the sense of community and the excitement of watching the city develop. Growing up here, we didn’t necessarily realise that we were witnessing history being made. To us, it was simply home.”
A diverse community
From an early age, Salim made friends with people from different backgrounds, in a city that’s known to host people from over 195 different ethnicities.
She said: “My Indian heritage is an important part of who I am, but Dubai is the place that shaped my identity. I grew up in a multicultural environment where people from different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds lived alongside one another. That exposure teaches you something incredibly valuable from a very young age: how to understand people, appreciate differences and feel comfortable in a global community.”
Salim said she feels the impact of this exposure in all aspects of her life, from her personality and confidence, to how she deals with clients in a professional environment. As a third-generation kid, she said Dubai taught her to be “ambitious, adaptable, resilient and open-minded”.
The Dubai-it mindset – of achieving excellence, quickly and consistently – is also part of her DNA. For Salim, it was inevitable.
She said: “When you grow up in a city that is constantly reinventing itself, you naturally develop a mindset that anything is possible. I have watched Dubai evolve from the city of my childhood into one of the world’s most recognised global destinations. That transformation teaches you not to limit your dreams.”
Her parents’ interest in creative professions, as well as the environment and opportunities the city provided her, helped Salim chart her own career in marketing.
A legacy that continues
She studied at American University in Dubai (AUD) and has spent 15 years building her career. She now works in marketing, member experience and engagement at the Society of Petroleum Engineers, an international professional organisation serving the global energy industry.
Her university is where she met her husband, who was also raised in Dubai. She got married in 2015, and today, is a mum to three – two girls and a boy, aged between 3 and 9.
Salim said her children are being brought up in a Dubai that’s very different from the one she experienced in youth – and her own childhood was spent in a city that was quite different from the one her father arrived in, in the 1970s. “Three generations, three very different experiences of the same city. But what I find beautiful is that the fundamental spirit of Dubai has remained. It is still a place that welcomes people, encourages ambition and gives families the opportunity to build their futures.”
When she takes her kids around the emirate, she sometimes tells them stories about her father: “I want my children to understand that the Dubai they enjoy today was also part of their grandfather’s dreams many decades ago. That connection is priceless.” She said she wants them to appreciate the opportunities they have and never take them for granted.
And although she may have been born in Dubai, as an adult, she chooses to continue living here, in the city of her childhood – a place her children love, just as much. Salim said: “I hope one day they will tell their own children stories about growing up in Dubai, just as I tell them stories about their grandfather.”
As for memories of her father, they are never far from her mind.
Salim said: “My father is no longer here to see everything Dubai has become, but I know he would be incredibly proud. Sometimes I wish I could show him the Dubai of today, take him through the streets he once knew and tell him, “Look how far this city has come. And look how far your family has come with it.””