75-year-old departs Dubai after 50 years, hopes return
75 Year Old Ex Miami Resident Dusts His Pants After 50 Years Of Staying Put In Dubai And Wishes To Come Again
‘The last goodbye does not take place so much to a locality as to a certain period in one’s life which will remain forever,’ said Manjuran Joseph Jacob who has been in UAE for the best part of five decades.'
However, in 1978, Manjuran, who was relocated from Muscat Oman to Dubai never knew at what point this journey would take him. Unfortunately, 46 years later, and as moving out of the country draws closer, he says that he is not quite ready mentally. He nevertheless knows that, although he is taking such an initiative, most likely he is going to come back soon.
I HAVE BUILT A HOME HERE he said, “In over four decades I have stayed here I have built a ‘home.’ So I have to go away from here, ‘not only India’, where I have spent only several years but mostly even more, the place which I eventually came to think of as home.” Most of the people he had there were his immediate family and friends.
He mentioned that when he came to this country he was a young man and now he is grandfather – with a couple of grown up grandchildren.
“Thus, I think that there is a twang of sadness knowing that though I may go out of the UAE, one can never take the UAE out of me,” said the aged 75 Indian expatriate. Recollecting about the past years Manjuran exclaimed, “In fact, even after one year from my arrival in the UAE, I got married, my wife has two sons who were raised here. But the children are grown now, they fell in love, got married and even became parents.
This septuagenarian who holds the Golden visa has ruled that even if he is leaving the Country for his hometown in Thrissur Kerala on saturdays, He will still find his way back to the Emirate methods at least once every year and spend some months or so in the Emirate.
“Sometimes we cannot even give reasons for the decisions we make, but I guess it comes to how much my wife and I have become used to the way of living we voluntarily chose years back. I spent 45 years in the same organization rising through the ranks from an accountant to General Manager of a company that I helped to set up and grow.”
“The UAE has given me so much – a place where I can do a lot of positive things, where I can attain success, where I can find love, and live,” he also stated.
Struggles of initial years
So did 65-year-old Alphonsa Jacob, the wife of the 45-year-old man who also worked with puzzles and chess, remembering that it was not very easy teaching kids, taking care of the house and working during the initial years in the UAE.
The corporation let me work in a very flexible way during my children's upbringing, which was a difficult period. But throughout the years we did gain a lot from this city. We are very happy right now because our two sons are very much settled and we have some grandchildren now.”
“It was probably partly because both of us were working that we were never around the children like we did in the past, but now the children are no longer young and therefore all that lost time can be sought after.”
Alphonsa mentioned how she has aged witnessing the city as it becomes better and better.
“It is commendable how the authorities of Dubai put in efforts to provide proper development of the emirate for its people and the people residing in it. The protection and communication systems of the city and the city infrastructure available to the inhabitants and the visitors are quite impressive.”
When she was young, she said, her husband used to fly to India only once in two years and that was for a visit and not for vacation.
Profited from the development of the city of Dubai
“Inevitably, we would miss family get-togethers and ceremonies. But as we stayed on for some time, Dubai developed and so were its inhabitants, us included who benefited. More often than before, we began to visit India almost twice within a year, about every six months.”
For the past five years, the expat status who originally settled in JLT said convincing her spouse to quit working has been a challenge.
“It was only recently that he said he was attaining retirement at 70, however, that decision was upended by another five years and yes it was, like he was never going to retire. Well, today I must tell you that we are immensely grateful for this place, and we will definitely come back. But as we are about to experience the last chuck before I leave here, it is understandable to have mixed feelings – feelings of sadness for those places we have been, people we have met, and the time spent here over all especially recollecting all these events, experiences, and the emotion this city evokes… it feels like ‘Heaven to me’.”
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