May 10 2023

 

May 10 2023

As I drove back from the DHA clinic following my umpteenth blood and x-ray test for yet another Emirates ID card, I was reflecting on the day that had passed. A lot of meetings with a whole bunch of people from Finance- thanks to Meshal. And several points were brought to my attention. And almost everyone hinted to me that I had my task cut out. They did not envy me. And I had a lot of problems to deal with- particularly an overworked and disgruntled team. I had received some criticism in one form or another of both my reports- Hesham and Aftab. I had to first verify some of these points and also dig deep to seek the truth. As I was new, it is obvious there were many people who would like to color my lens to suit their agenda. Both within and outside my team. This stuff never changes wherever you go. I quite began to see that the basic design of the problem was similar to my BGC assignment. A lot of non-performing locals, a very few expats- and even these had been stripped to a bare minimum following the cost cutting drive. So I had managed it all before but then I had Nitin and Guna. Now I had none of them. And Aftab gave me that Arvind Sane vibe. Nice enough guy but a bit all over the place and not mentally very strong. More on this in the following section. It was interesting to meet Dhiraj Sinha- the Finance Planning and Performance Manager- whose role was more of a report generator- and he happened to be from Gomoh of all places. Both of his brothers had gone to IIT Delhi. He hadn’t made a good enough rank ( so he said) so he missed out on IIT. Clearly he had read my introductory note which expressly mentioned my IIT pedigree. And this was interesting. I had gone to INSEAD as well - but the brand everyone and their brother were more familiar with was the IIT brand and not the INSEAD brand. This was telling. The Emiratis had an incredible brand awareness of IIT. That clearly stemmed from their awareness of the India brand. As my meeting Ali  Al Shamsi - an Emirati Accounts Payable Manager clearly enunciated. He was an affable and somewhat garrulous gent and as he went on one of his rambles, he mentioned that he thought Indians were really special. “They can work in any environment, with any kind of culture, people- they work very hard and get things done. And they are intelligent and calm. Not saying that other South Asians are not like this- but Indians overwhelming are like this. The odd Pakistani may be like this Indian but it was much rarer. Also the Pakistanis were hot headed - while the Bangladeshis tended to try to cheat the client at the earliest opportunity. But not Indians. While the Bangladeshi thought of how to maximize today- with no thought of the future, Indians thought of the long game.” This was lovely to hear for my Indian bones of course. And Pakistanis- well Pakistanis were hot headed. Indians were calm. Were they? He had something there. I remember our cricket matches in Basra between 2105 and 2019. This is the period I had played the most cricket apart from the 1984-92 period. Every single evening that we played, after a few overs there would be a fight - always within the pakis. Any old reason. A run out was not given by the umpire - who was usually someone from the batting team. A wide that was not called, A boundary that was not called, random sledging- you name it. And ordinarily amiable dulcet set of Urdu speakers would become rabid dogs and eventually leave the field. Then another gang would have to go to calm them down and grovel and bring them back. It was initially amusing but then got quite annoying. And not once was any one from another nationality involved. Ofcourse 80% were Pakistanis. There were a few Tamils and one or two Lankans. All very calm of course. 

Anyway the prevalent Emirati sentiment was clearly more favorable to Indians that it was to any of our south-asian brethren. The question is why was this so? Clearly they have seen the resounding success of Indians everywhere- and particularly in an international setting at the highest levels. As I was mentioning to my wife today- in the new place of employment I was the only Indian in a corner office. There were loads of Indians , some with offices but relatively very few Pakistanis and no Bangladeshis. In a Muslim country, one might expect Muslims to be favored. They seemingly were as well - there were predominantly muslims here. But all Indians. UAE had gotten with the program. Shell hadn’t yet- and would not for a while- because it was an artificially non-competitive industry. The quality of the professional did not make much difference to the outcome. This was my theory anyway.

So one of the reasons that I was picked for this role was my nationality. Now that is significant. It had always been an impediment. So had also been my gender.  A male Indian was the most common profile there was and with the obsession with diversity, you had a one in a million chance of being picked for anything that was not mission critical. If it was mission critical , of course none of this mattered. And I was decidedly not doing mission critical things- not in Shell. So I left. Here I was to do somewhat similar things- but here it was going to be make-or-break for a small company with a relatively undifferentiated product in a very competitive market. I had put myself on the firing line voluntarily. But I really had no pressure here. I can do my best- and if it worked why I would smile, if not it would not kill me to leave. I have often contemplated a future where I would not be working past the age of 50. Maybe that would actually happen. Fate would decide.