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Dubai Police – Symbol of pride, professionalism and hope.

I feel deeply gratified and highly obliged to compliment the Dubai Police for their sensitivity, professional manner and clinical precision with which they helped my wife and myself to resolve our problem with a host of dubious real estate agents. The agents had usurped a hefty sum of our hard earned money while selling us a studio apartment.

We are non-residents of Dubai, known to very few here and do not even speak the colloquial language with any degree of proficiency. Having been lured to investments through glitzy brochures, swank offices and glib talk by scores of ‘fly by night’ real estate agents, who prey on unsuspecting and gullible investors like us, we found ourselves at a loss — figuratively and metaphorically! We had parted with a large chunk of our strategic financial reserves for a modest studio apartment with one of the so many ‘B-lister’ builders in Dubai.

Even before the foundation of the residential complex had been laid – and it may never be — we ran into heavy weather with the agents to whom we had already paid out three quarters of the total cost! The agents had the temerity and gumption of not even transferring the apartment to our names in the builder’s record and atop that, were stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the payment of the last two installments made by us of Dh78,000. This, in spite of meticulous documentation that had been maintained and shown to them by my wife like entailing original receipts, bank transfers, reservation slips and contract copies.

Feeling lost, cheated, depressed and at a total loss, we took recourse to the only dim ray of hope and light flickering at the end of the tunnel — the Dubai Police. I personally was rather reticent and much apprehensive when we entered the imposing marble clad building of the Murraqabad Police Station, only deciding to go through the motions at the adamant insistence of my wife! Not for a remote moment did I feel I would even get a patient hearing, let alone a favorable solution to what seemed an ‘open and shut case’.

However, in very little time, all that drastically changed. The police officials heard our plea with limitless patience, meticulously scrutinised our documents and having convinced themselves of the veracity of the case, summoned the erring agents.

Our case was handled by Lt Mohammad Al Sayegh. We can only marvel at the officer’s professionalism, commitment, intelligence and the patience with which he handled the proceedings, and the logic which with he accosted the agents who were trying all tactics and stunts to circumvent the core issue through a plethora of fabricated and unconnected fables. The officer methodically separated ‘the grain from the chaff’ and low and behold, very soon had the agents ready to transfer the apartment to our name, including agreeing to remit the last two instalments!

Not being satisfied at the verbal assurances of the agents, Lt Mohammad undertook to monitor the progress of the transfer of the apartment and made it crystal clear to the agents that they would be hounded till such time we personally confirmed to him that all was done to our entire satisfaction.

Be that it may, we were not the only beneficiaries of the Dubai Police’s sensitivity and indulgence. I was privy to an incident during the same visit when a taxi driver brought in a passenger who could not pay the fare as she had lost her purse. The investigating officer himself paid the fare of approximately Dh40, to salvage the awkward situation. Hopefully the lady went back to pay back the investigating officer!

It was indeed heartening to see such a display of professionalism, indulgence, compassion, chivalry and commitment by the Dubai Police officers.

Well done Lt Mohammad Al Sayegh! Well done Ministry of Interior. If Dubai has such committed officers and officials it is only a matter of time before the Emirate niches out for itself a place in the rainbow! -Colonel Rakesh Passi, Kuwait

Workshops or parking lots?

If people repair cars on the streets and in parking lots, how will residents get parking?

Finding parking is like next to impossible and such actions only adds to the woes. This is a daily occurrence in the Madinat Zayed Area in Abu Dhabi. Who should act here?

Apart from those seen in the photographs, there are a dozen or more cars belonging to the mechanics being parked in the parking lots. These are filled with their tools and they seem to have found a permanent place in the parking lots.- Sivaramakrishna Subramoniam, AbuDhabi

Readers’ tips

· Use a protective sun screen when you are in the sun, no matter what your skin type is. Use the sunscreen on your face and the back of your hands.

· For a quick pick-me-up, keep skin freshener, astringent and cotton pads for your eyelids in the refrigerator.

· Squeeze some oranges and freeze the juice in the ice cube tray. Rub each cube on your face when you get back from the sun.

Make Travel Fun

· Take care while packing. Not having appropriate attire or toiletries can spoil a trip.

· If you get motion sickness, take some sort of motion sickness drug before you get sick. There is unfortunately nothing that will relieve motion sickness once it has started.

Lose Weight

Here are some useful tips:

· Reduce salt intake

· Watch your fat intake

· Try baking instead of frying

· Boil the vegetables instead of cooking them.

Sonam Punjabi, Sharjah

FEED BACK

Flight services

Emirates Airlines must be grabbing all the awards for best airline, but not in terms of catering service in the flight. On many occasions, I have heard that vegetarians do not get food or are wrongly served non-veg food.

Recently, my family boarded the much talked about A-380 flight to Toronto. They did not get food since they were seated in one of the last rows and my children remained hungry for most of the journey. The reason provided was that food got over. It is ironic that such a huge aircraft cannot store sufficient food to last long journeys. Now, where can you buy food when you flying 30,000 feet on a 14-hour journey.

Nandkumar, Dubai

Bruce Forbes, Customer Affairs- Emirates Airline, replies

Dear Nandkumar,

Thank you for your letter in connection with flight EK241 from Dubai to Toronto, on June 26.I do understand your disappointment in your family not being provided with the meal of their choice on board the above flight.

Firstly, I would like to explain that when a reservation is made for a child of 12 years or under and does not include a request for a child meal, our reservations department will proactively request a child meal if they are certain that the passenger booked is a child.

I have studied the history of your online reservation, under booking reference GCI35S. The age of your son, Rahul, was noted in the booking and an automatic request for a child meal was made by our reservations team for him. Regrettably, we were unable to request a meal for your daughter, Rikita, as her age was not mentioned.

Child meals and Vegetarian meals fall under the various special meals we serve onboard our flights and should ideally be pre-requested when a reservation is made, or at least 24 hours before departure. Details of the special meals served on board Emirates can be found on our website www.emirates.com.

The report raised by the Senior Flight Steward informs me that our cabin crew tried their best to provide your daughter and wife with the chicken dish. However, this dish was no longer available.

We do monitor shortages of a particular meal which can then be adjusted for future flights.

Thank you for brining your concerns to our attention and for allowing me to respond.

Dh72 Bus Ride

Dh 18 per trip is that what the RTA is trying to achieve in buses. Recently, I had to travel with my family to Karama near the GPO. C26 was the best route. But the driver insisted that I purchase an E-bus card for all my family members. It came to Dh72 in total.

Is the RTA encouraging commuters or discouraging them to use the buses. - Venkat, DubaiAdvantage Williams!

For the eighth time in the last decade, the William sisters, Serena and Venushave dominated women’s tennis at the all England tennis championships.

This year, it was Serena’s turn to lift the trophy knownas the Venus Rosewater Dish. Some providence! Serena has the detachment of an assassin when she wants to finish off a match. Giant killing serves, fantastic ground strokes and deft volleying areSerena’s strengths.

The scoreline of 7/6 6/2 hasSerena’s signature on it. The Russian girls have been doing well on the circuit, but have never really been able to scare off the Willams from Wimbledon. Most of the players fall like three legged chairs when the Williams serve and volley. It’s advantage Williams. - Altaf H Ladiwala, Mumbai, India

Hollywood or Bollywood?

Watching Bollywood movies can sometimes be embarrassing. It is a pity to see Bollywood and other regional Indian films focusing only on western influenced and posh areas despite the fact that there are breathtaking destinations in India. Most of them are yet to be explored by the film industry.

India has been blessed with natural and scenic beauty. Some of these locales are better than the foreign locales Bollywood movies are shot in.

Many Indians living abroad crave to see the beauty of their country, but in vain. Also, the dialogues are mostly in English which makes it difficult to identify if it is a Hollywood or Bollywood movie.

Shemeem K, dubai