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For Rent: You, Me and Us

PICTURE this. You come to Dubai to have your wedding. You have the 'walima' reception, gifts are handed out, congratulations, smiles, and then, at the end of it all, you both go home. You go to your bed space in your 'ladies only' sharing flat and he goes to his 'men only' sharing flat; dreaming of the day that you will go to the same home even if it's a bed space in a couples-only sharing flat. Can't even fathom it? Too horrible? Unfortunately, this is the reality of life for many in the Emirates.

Finding affordable houses in this land of extremes where some pay millions and others can barely afford hundreds can be gruelling, especially for the poor. There are just too money-hungry landlords from the bottom ring of Dante's inferno, out there. What to do?

Just take a stroll down the street and check out the walls, the public telephones, and don't forget the underpasses. Oh, and next time you are craving some Malabari chai check out the cafeteria walls too. For sure you will see them: THE BED SPACE ADS

Bed spaces for Filipina/os, for Indians of various sorts, for non-mentioned parties, and my personal favourite, for Executives, but the saddest of them all are bed spaces for families.

How do you fit a family in a bed space is beyond me. Still, bed spaces for families aren't the worst that UAE has to offer. In many cases, there are families together that have nothing in common except the need for a place to live. Often, there is no common language except a mixture of various kind of pidgins, English, Hindi or Urdu.

I know of one flat in Sharjah where there are five families in one place and once visited one of those old, big villas in Satwa. I don't know how many families were living there but I met a Sri Lankan, Filipino, Tamil, Malayalee, a Pakistani, and a mixed couple of some variety all sharing one kitchen and four bathrooms.

Bed spaces are hard enough to deal with, but when it's an entire family, they will suffer the indignities of living up close and personal on someone else's turf and that means that they will always be on their toes — waiting to use the bathroom, waiting to eat, waiting to shower, all because somebody will be playing house 'babu'.

Also, if you are a pious Muslim, your stay will be all the more miserable. For a woman, it will mean that you cook, clean, eat, and perhaps, if you don't have locks on the doors, sleep in your abaya and hijab.

The UAE is a lovely place to live but some landlords ought to be tarred and feathered for turning this place into the dumps. It's sharing or leave.

Now I hear even sharing is not allowed. So what would people do? Where would they live?

One of my friends had to leave because she couldn't afford to stay here. Her apartment went from 16k to 30k in less than two years. The toilet was never flushed and the apartment hasn't been painted since the '80's. So, what was the increase for?

Over in the Malaika Building, (because it has 70,000 angels back-to-back holding the place together!) is a little better, they fix the toilets over here. It's my theory that if the angels sneezed — that is, if they sneeze at all - then the Malaika Building would come crashing down.

Still with a little glue and paint and the annual mop job, the rents have doubled. Alhamduilllah, that it's double for only new people. We, the old tenants, get to hang on a little longer with a nominal rise in our rents.

Sometimes, I look at my lovely Al Wahda Street (once Main Street for shopping delights), I see its empty streets, its newly opened and quickly shut restaurants, empty shops with bored and tired sales people, or even more depressing, the energetic hopeful ones waiting for customers. Then I get that feeling, we are just going down hill.

With every new high rise, come more people many of whom are just bed spaces living in fancy surroundings. My other friend's niece criticised her by saying, "Why do you live alone, what a waste? You could fill this living room with seven beds and be rich." Imagine waiting for the bathroom in there!

If something isn't done soon, Sharjah, as well as other emirates, will be looking like a gentrified ghetto that has seen better days — putting too many people in one flat and/or building is the easiest way to destroy it. Add to that unjustified rents and next you'll be thinking that this is must be Shai town (home to many a gangsta rapper) and not Sharjah (the cultural capital of the Arab world).

The sad thing is that nothing great will come out of it. There will be no hip-hop, new type of lingo, funky art trends, or quick-witted literature. There are not enough roots or commonalities or senses of community. There are only bed spaces that will be filled and vacated by people rolling in and rolling out of the United Arab Emirates.

Maryam Ismail is a Sharjah-based writer