Street Talk : I wish there was more time says Shiny Herojlal

Shiny Herojlal

Shiny Herojlal loves the freedom and safety in Dubai.

Published: Fri 23 Oct 2015, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Fri 17 Feb 2023, 12:41 PM

Like the lyrics of the INXS song Shiny Herojlal has 'not enough time'. "I don't have enough time. I'm not enjoying myself," she says at 12 noon on a Wednesday afternoon at DIFC, a day before the long weekend for Islamic New Year.

Even as she talks to us, she's looking around for something that will need her attention.

Herojlal is from Trivandrum, India. She works for a company responsible for car parking at the Financial Centre. Sharp dressers are all around us, men with briefcases strutting about in well-cut suits, women in their pencil skirts and office pumps on smoke breaks sitting by makeshift waterfalls. It's a great place to spot office trends.

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Shiny is in a rush - someone needs her help, but she's all smiles. She smiled even as she said she's not enjoying herself. Briefly she closes her eyes and calls time her biggest struggle.

There's work, there's family; she's been in Dubai for eight years - she loves Dubai. Loves "the freedom and the safety" - "much more than in Trivandrum."

So what would she do with more time? Besides spending it with family - she has a 7-year-old, born and brought up in Dubai. She lives in Satwa, and the commute from office to home isn't bad.

She'd help people and cook more.

The last time she enjoyed herself was when she cooked mutton thoran. She's a vegetarian. The dish was for people visiting. "Guests liked my mutton dish," she says.

She apologises that she has to go. There are things to see to. She's on her way to the airport - a new recruit of the parking company is stuck at the airport because there's a problem with her visa. "I have to go help her," she says.

Interviewed by Nivriti Butalia

Street talk is a weekly column to get a glimpse of people's lives in uae