DUBAI // Until just over a year ago Dubai was a fairy-tale city to Philip Sarwar Jan Masih, who grew up in Karachi hearing stories about the emirate from his migrant worker father.
"My father used to always tell us stories about Dubai and his friends here, how it was such a small place and suddenly began growing very fast," the 25-year-old technician recalls.
After 39 years working as a lorry driver for Dubai Municipality, the elder Mr Masih's health forced him to retire a few months ago.
"My father said that life here was very good to him, he couldn't have wished it to be any better. He never had any problems and there was no stress.
"But for us growing up, it was difficult not being able to see our father except for a few weeks every year or two. We used to call him and tell him to come home. I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to be away, though he never showed it."
About a year before his retirement, Mr Masih called his son and told him he had secured a job for him, too, at Dubai Municipality.
"When I arrived here, Dubai was exactly how my father told us in his stories," he said. "I got to spend a year here living and working with my father, it is the most time I have ever spent with him, we even shared a room. So that was very nice."
He knows exactly what working in Dubai means to his family back in Karachi. "My father spent his life sending all his money back to us so we would have a better life, now I am the one sending my money back to him. He is enjoying his life with my younger brother and two sisters. He has earned the rest."
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, recently asked residents to take time to acknowledge the efforts of workers such as the Masihs, father and son. Without these unsung heroes, he said, the city would stand still.
Dubai Municipality has dedicated the month of May to celebrating such workers as Mr Masih - and others like Parvender Singh, a 50-year-old maintenance technician who has worked for the civic body for 27 years.
"I work here, I got married here, I've raised two children here, both of them were schooled here and have lived all their lives here," said Mr Singh, whose daughter is now studying finance at a university in Toronto, Canada. "None of that would have been possible if I hadn't come to the UAE. We would never achieve this if I was in India."
His 17-year-old son will graduate from school this year and wants to study medicine. "I will also send him to Canada to study there. I would have never have thought that I could one day send my child overseas to study," said Mr Singh. "This is all thanks to the UAE."
His fondest memory of working for Dubai Municipality, he said, was the evening he was working a late shift in Zabeel.
It was just after midnight when a familiar figure strolled by. "We couldn't believe it: it was Sheikh Mohammed," said Mr Singh. "He was so casual, on his own - no security or anything. We waved at him and he waved back at us. Getting a chance to see the ruler was like a miracle. I will never forget that."
