Chapter 1: Value and Its Two Faces
“Leila! Is this really you? Oh my darling girl, how I missed you!” she begins to cry as we embrace.
“Oh sweetheart, I missed, I missed, I missed you so much. I missed your mum. I missed the old days. I missed my old life!”, she lets out yet another cry. Her cries progress into an animalistic bellow.
We disengage. As she reaches with her frail hand to wipe the tears off her cheeks, I finally take note of the skeletal face before me. Littered with age spots, her skin is relatively wrinkle free. Her large hazel eyes are still outlined with her trademark navy blue liner. There is no mistake. It was Aunty Rasha El-Aryan. Or a fraction of her. The 70-year-old woman standing in front of me stood at 164cm and weighed no more than 46Kgs.
El-Aryan did not suffer from a medical condition, but rather from the market reality. After having lived and worked in Dubai for 42 years, El-Aryan ceased to be a ‘useful’ member of Dubai’s society. Her socialite days when she was the personal assistant of the British Consul General are well behind her. Today, her phone no longer rings. She is no longer invited to dinner parties and her beautifully tailored suits are confined to the darkness of her cupboard.
Why? You ask. The short and simple answer is because she is no longer deemed to be an entity of value.
