PERCHED ATOP THE 15th floor of a gleaming steel-and-chrome tower overlooking the gently rippling waves of the Dubai Creek, I gaze at the view before me. The waters of the creek meander, drawn by the vision, ambition, and foresight of Dubai, from their source miles away, and transform into the Dubai Canal as they snake past Business Bay through what was once a dusty piece of desert. They flow out into the Arabian Sea, spawning new ecosystems as varied as businesses. I cannot but wonder about the surreal dissimilitude between various phases of my life – its beginnings, thousands of miles away in a surrounding that is a complete antithesis of the vantage point from which I now look at the lofty towers and well laid out cityscape bustling with endless energy and an undying entrepreneurial zeal, where over decades dreams have been made and realized by people from all over the world, especially that narrow strip of land from where I hail – Kerala, India.