Parents' Visit

My parents are now in Dubai for a week before they fly over to London on Sunday and for dear husband and me, its an important day. Firstly, this is their first visit to "my house" after my marriage. This is the first time they will see me as a wife and a partner. My last marriage was a disaster and every time they visited me, they would leave my house with tears in their eyes. On hindsight, I know that I was too young and irresponsible to be a wife and to compound that I had a very argumentative and physically abusive husband. But that's all in my past and now I want my parents to see how happy I am now with my dear husband.

This being their first visit to the UK, they will also have some startling revelations about how it is to live in the UK. With one month to stay in this country, they will have a good feel about the living standards here. For starters, they will find out that it is damn expensive to get a maid, a plumber or a carpenter here. That taxes are a big thing, that people have to have pay insurances for almost everything, that it is just about difficult to get anything done at home and one has to be a DIY genius. For someone from India, these concepts are pretty new and after having spent 33 years in Dubai, my parents have been sheltered from most of the ugly things that one gets to learn in India as well.

I don't think my parents have ever travelled by public transport system and here if we have to go to Central London, we do rely on the public transport. I take my car only for long trips. Here it is better to buy a new outfit than get your good outfits dry-cleaned (ok I am exaggerating a bit, but its almost true!). Dubai has no taxes and here we have to pay 30% in taxes. Here the rooms are no bigger than a match box and a family of 4 will live comfortably in a very small house. Space is a luxury and the common man lives on credit cards. My parents have never owned a credit card in their entire life.

I can picture my Dad telling me this - "Chinty, why don't you leave this place and come and live with us?" In my first marriage I would have agreed to that. But now I would say - "Nah, dear husband wants us to live here......."