Fester fester

So I need to get some documents from the U.A.E embassy in D.C.

I call the number and an automated message in Arabic greets me.

And it makes me smile and remember so many things I love about Dubai

Shawarmas, Falafel, Hommous, those amazingly big Arabic flat bread
Lemon tea
The ocean
The marina
The traffic jams
The buildings
The global feeling of seeing Western business suits and dishdashas mingling
My parent’s apartment, My extended family
That feeling of knowing that even in a non-Indian land, you can still amazingly good Madras Sambar podi

The automated Arabic message is replaced by a automated English voice that asks me to hold on for the operator.

A few minutes later, and then

“Hello. UAE Embassy” Male Arabic accented English tells me I am now speaking to the U.A.E embassy in D.C

“Yes, hello. I need to get a certificate of good conduct document from Dubai showing that I have lived in the U.A.E”

“Have you got one from the U.S town that you live in currently?”

“I have applied for one and I should be getting it soon.”

“Call back after you get that.”

Huh?

“Ok. But what exactly is the procedure though for getting a DUBAI police clearance certificate?”

“I SAID Call us after you get one from the U.S?”

“Ok. But I don’t understand what the DUBAI police certificate has to do with…”

“THAT IS WHAT I AM telling. You call this number when you receive authenticated certificate from U.S police, understood?”

What the …? Did this man just yell at me? What the bloody HECK?

And at that moment, everything I hated about Dubai comes flooding back to me.

The musk of male chauvinism that hits you even in grocery stores
That obnoxious, condescending rudeness that you have to put up with if you are not American, British, or any other Western looking individual
That complacent indifference to your wellbeing that assaults you sometimes because you are not American, British or any other Western looking individual and particularly if you are Asian

Of course, I am grossly generalizing here but who the heck yells on the phone at the information desk of an embassy????

I should have said something. But after I was huffy rude the other time I dealt with bureaucracy, I muttered a tight lipped
“Thank you”

And hung up.

But not before male voice said, “All right. All right. Take care and have a good day.

Well thank god he said that right? I mean, after all, when he's called up for being rude, he can say ah..but I did say 'take care and have a good day'

I still haven’t got the information I need. And I am pretty sure they are the only ones who can help me.

It’s been one day since the phone call and its still festering in my brain.

Sigh...rude morons everywhere fester in my brain forever.