UAE- Hospitality is Like No Other!
“There's something about meeting strangers and sharing food that is so connecting.” -Abhishek Sharma
Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt like you’ve known each other for a lifetime? Striking a conversation with a stranger gives a fiddly feeling, let alone eating with them and laughing together. Is it possible to happen in real life? Listen as I relate my one-of-a-kind hospitality experience in UAE. You can also share your extraordinary hospitality stories in the comment box below.
Highlights:
01:11 An Out of This World Hospitality
04:41 It Felt Like Home
Quotes:
04:22 “There's something about meeting strangers and sharing food that is so connecting.” -Abhishek Sharma
Connect with Abhishek Sharma:
Abhishek shares his own life stories and extracting the mental models which informed his critical decisions. He is a business executive who is passionate about yoga and self-development. Abhishek received his MBA from UC-Berkeley and performs private and public speaking engagements.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Abhishek Sharma: Hi, everyone, this is Abhishek from shakethecosmos.com. Thanks for joining me today. And again, if you're joining for the first time, Shake The Cosmos is a Podcast and a global community where average Joes, entrepreneurs and people share their inspirational stories to help you be inspired and achieve your mission in life. And today, I'm going to tell a story about hospitality that I experienced in the United Arab Emirates. And it's just out of this world for me. I have never experienced something like this, the way I would describe it is feeling like you got reincarnated and you're back in this world. And then you meet somebody and you're like, wait, I know you. And we're really good buddies from last time. So without further ado, let's get into it.
So I'm hearing Abu Dhabi and I'm staying in this home, and I meet a wonderful person named Pilar, and Pilar and I become good friends. She knows a lot of local people. So locals here, living outside the city generally. She says, I'll take you to a local friend of mine, and I don't make too much of a big deal about it. But as we get closer to his home, it is very clear that it's a very large home. It's a huge ranch. And of course, there is lots of tremendous wealth that this family has. I'm a little apprehensive, a little nervous about meeting them. And then we just drive into their home, sit down, and there's exotic animals. There's all this stuff that is there. But then we're walking around Pilar is now like feeding a monkey. And I'm just walking around with one of the local family members and their friend, and we're just talking. As we're talking, they're introducing me to different things. They're like, hey, do you like horses? We have different kinds of horses. And I learned a thing or two about horses. And now we go back to this place called mailers, or everybody kind of sits down together. And there's four or five of us.
And again, Pilar and I know each other, but the rest of the local family members, we don't really know each other. And there is this feeling of camaraderie amongst all of us, like we start talking about politics, friends, religion, and there's really no topic left behind. And generally, I feel like in the Western world, like these kinds of things are taboo to talk about right away with somebody new. And then next thing you know, food appears on and it's just a blank a bunch of delicious food. There's pasta, there's chicken, there's rice biryani and it's placed on the floor. So I'm thinking, okay, what are we supposed to do next? The next thing you know, we're all now gathered around the food on the floor and we're just having a blast eating it. And literally, there's no extra plates, we're just sharing it from the plate itself. We're all sharing the same plate, and it's just wonderful to just, the only picture I took was of the food and I think it was memorable enough for me to just capture that because there's something about just meeting strangers and sharing food that is just so connecting. And then we're going back, driving back home after we say goodbye to the local family and Pilar and I are just just feeling this amazing energy within us. And you know? We're both sort of wondering like, what is this like? Why are we feeling such good energy? And I asked her, I was like, how do I describe this experience to my friends and family who may have never been to the United Arab Emirates, UAE or Abu Dhabi.
“There's something about meeting strangers and sharing food that is so connecting.” -Abhishek Sharma
So the best way we could think of was, it's kind of like getting reincarnated and meeting somebody from your past life. Because honestly, there was literally, it just felt a very human connection with somebody you had met before. Because right away, it was feeling of a home created. Even though at the place I had never been, even the people had never met, everybody, everybody was just super wonderful and nice. And I think that the more I think about it is they get the basics right. The basics as in the humanities sort of not lost. So even though there's tremendous wealth around the people, there's a lot of materials, money and all these things, the basics of humanity are still there. Being close to the floor and eating, and community, a family and friendships. I think that those are sort of concepts that are really cherished, and in front, and practiced. And I think for me, it was very refreshing. For me, it was also very, like a good reminder. And you know? If you're listening, I mean, I'm sure there's places you felt this or maybe there are people you have, send me a message and let me know. You can find me on Instagram at Shake The Cosmos, S-H-A-K-E-T-H-E-C-O-S-M-O-S. what did you think of this episode? What is your thought about some of these things? And how do you think about family and friendships? Let me know. All right.