DUBAI LIKE YOU'VE NEVER KNOWN

There's a cultural revolution brewing in the Jewel of the Desert

- Shivangi Lolayekar

Forget New York, Alicia Keys was really talking about Dubai when she sang the lyrics, 'Concrete jungle where dreams are made of' in Empire State of Mind. The flamboyant city is the definition of sweet dreams. The world's largest melting pot, where at every junction the city's manicured to make your existence better. It's probably why Remitly, the American online remittance service that's listed on the Nasdaq, recently called out Dubai as the premier destination in the world where people would want to live. On a colour-coded map-generated using 12 months of Google search data and with 164 countries analysed-users were asked to bookmark their top cities. Dubai, the Jewel of the Desert (and now perhaps the world) came out aces, followed by Miami and Paris. This was largely attributed to the surge of diverse job opportunities, growing infrastructure, unbelievable safety laws, unmatched healthcare and education system, and, of course, the biggest clincher of all, income tax elimination. Just ask Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and David Beckham who all own mansions in the exclusive Palm Jumeirah.

For holiday travellers who pour into the city-including an India-heavy population where hearing Hindi spoken at every corner is customary-Dubai is largely viewed as a goldmine where you exercise an idyllic existence, with a template of shop-eat-party-sleep-repeat. You go to bare your wealth at Dubai Mall, bring out your six-pack at Jumeirah Beach, Instagram the hell out of the popular hotspot Nammos and rest your head at the shiniest hotel. But what of people who want a hit of culture outside the obvious? The city that occasionally gets a bad rap for being too 'man-made' is now trying that much harder to be all-inclusive by way of spaces that promote alternative hobbies. From a burgeoning Fashion Week to a session of perfume-making, Dubai's ensuring that whatever kind of person you are; there's something for everyone.