The city of Cats
Einstein noticed that Dubai was filled with cats everywhere. Watching these cats, it seemed to him as if the people in Dubai had started becoming cats. They acted like cats. They would leap from the top floors of buildings and land on the ground unscathed.
And they didn’t appear with a romantic partner like any of the cats around the labor camps. Perhaps they are, like Einstein, keeping an imaginary girlfriend.
Einstein had fallen in love many times since his teenage years, but being among international migrant laborers in Dubai felt different. In this vast expanse of male-dominated labor camps stretching over a 10-kilometer radius, there was only one woman. Most men never ventured beyond this area as they worked tirelessly from day to night. For the first time in his life, Einstein didn’t fall in love with the only woman around. Maybe he was outgrowing his main-character syndrome.
This woman worked at the billing counter of a restaurant. One day, unusually , at 12 AM, she saw a young man enter. Dressed simply, carrying a side bag, he crosses the counter and head to a lonely corner table, facing a mirror wall where he could watch trucks passing by outside. He never spoke to anyone except the waiter to place his order. This became a routine. Everyday at night, the woman would arrive at the counter, and Einstein would pass her by on his way to his usual seat for a peaceful meal.
But one day, he didn’t show up. After that, she never saw him again.
The World Outside the Labor Camps
Internet access was available inside the workers’ rooms. After a long day of work, most men would lie in bed, browsing the web. Over time, this habit became institutionalized. But Einstein, a creator at heart, resisted this routine. Instead, he observed people. Sometimes, he even took photos.
He noticed how humans adapted to their environment in the toughest situations, a quality that helped them survive.
One day, while helping a Nepali man write his bio-data to apply for a storekeeper job, they had a personal conversation.
“How old are you, brother?” the Nepali man asked.
“I’m 25,” Einstein replied.
“I’m the same!” The Nepali man suddenly became friendlier. “Are you married?”
“No, brother. Because of our families, we are already facing so many struggles. Why bring more trouble into our lives?”
Both laughed heartily,
Though they desperately wanted women in their lives, but socio-economic circumstances made them suppress this desire. This was a shared sentiment in the camps. Like soldiers in wartime, the laborers—young, physically fit men willing to sacrifice their desires for their families—longed for love and companionship.
The Sexy Poster
Inside the Ibn Battuta studio, a poster of a white woman captured everyone’s attention. Customers buying lottery tickets often asked her name. Oddly, no one tried searching for her on Google, even though they could. When Einstein once attempted to do so, a customer stopped him.
“Don\’t do it man, let us keep it as our whole life mystery,” he said.
This revelation sparked an insight in Einstein’s mind: not all mysteries arise from incapability. Sometimes, people deliberately choose not to solve them, preserving their curiosity. After all, there’s nothing more mundane than understanding everything.
In the labor camps, the chances of forming romantic or sexual relationships with women were far below the global average. This was a harsh truth the men avoided confronting. To distract themselves, they watched YouTube videos— a local person cooking in forests or problems happening in their home countries. People who showed themselves as Intellectual men, watched news channels during the day and porn at night. Those who showcased themselves as financial intellectuals viewed money-making short videos but spent their evenings on TikTok videos of women dancing showing boobs.
Despite their searches, no one ever found the woman from the poster in any TikTok video or a porn movie. This heightened their curiosity and respect for her. Men wanted their women to remain untouched by others—a reflection of the patriarchal values they clung to even in exile. Einstein observed that the jokes laborers shared often revolved around women and their chastity. If they had an enemy in the camp, the jokes would target his wife and her male friends or neighbours.
Anyway, due to none of the camp men watching Hollywood movies or the woman on the poster coming to the camp, the meeting between camp and the woman never happened. And the mystery remained unsolved.
Love and Longing
One day, Einstein noticed a man in his apartment who always called his wife after work. If his phone or internet connection failed, he would grow angry and despondent. The man seemed to hate his life here, escaping into phone calls to endure it.
Einstein wrote in his diary: “Maybe love is the only true requirement humans have.”
Another married man in the camp was consumed by over-possessiveness, constantly fearing that his wife back home might be unfaithful. Einstein was told that this man’s mistrust stemmed from a childhood memory—one afternoon, his mother had cut a cake into five pieces for her children. While he was out buying groceries for his grandmother, one of his siblings ate his piece. While he came back he realised how covetous humans could be. The kid cried a lot that day, her parents and others thought he was crying for the cake as usual.
In the camps, love was often imagined like the relationship between Santiago and Fatima in The Alchemist (novel by Paulo Coelho). Santiago left to seek treasure but ultimately returned to Fatima, realizing she was the true treasure. Unfortunately, most Santiagos in the Middle East never found their treasures. Those who did often return to find their Fatimas gone—or with someone else.
A Fleeting Romance
It was No Nut September, and it\’s 27th day of not masterbating in Einstein\’s count. To his surprise, he began feeling love blossoming in his heart. He met a Filipina woman at a supermarket billing counter. She smiled warmly at her customer casually (that was Einstein), and he felt butterflies in his heart.
He learned a Tagalog word, “Salamat” (thank you), to surprise her. And She did surprise and that encouraged him to learn more words. But the cruel reality of unemployment and an empty wallet forced Einstein to leave the area.
The Filipina didn’t miss him more than losing a regular customer who is a flirty idiot. Nor did Einstein truly miss her – as women from a different environment always develop curiosity in a man, natural. But he regretted losing the chance to nurture a romance that could have blossomed into a meaningful relationship.
The Final Realization
Later, Einstein stopped visiting the restaurant where he used to dine. He had learned that the woman at the billing counter was the owner’s wife.
Amid the struggles of camp life, Einstein found solace in a memory—a tiny, intellectual woman from his past. In this world filled with porn and prostitution, he chose peace.
Einstein wrote in his diary: “The sweetest knowledge in life is that knowing someone is loving you. The second sweetest is knowing someone once loved you. Everything else pales in comparison.”
