It’s 5.30am on a thankfully clement June morning and the Dubai Creek is bustling with life. As I take a walk along the Deira side with Mohammed Sultan Thani, who needs no introduction, it’s an absolute delight.
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00:00It's 5.30 a.m. on an unusually pleasant June morning and the Dubai Creek is bustling with
00:06life. As I take a walk along Dera's side with Mohammad Sultan Tani, it's an absolute delight.
00:16There are so many folks he stops by to say hello. Hala, a Syrian woman who's feeding a
00:24clowder of 11 kittens. There's Madhavan, a yoga instructor and his elderly group of students.
00:32Then there's Ahmad Ali Musa, a Pakistani Abra operator. And we take his Abra and go on to the
00:41other side, the Burdabai side, where we meet Mohammad Ali, a fellow Abra operator. And then
00:48of course, Moyaddin, who's a cafeteria worker who gives us masca jam sandwich and chai. A
00:56former film journalist, Tani is a keen observer with a rare perspective. He is a repository of
01:04people's stories, glimpses of which he shares on Instagram. But a senior official with the
01:11land department, he is distinct from the modern day social media influencer. No, I'm not a
01:18commercial influencer and will never be one, he says. I just like to portray people for who they are.
01:25The idea is to meet people, meet merchants, meet things. Or let's say I'm trying to contribute to
01:37the economy in a way of introducing some old merchants to the new generation. Once a famed
01:46film journalist with an Arabic newspaper, Tani himself was ahead of his times, reviewing and
01:53reporting on international movies where no one else in the local landscape did. Tani, who no
01:59longer writes about movies, says he doesn't miss them and has moved on. But ask him how a film
02:07journalist landed a role that oversees land transactions, and he reasons, life happens.
02:15And happens it does, leaving indelible footprints in the sands of time.