The BMW 6 series is doing a steady 100 kmph as we race down the rain-swept Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. The latest GSM-based nagivation system on a dashboard monitor marks our progress in the form of steadily moving blip. A steady January drizzle drums away on the rooftop making the weather outside cooler and even more undesertlike.
The writer was kindly fetched, a little while ago, from his hotel in central Dubai. This is shopping season, as is evident when we drove out, though its tough to imagine there is any other. Shiny cars are propped up outside almost every department store, some even wrapped with ribbons. My hotel, the Movenpick, not to be outdone, was offering a Smart car, enticingly parked in the coffee shop.
Nitish Jain, the BMW’s owner, once known as the entrepreneur who built up and then sold salt brand Captain Cook to International Bestfoods back home, is the guide and host for the afternoon. He is also, perhaps, inadvertently, the best salesman for this re-born desert cit…