A shy chef (but the biryani’s so good we aren’t complaining)
Shooting this week’s ‘Humans of UAE’ threw a unique challenge. Usually, we struggle to find the perfect subject. We find several that fit the bill just right, but few that come across as extraordinary. Once we find our subject, they are more than happy to pour their heart out in front of the camera.
But this week had something else in store for us. Finding the subject was easy. Getting him to talk… that was a challenge we didn’t expect.
I’ll remember my encounter with a popular biryani chef in Dubai’s Meena Bazaar for more than the culinary feast I enjoyed. We had to meet him three times for the interview (that also meant three biryanis for lunch, or maybe more).
Ask him anything about biryani, and he would endlessly go on and on about his love for cooking and his award-winning finger-licking recipe.
But when you ask him about his personal life and struggles, he has absolutely nothing to say, despite having a large extended family living in a four-storeyed house in Pakistan.
He would quip with monosyllabic ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses when asked about anything other than his restaurant. You ask him to share photos of his family and he would shake his head and say that he doesn’t have any. Ask him about his challenges in life and he would just say, “All is well. Thanks to God I never faced any struggle.” Ask him how much he misses his children, and he would reply, “Just like all parents do.” Makes one
wonder, how can someone with an illustrious career have such a monotonous life with no trials and tribulations?
The chef’s biryani was ranked the best in Dubai by Emirati bloggers two years ago. If you go to his restaurant on a Friday afternoon, you will be waiting in queue to find a spot. However, when someone with such a special story is so unidimensional in his narrative, it gets all the more difficult to bring out the extraordinary element in his life. We had to interview him three times in order to deliver a colourful video story.
In another ‘Humans of UAE’ episode, we decided to feature a housekeeping attendant. His job appeared ordinary and monotonous and perhaps that’s the reason he had almost nothing to say about his work life. Instead, he narrated how he was raised in a farm in Philippines and how despite his daily mundane job he keeps his farming skills alive by maintaining a minigarden in his accommodation in Jebel Ali.
Even though finding interesting subjects for a video story is a mere hit and trial approach, we believe it’s easier to find extraordinary stories in ordinary people than it is to find ordinary stories in extraordinary people.