In the 1990s, for various reasons, I wanted desperately to go and work in the Gulf countries. My career was not going too well in India and I was not enjoying my work. In addition, I had offended powerful people in Mumbai who wanted me out of the city.
I had been diagnosed with a mental ailment prior to all these events. In my desperation to get a job I deceived my employers by not disclosing this fact. My biodata was also not completely factual (a polite way of saying that I had lied about my experience). I wanted to go to the Gulf by hook or by crook. Finally I got a job in Abu Dhabi but had to come back to India within a few months as my contract was terminated.
The first point I want to make is that if you tell lies in your CV or biodata your employer is within his rights to terminate your job with them immediately. So whatever you do don’t hide facts from your (prospective) employers. You should assume that they will find out all that they need to know about you. There is a grapevine amongst employers as well as amongst job seekers. The job seekers know which jobs are good and the employers know which job seekers are competent and can be trusted. I think your employer is also within his rights to take legal action if you lie in your biodata.
In my case my Abu Dhabi employer found out about me but apart from a few polite hints I did not suffer any adverse consequences. I had been doing my job with zeal and competently. I suppose they also felt sorry for me as the victimization I had suffered in Mumbai was well known to everyone.
You might want to read this article I wrote about integrity. It may make more sense in this context:
But then a few weeks later I suffered from a relapse of my mental ailment and that was the last straw for my Abu Dhabi employers. They terminated my employment and put me on the first flight back to India.
Some friends – both in India and in Abu Dhabi – criticized my employers and said that people in the Gulf countries were hard hearted and lacked humanity. They said that what I had gone through is a common practice in the Gulf countries. I accepted their view at that time.
But now I think that I cannot thank my Abu Dhabi employers enough for the way they treated me. It is possibly all thanks to them that I did not have my hand chopped off.
The UAE is an Islamic country and they follow strict Sharia laws. Even petty theft there results in severe consequences. I was told in my exit interview that mentally ill people are not found in the Gulf countries roaming around freely. They are all locked up in rehabilitation centres and are not allowed to go outside. The UAE does this to its own citizens. But why do they need to do that?
Because if a mentally ill person commits even a minor crime like shop lifting what do you suppose the authorities would have to do to him? They would have to chop his hand off that’s what. HAVE TO. They don’t have a choice if an eventuality (like shop lifting) happens.
The authorities in Abu Dhabi are not monsters. They don’t have to chop someone’s hand off if they can do something to possibly avoid it. So all mentally ill people are locked up and not allowed on the streets.
My Abu Dhabi employers treated me with courtesy, generosity and ethics despite my questionable behaviour. They put me on the first flight back to India. And they sent me home on a first-class ticket (probably couldn’t get a seat in economy at short notice).
I am not looking for a job in India but had I been twenty years younger I would have loved to go work in the Gulf countries. But I have schizophrenia and they don’t have psychiatrists.
I hope this blog will serve as a guide to desperate job seekers who want to go abroad and work in Gulf countries (I am sure there are many of them).
I’ll end here. Please share this article on FB, WA and Twitter and let me have your comments. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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