How To (Move To &) Live in the UAE - w/ Kaushik

financially would you say that it's pretty sustainable to be there on a as a PhD student I'm probably one of the top 1% of the PhD students in the globe to be saving money during a PhD but have you seen any extravagant displays of wealth What's the culture like in the U I'm like what am I what is this is this is this like some kind of royalty drawbacks for me in the US was lumps some amount of taxes that they on you so here that system isn't there as of they just have something called Golden Visa this is where the most growth is at level of advancement that the UAE needs to build upon in terms of how they can

to build upon in terms of how they can establish companies what are one's prospects once they graduate I mean if you if you're broke it's just that you don't know how to manage your financial expenses yeah probably UAE specific challenges that you fa when you first move so I think uh there's a lot to look forward to in this region they even take care of your housing things just fall into place welcome to the ready said do podcast where we learn from journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of us I'm Naman Pandi and in this episode my guest is Kosik Sund Kosik is a global PhD fellow at NYU abudhabi prior to that he completed his Masters in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University in the US kosek has had the

University in the US kosek has had the rather unique opportunity of being immersed in Academia across three countries India the US and the United Arab Emirates this has given him exposure to not only a diverse range of ideas and disciplines but also geographies and cultures We Begin our discussion by going over the circumstances that brought him to the UK and his lived experiences in what is arguably the fastest growing region in the world at least in terms of holistic development we go over the various parallels and contrasts in education across the three or four mentioned countries and also discuss job prospects in the Emirates after graduation and how easy or difficult it is to get a work visa there spoiler alert it's pretty easy on the topic of phds I was absolutely shocked to learn the amount

absolutely shocked to learn the amount of incentives given to researchers be it covering costs of housing a really competitive stiped among many other things indeed it turns out PhD candidates in the UAE are among the very top in the world in terms of monetary incentives that are available to them Kosik also shares his firsthand experiences with the world-renowned emirati culture which is centered around Hospitality at its very core just name a few things the sheer number of opportunities incentivization for expats to stay and build their careers there lack of Taxation quality healthare all point to the UAE on its way to Future proofing itself in terms of a force to really be reckoned with currently and in the near future this discussion is for anyone who is interested in moving to

anyone who is interested in moving to the UAE for academic or professional reasons and is interested in learning about life there in keeping with that theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of of an expert I'd like to emphasize that this discussion centers on cic's lived experiences in the Emirates my goal is to disseminate this information for anybody seeking such a move that is looking for an honest overview of what it is like to not only conduct research there but also live in the UA to firsthand witness growth at such a break neck speed indeed is something that fills me up with excit this is The Ready Set to podcast and to support it please check out the links in the description and now without any further Ado my

and now without any further Ado my conversation with welcome hi Naman thank you for the warm welcome yeah I'm so excited to have you here and um dive into all of the amazing things we're going to cover here today so I know you did your mechanical engineering from India and then you went to the US for your Masters also in mechanical engineering believe that had a thesis component attached to that and then you move to the UAE for your PhD so I'm interested in learning at what point while you were in the US that you were first confronted with the idea of moving to the UAE for your PhD basically how that all came to be and what really were

that all came to be and what really were the factors that informed your move to you know the Emirates yes uh uh yes I did pursue my masters in the US and I coincidentally land up I I was interested in pursuing it you know refining my thesis a little bit further and getting you know inth knowledge in a particular subject domain which is when I stumbled upon you know um like opportunities to pursue my degree abroad so that would give me a great uh Headway into you know being a global Citizen and at the same time being a global PhD student so I I just came across a LinkedIn post uh uh regarding an opportunity uh with bioprinting here in New York University abudhabi and then I just happened to uh you know send an

just happened to uh you know send an email to the professor who had posted the job opening and it so happened that he was interested in uh hiring me due to my previous expertise in the domain knowledge and that's how I happened to you know move to the UAE it was totally uh something out of the blue and it was a very luck lucky uh move I would say uh so yes that's uh how I transitioned here and uh fortunately I'm affiliated with the US Institute which is New York University so they have three satellite campuses uh sorry I I would say have three campuses two being satellite which are degree granting one in Shanghai and one in Abu Dhabi so that enabled me to you know uh spread my

enabled me to you know uh spread my horizons and uh broaden them so that's how I happened to move to the Middle East and I had heard about how safe it is and all the upcoming you know uh developments that are happening here as you all know Dubai has kind of transformed over the last uh five decades so which is what excited me to move to the Middle East awesome thanks for all of that wonderful context um I guess my next question is you said because you moved to a satellite branch of the NYU I'm curious to learn how exactly that works with respect to you know not not just your academics and curriculum but um in terms of you know the actual education itself I suppose or your experience is what I'm getting at so is the experience transformed to be one from the UAE or is it still very

one from the UAE or is it still very similar to the one the to the experience that you get in the US and obviously you would know because you've been both places so you know you know that what that experience is like so would you compare it to the US or would you say that it's its own different flavor of you know experience that one gets when you move to the UAE even if so for or from a you know branch of or satellite of NYU as you said yes that's a great question actually coincidentally I'm still a university student in us it's just that the research component of my PhD degree is in Abu Dhabi so I very much undertake all the courses and all

much undertake all the courses and all of the uh you know required uh curriculum in the US and I only move here for research purposes so basically yes there is uh like there is a slight difference but not a lot of difference because most of the professors Affiliated here come from really great institutes like it Harvard Yale Stanford Princeton and you know they've got their phds from there some of them have their post talks from these great institutes so I would not say it would make much of a difference uh in terms of academic rigor and curriculum uh but of course the quality of students that you tend to see here are even better than the ones that you see in the US because mine is a very highly selective Institute so

very highly selective Institute so that's something that I uh did not expect so there's actually a 4% uh selection rate here at the campus um in the satellite campus so they want like the cream of the cream students here since it's a new Institute they're trying to you know build upon the framework of already existing students and uh that was quite a uh you know pleasant surprise for me when I came here uh I saw like undergraduate students getting hands dirty in their labs and uh we never got to do that in Bangalore right so it was uh something new to like uh uh stumble upon for me that's that's so interesting and especially noting that it was a LinkedIn post that you know exposed you to that opportunity so it's you know sometimes

opportunity so it's you know sometimes it's just remarkable how you know things just fall into place so to speak um and then how long have you been in the UA at this point Kik so coincidentally it's just been two years like 3 days ago it was 2 years I came here June 9th 2022 so yeah like roughly two years awesome yeah exactly congratulations on the 2-year uh move anniversary it's funny that it's it was just three days ago but so I guess I'm curious to learn um what has been your experience I suppose living in the UAE itself you know even though you're a student but obviously also somebody that lives there now that uprooted their life moved there and you know almost built

moved there and you know almost built that new life so what's that experience been like and for this segment maybe we can look at it from a person perspective of the things that you really enjoy that you know you're really thankful for maybe grateful for every day that you only get access to as a consequence of you being in the Middle East yes I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that I've got here in this country in this region uh believe me or not NYU is very generous enough in such a way that they even take care of your housing so I basically don't have housing expenses and I'm a student on campus so that's uh very very Biz that's incredible that's just amazing

amazing wow yes most students you know end up paying so much of their stien towards living and housing expenses that they barely save anything but here there's like a lot of possibilities for you to save money invest money and do things outside of the academic curriculum of course so I am very grateful and fortunate to be here in this region pursuing a PhD you know it's one of the most safest place here so you don't really have to worry about all of the other background noise that happens in the US even though it's a US Affiliated Institute so yes I I truly love UAE and the kind of culture revolving around this place as you know most of the diaspora here is the Indian population so there's nothing really that I miss uh from home like you know it's like you

from home like you know it's like you have a lot of Indian places Indian restaurants to go to and of course there's like uh more number of exps moving from India to the UAE in terms of better opportunities better lifestyle Better Health Care and whatnot so of course there's uh uh you know it feels like home um most of the times because it's also close to India as you would imagine so it's just a three and a half hour flight away as opposed to some of the Long Hall flights from us which are around 14 to 20 hours long you know so I think uh there a lot to look forward to in this region and uh hopefully you know probably build my network here and you know uh have something tangible in the

know uh have something tangible in the next four or five years absolutely do you mind expanding a little bit on the background noise the you know call out there that you had around the education or living in the US that is not existent in the UA can can you expand on that a little bit sure I can get into the elaborate details so for example in the US some of the courses that are taught there are basically handson learning uh and uh it's not like very hands off as in how we learn more Theory and stuff in our Bachelor and then just execute and try to you know um mug memory reproduce that's what they like to call it in the Indian system we don't

to call it in the Indian system we don't have that kind of system in the US nor do we have it in the UAE because they try to copy the US system to a vast majority of the degree so like basically on on most occasions you know like all of the systems built around this institute or this campus is very handson learning as in they have to get their hands dirty they have to talk to people they have to learn about collaboration they have to learn to work in Dynamic teams there are many different uh uh you know organizations that enable you to get culturally adapted to the region so on and so forth so uh I would say that overall the learning curve that you gain from an Institute like this is

from an Institute like this is tremendous like I've met over 70 to 80 nationalities here in The Institute and it definitely sometimes you know people come up to me and they're from this particular country which I've never heard of so that's something which you don't often get in uh India right so that's uh that was the DraStic change like that I noticed as and when I was you know moving across different disciplines different countries different domains uh you tend to meet people who are absolutely phenomenal and tremendous in what they like like talk or know things about so it's always good to learn something new from every individual you know what I mean so it's it's been a great uh learning curve for me as well as the people around me so

me as well as the people around me so that that's how I feel like the education systems around these places since it's highly selective they make it more more um you know open-minded to learn from one another and uh uh they try to in incorporate many different lines of thinking and you know it's a it's holistic development at the end of the day makes sense thanks for laying that out that that all makes much more sense now and I guess I'm curious would you and obviously there's really no way for you to know this but do you think your experience would be different if you were not affiliated with you know a really Global brand like NYU say you went to a university that's more local does not have that you know as I said brand value or aura that um NYU has do

brand value or aura that um NYU has do you think your experience would be different and I'm only asking because for somebody that's also considering a move such as yourself would you say they would be better off sticking to like a known brand of University or do you think there could be Merit in you know UA itself uh irrespective of the other brand that you attach yourself to yes that's a great question Naman thank you for that I would 100% say most people Bank upon the brand value or that NYU has created obviously it's an Institute that has established a while back probably 140 years ago so of course there's like a lot of name and fame revolving around the university and uh how you know people perceive things but I think it's an individuals effort at the end of the day as to how he projects

the end of the day as to how he projects himself or markets himself in order for him to be able to get the next opportunity in line so I think uh yes definitely it makes a lot of difference but at the same time as you climb up you know like institutes and stuff you also have a big component called the human ego that comes into picture so you may not get the whole real taste of you know having to uh you know like experience something full-fledged in in in in all likeliness if you know what I mean so it's like uh yeah ultimately I was at a state Institute before this in Louisiana so I definitely did see a stark contrast and a stark difference in the terms of thinking capabilities and uh how uh you know these this kind of move makes a

these this kind of move makes a difference in your resumés or your CVS uh because people want to look at how adaptable you are you know they don't want you to stick to rigorous curriculums or rigorous structures that are going to make you comfortable or that are going to make you you know uh well wor with the system so they kind of look at these tangible aspects of adaptations that makes a lot of sense especially the what you said around being that part of that growth early on so that you know by the time it really expands and when everyone else is clamoring to get in you will be like oh I saw this you know like 5 10 years ago

I saw this you know like 5 10 years ago and did what I needed to do to get to this point where right now I don't need to you know clamor I guess or you know be involved in this huge rush to get in so that makes a lot of sense but um having spoken with other guests on this podcast it's been clear to me and by my own experience as well that um anytime you move to a new place not everything is sunshine and Roses any new place brings with itself struggles challenges that you need to adapt to as you said you know in your quest for being uh for

you know in your quest for being uh for proving that you are indeed an adaptable person on your resume um and I guess and even outside of your resume really in your just every life so what were some of the bigger or more notable probably UAE specific challenges that you faced when you first moved and I guess any call outs around how um you worked around them or any hacks or tools that helped you work through them would also be extremely beneficial yeah sure that's also a great question to address so basically as we all know U like UAE is has its uh like you know limitations so some of the apps that you tend to use in the US don't necessarily work here in the UAE so you basically have to resort to uh you know another app called btim to make calls so you know WhatsApp doesn't necessarily work

know WhatsApp doesn't necessarily work here which is one of the biggest hurdles because I used to talk to my family on a daily basis in the US uh for in terms of living and other things I don't think I had much of a transition uh moving to the Middle East because I had already lived in the US so the driving system is pretty much the same it's left hand driving here as well so all I had to do was just convert my you know Louisiana License and I was I ended up with a UAE driving license so there's nothing much in terms of like accessibility mobility and stuff but yes the public transportation here isn't the best so I

transportation here isn't the best so I think that's something most of the people like to touch upon they really don't have a great Metro System in Abu Dhabi as compared to Dubai so some times commuting from one Emirate to another makes it a little challenging of course it's very similar to some of the US states like for example if you take uh North Dakota or you know I don't know Iowa they probably don't have good uh uh Metro systems as well so it's like any other US state that you can you know picture which is not as developed as one the ones on the East Coast or the ones on the west coast so yes uh there is of course uh um many more merits than demerits here uh since it's also taxfree money so there's of course like a lot of

money so there's of course like a lot of lucrative opportunities for people here to grow their businesses and to you know adapt themselves with the changes in market and uh whatnot so your PhD program does it come with a stipend or yes so on an average and I'm sure you have other peers that also have have enrolled in similar you know PHD programs would you say that you save a decent amount of money at least compared to the US where as like right now in your PhD student life and I'm not talking about once you start working because obviously that's a separate conversation but you said housing was free you said um there's most other amenities are very readily available so financially would you say that it's pretty sustainable to be there on a as a

pretty sustainable to be there on a as a PhD student 100% yes we I'm probably one of the top 1% of the PhD students in the globe to be saving money during a PhD and uh I'm sure I can bet on that because I've seen a lot of students struggling in the US exactly that's what prompted the question yeah you hear about it all the time there's like oh I'm so broke and I'm doing all of this research I'm working 60 hour weeks and I have no money to show for it it's unfortunate but common you know yep that's something you don't experience here you're really really really pampered with a lot of money and you have basically all the amenities available to you at your disposal so of course there's no questioning about uh

course there's no questioning about uh you know you being broke here I mean if you if you're broke it's just that you don't know how to manage your financial expenses that's it so you could splurge on food you could splurge on travel and even then you'll still have money left and it'll go into your savings that's how it is that's how much you know they pamper you with money and of course it's a growing region so you have to kind of contribute to the growth of the region so it all comes with a price you know what I mean so basically you do work you kind of excel at what you do and then

kind of excel at what you do and then you'll eventually reap the rewards so which is what ended up happening to me and I was very lucky and fortunate in that regard um of course there's uh uh like some disparity between the pay scales of other people uh with different depending on the nationalities and stuff so there's of course a passport part passport based income so yes you do see some differences that exist within companies but overall in an academic system or an academic Institute I don't think any of these uh changes like you know it affects us because it's all Merit based at the end of the day you go through a rigorous set of academic selection and whatnot so yes um yeah I would say it's a cherry on the top of a cake because you do end up saving money

cake because you do end up saving money amazing that's that that all just sounds so so great um and I guess so to dial it back a little bit to the to what you said about the passport B based um compensation system can you expand a little bit on that and basically in the context of what are one's prospects once they graduate or once they're ready to enter the you know job market what are the prospects like in the UAE and you could possibly maybe just oppose that to the system in the us where we know there's you know you get 3 years if you're on a stem and then you have your EDB Lottery and then you kind of you know keep it's you know a lottery but once it's picked you kind of have to keep renewing every 5 years or so but

keep renewing every 5 years or so but what's like the system in the UA that one can expect is the norm for most people that go there for you know higher education not just PhD but maybe even masters with the intention to live and work there so basically it's very uh great to see them even offering opportunities for people to have a 10year residency Visa here which is called a golden Visa so some of them if they've graduated their MERS from a UAE Institute or a bachelor from a UAE Institute are eligible to this upon graduation because they qualify as highly meritorious people in the country so they are you know kind of wanting the exper population to stay and not you know drift between places so that's a scheme that they have introduced here in

scheme that they have introduced here in the UAE in the recent past it's called Golden Visa if people are interested they can check it out uh of course there's a lot of scope for people pursuing Masters as well uh in terms of how the research capabilities could uh enhance growth and uh yes I would like to point out one thing that is a little uh different from the US here it's in terms of research uh you know growth the research growth here happens quite slow as opposed to the US sometimes deliveries take up to you know uh 20 days 30 days whereas in the US you have all of these top companies like Amazon you know Alibaba and things that deliver products to you at at a at a JY that you

products to you at at a at a JY that you fail to realize once you leave the US you know so that was the biggest contrast for me you know in getting deliverables here secondly it's still a growing country us is established it's been there for 400 years UAE is just 52 years old so of course there's going to be differences and uh uh civilization aspects that people have to take into consideration before moving to the country so like uh this point was touching upon like passport privilege not a lot of people have that here but whereas in the US people have it people like you know even uh immigrants are you know offered these green cards and ultimately citizenships and whatnot so of course there's a slow due process

of course there's a slow due process like you know you go go through the stem opt then you have 3 years of that then you either are getting picked for H1B or not so here that system isn't there as of yet they just have something called Golden visa and that's uh what most people end up taking here there's also another 5-year Visa program which I'm not totally aware about if people want to learn more about it they can visit the Immigration and Customs portal website for the UAE and learn a lot of information pertaining to that absolutely and so did sounds like if you are a general student you are and if you you know are are a skilled worker you

you know are are a skilled worker you will likely be able to stay and work in U for you know the foreseeable future is that is that right or not really yes that is right of course us has some it's a it's another League of its own in terms of how many companies it has and how many startups it can cater to and you have to realize that the land mass of us is also huge whereas UA is not as huge as us it's barely like like a county like Houston it's as big as Houston probably so you know there's also like this aspect of companies slowly starting to develop themselves in the UAE and already well established companies in the US so there's of course not that big diaspora of companies that you can get into

of companies that you can get into there's still some level of advancement that the UAE needs to build upon in terms of how they can establish companies uh how to diversify themselves into different domains and they're using UK and us as a role model to kind of build the framework but they're not there as of yet you can already see that there's like internet City that have companies like Vio uh Google Microsoft Nokia and many of the other uh well established us companies and they also uh kind of uh are building upon many of the biotech uh spheres of companies like you know the ones that are in Boston there's also lot of uh non-te companies as well that are erupting like construction and uh Aviation Aviation is Big here so it

Aviation Aviation is Big here so it depends really on where the person wants to see themselves uh you know in the next uh uh four or five years down the line or probably a decade down the line if they want to lead a very comfortable life and want to have families UAE is the place to be continuing on that same you know UA is the place to be kind of direction to this segment I I guess um having liveed there and obviously as as somebody that I'm sure has done a good amount of research you know before you pull the trigger to actually go there um what are some I guess what just for we can maybe break it up into like two parts but basically what are some generally well-known indicators that

generally well-known indicators that make it very clear to you that UAE is in fact you know the probably the most fastest growing uh you know city or country or place to be really in the world and then maybe you could add on to the end of that maybe a couple things that you didn't realize or you didn't find in your research but that was made evident once you actually move there that's when you realize that oh that this wasn't even marketed to me but because of that thing it makes me even more confident that you know this is where the most growth is at so BAS basically there were many indicators or factors for me first thing being my family was here for a while like I'm not new to the UAE uh basically my family

new to the UAE uh basically my family was in the UAE from 1990s till the early 2000s just before all of the boom happened so we were already well vered with the country we were well vered with the loss aspect B was the fact that I was going to get a lucrative paycheck without taxes and one of the biggest hurdles or drawbacks for me in the US was lumps some amount of taxes that they Le on you for the wages that you get there so that was of course a short short decision for me to move to the UAE and it was just something that could help me you know diversify my options and build a bigger Network in a different country get to know

different country get to know perspectives get to know the language learn the culture Etc so that was of course a um I would say a move I made after a lot of consultation with my parents and some of the friends that had already been here and nobody really gave me any kind of like red flags towards this place everybody's like yeah go there you're going to really love it and they're not wrong I like it it's a very comfortable life uh it's uh it's not like the best for me because uh you know the weather is one of the downsides of the UAE uh so of course but it's it's it's like you kind of feel like you're you're living in a Dreamland I would say because you literally have everything at

because you literally have everything at your disposal you know what I mean especially at a place like uh New York University Abu Dhabi everything is your so and I had always been reading good reviews about how Middle East is one of the most safest places to move to how to you know have like this lifestyle uh of comfort and I always thought this was all like you know uh something made up and only when I came here I realized like wow I'm getting really treated very well uh in fact they sent me like a Cadillac to come pick me up from New York to the JFK Airport I'm like what am I what is this is this is this like some kind of royalty and they even got me like another Cadillac here to pick me up from

another Cadillac here to pick me up from the Dubai airport so you know you get treated like royalty here and of course you have to give it back uh equally to them like that's why I'm very very very grateful for the opportunity that I have got here and uh uh yeah I would always commend and recommend this place for anyone looking to pursue a higher education UAE in general that's so incredible and yeah I mean I would also be very flattered by um you know Cadillac picking me up to and from the airport so can definitely relate to that and surely how happy that must have made you um on that same note what's the culture like in the UA so you hear a lot of things online and but I don't know

of things online and but I don't know what to trust anymore so I'm just going to ask somebody that's lived there I guess um in in terms of you know how the people are or how your interactions go with strangers usually and maybe you can touch on so I know you're a big Runner you're you've probably ran more marathons than any other person that I know so maybe you could uh even touch on a little bit on that community that I'm sure you would have built there even though we didn't get really get to connect that on that offline when we were talking about this episode but really curious to hear you know like the ground reality of the people there and the interactions and the culture and how

the interactions and the culture and how it all ties together in that particular area I think by far the population in the UAE are called emiratis emiratis are some of the most hospitable people you can come across so they have a lot of these cultural events like uh Ramadan and uh Eid which they invite you home for their functions and celebrities so I've had some of the best cultural experiences in my lifetime here in the UAE a lot of people called me home for ifar and you know they give me sweets of course I'm I'm vegetarian so I don't really touch the meat but there's always like you know some delicacy that they offer there's a delicacy called lat which is like sweet rounded dough balls

which is like sweet rounded dough balls so you know uh fried fried dough balls so basically you know like there's a lot of cuines and lot of dishes that these people offer and as as I told you I'm like just an expat here and the kind of treatment I get I feel like it's my country that's how crazy it is like the way people around this region treat you they treat you with a lot of respect and it's almost it almost feels sad to even you know not be part of this country you know not not be one of the emiratis because they treat their citizens with absolutely a lot of respect the country does that and of course the citizens them themselves in turn treat the people

them themselves in turn treat the people who are coming to the region with a even lot more respect and Hospitality so the number one aspect for me here was the hospitality I did not have a culture shock at all they made me feel at home that's what I would like to say you know I was like oh I don't know Arabic how am I going to survive here well people don't speak Arabic here they speak English it's almost like 90% of the population are experts so they kind of have some means of communication you know via English even the so another culture shock for me here is I don't have to book a cab on Uber I don't have

have to book a cab on Uber I don't have to book a cab on lift I just go outside and there are tax is waiting for me so you can just grab on grab a taxi and go take it wherever you want because it's by the meter so they don't even have that opportunity to you know dup you or cheat you and I don't think a lot of countries can offer a safety mechanism that UAE offers for its citizens and for its experts so that's the major major takeaway for me is hospitality and the way they treat a newcomer who's looking comeing here looking for opport unities to grow looking for opportunities to you know start something new start something a fresh that's a major take and then can

a fresh that's a major take and then can you tell me about how the healthcare works so I know in the US it's probably the least redeeming factor for the US like it's I haven't met a single person that's like oh it's so great um it's actually not it's pretty it's really messed up actually even compared to India which is shocking but yeah can you I have actually no idea how that works in the UA so do you mind touching on that sure um that's another areaa which I am very very very incredibly fortunate uh to be happily boasting about it UAE has the health best healthare and uh yeah it's it's at very affordable rates I am again at the fortunate uh uh umbrella of The Institute which takes care of my health insurance so I don't really know what it

insurance so I don't really know what it seems like to not have a health insurance I have come across tourists and people that always make the statement saying that it's mandatory for them to get healthare from their home country in order to visit UAE because they don't want any hicups you know when they are in this region yeah so of course uh my health care is covered throughout internationally because I'm a global PhD student so even when I'm going on conferences or any of these other agendas that I have to partake in being a PhD student you know we get to um present our work or research work at conferences or poster presentations and things like that which may be in other countries so the healthcare aspect of uh my individual well-being is taken care of by the university and again I'm very very

university and again I'm very very grateful for that so I have been to a CLE Clinic here called Cleveland Clinic it's from Ohio well they have a Cleveland Clinic Ohio uh Branch here in Abu Dhabi it's called Cleveland Clinic abudhabi and and uh they have some of the best Services here uh in this country that I've seen nothing to complain about uh the only maybe minor complaint is some of the times it becomes very difficult to get an appointment with them uh but apart from that there topnotch Healthcare here as we are from Bangalore we have seen the kind of healthare that's there in our city as well it's very good and it's very uh you know some of the best doctors are in Bangalore and my mom is also a doctor there so I know a little bit about how Healthcare works

little bit about how Healthcare works and uh how you know uh it's uh developing at a rampant pace and uh God bless I've had a very good life I really uh have no complaints regarding the uh Administration the doctors and clinicians and uh uh whatnot you know that the university has to offer of course there is a health center within the Institute and but they don't have like specializations you know so you have to go kind of resort to clinics in order to be uh you know able to understand if you have complications or you know surgical procedures that you have to undertake I've had a few friends who had to undergo that so yes uh everything is taken care of them taken care by them I guess I'm pretty close to

care by them I guess I'm pretty close to the end of all the questions I had I just thought of one though which I like you could call that you know just like a stereotypical IAL nonsense question but have you seen any extravagant displays of wealth that the UA is famous for like you see these memes with uh you know shakes riding around in Lamborghinis with cheetah in there sitting in the shotgun is that a thing that happens at all or or have you personally seen anything just a display of wealth such as that yes of course I mean there's a lot of uh you know flaunting of wealth that happens in Dubai mostly it's not an Abu Dhabi thing it's mostly a Dubai

Abu Dhabi thing it's mostly a Dubai thing so they just you know have these bji cars they just drive around in these bji cars and you know like you know gas the engine you know like basically just uh it's just a display of wealth and trust me the locals don't do it it's mostly the XA community that does it locals are amazing they're like they're always humble and down to earth that's what I've noticed so whatever the media displays is basically mostly the population who are you know dressed in that traditional attire that you see so yeah like I've been to some local emirati houses and oh my God even if they have a G wagon or like a big uh Mustang or you know like a Lamborghini they're not the ones showing off you know they would in fact offer you a ride

know they would in fact offer you a ride to wherever you want that's how they are they're amazing at Hospitality so the ones that you see on media are mostly non-locals that's all I I would I would 100% say that actually there was someone who was recently in trouble for you know going to a showroom and you know just throwing money at uh some people and basically asking them which Ferrari he wants you know like he's like I'll buy that one I'll buy this one and he was recently in trouble for that so of course it's not it's not it's not what the amirati population is about they're about culture they're about hospitality and they're about care for one another and no that's just a bji expa thing kek it's been so great to sit down and you

it's been so great to sit down and you know learn from your experiences and go through all of the amazing change that you've not only seen in your career so far but also to you know uh be able to witness how you've adapted so many times again and again with all the New Frontiers that you've been you know unlocking with your research and your work so hopefully we can continue to remain connected and I'm really really excited for the road ahead for you thank you so much n it's been a pleasure talking to you uh I still remember that time when you know we did like that event on campus and from there till here it's almost been a decade to just put things into perspective and I can't believe that we've stayed in touch over the long hul you know we've all had different Journeys different Pathways

different Journeys different Pathways and you being in Chicago me being in abudhabi you know that's how well connected we are and Technology enables that and I really hope to do you know more podcast or more collaborative things with you and your team involved and I'm happy to be speaking to you guys uh I'm happy to be on this show and I really hope Ready Set do reaches greater uh leagues and uh you know milestones and one day I should be you know proud enough to say that hey you know what you go watch a show I was a speaker on it and that's that's the kind of framework

and that's that's the kind of framework you know that we uh you know come from you know Bangalore is so Innovative so welldeveloped and uh yeah hoping you know something clicks out of this someone's inspired someone makes a life decision you never know what a voice can lead to you know you know that's just 100% I could honestly use those past 30 seconds as a straightup testimonial for exactly what I stand for and what I'm doing this for which exactly is what you just said is to have one person organically listen to this and be informed really and then they can choose to do whatever obviously not neither of us are trying to coax them into doing anything but to have access to those facts I think goes a really long way and yeah touching on

really long way and yeah touching on your point about um our association for more than a decade it's just so interesting and also to your previous point about you know LinkedIn like a lot of people just you know will not say nice things about LinkedIn they'll be like oh it's the worst of all the social medias people just go there to boast and a part of that is true I guess but like look at your experience you would never have found out that opportunity that really literally life-changing opportunity if it wasn't for LinkedIn we probably would have struggled to remain connected that's just how adult friendships go right like it's just difficult to message somebody and be like hey how are you you know

and be like hey how are you you know that's just not how that works but if you are connected professionally if you're following somebody's career I feel like that's that's actually even better or even an even tighter coupling than that you know sharing reals or you know randomly messaging once every two years or whatever type of friendship so really appreciate the amazing um Network honestly that you've built on LinkedIn I was looking at the sheer number of you know connections and followers you have and I know that stuff is not easy it takes a lot of dedicated hard work and time to to get to that point so yeah kudos to you man and yeah as I said really really appreciate you taking the time and looking forward to um

time and looking forward to um continuing to watch you grow and Excel thank you Nan that brings us to the end of episode 12 of The Ready Set to podcast man these numbers really do rack up I would like to thank you all for sharing these conversations with those that continue to benefit from them if you would like to support me the easiest way to do that is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and by leaving me up to a festar rating on Spotify my DMs on Instagram are always open for any feedback and guest recommendations at ready. ready. set.2 catch you all in the next one new episodes every Wednesday