Ahlan!
About the podcast. Gulf Daze is a biweekly podcast where Shafaq and Nandini document and reflect on the experience of growing up in the Gulf as non-citizens*, while exploring questions of identity, culture, and migration. Combining personal experience, research, and a dialogue with you, the listener, we hope it will be a vehicle to:
reminisce about those days in the sweltering Arabian heat
discuss the varied and dynamic experiences of life in the Gulf
explore all sorts of topics, from citizenship and labour laws to colonial legacies; from corniche walks to compound life; from international schools to language blues to community celebrations, and much more.
We want to hear your stories, comments, questions, and requests. Do message us here, or at [email protected]
* “third culture kids” / “expats” / “migrants” / “foreigners” - pick your favourite category
About you. Anyone that has ever identified with living in a country that is not their parents’ native country and anyone else interested in this experience. You might have grown up in the Gulf, or spent some of your childhood (or even adult) years there. Maybe you live elsewhere now, maybe you moved back to the region, maybe you never lived there, or maybe you never left.
Whether you’re bitten by nostalgia, processing the present, thinking about the future... or just mildly intrigued... we hope you’ll join us.
About us. We grew up in neighbouring countries in the Gulf (S. in Saudi Arabia, N. in Bahrain) with parents from neighbouring countries in the Subcontinent (Pakistan and India), and we first met as neighbours in a university dorm in New York City. Over the decade+ of our friendship, we’ve shared many conversations and fond memories about growing up in the Middle East. Now we live in different countries again, but the Gulf days still occupy space in our lives, as perhaps they might for you, too.