Er ... Maalish

"Hey, this water from the shower is hot!"

"Um ... try turning the tap the other way, maybe that's the cold water."

"Well, this says this is cold water. It's marked blue as well."

"Why don't you try it?"

"OK ... um .... the water is just getting hotter and hotter."

"Er ... maalish!"

Welcome to the Middle East, where the shower has two settings, hot and hotter, and maalish is a word used to smooth over everything when you can't do anything.

"This car is actually driving on the shoulder of Dubai - Abu Dhabi highway!"

"Maalish!"

"The government first declared Eid on Saturday and now is saying it's on Friday! How can you just play around with the Islamic calendar?"

"Maalish!"

"I ordered 7 bananas, you only delivered 6!"

"Sorry, sir ... Maalish?"

(As an aside, you can actually get your groceries delivered to your house, for free. I am still trying to get my head around that one.)

Can this actually work in a Western context?

"Hey! You were supposed to have sent me this report three days ago!"

"Maalish!"

"You want to go for holidays for how many weeks?!"

"Maalish!"

"This blog post has absolutely no point!"

"Maalish!"

A Blessing in Disguise

I am currently in Dubai for a much needed vacation.

Overheard the following conversation between two at Fajr prayer at a local mosque:

Voice 1: Oh, I love coming to the mosque. Look, there's some blessing inside here, inside this community. The prayer is over, but no one wants to leave. Can you feel the rahmat, the barkat, the blessing?

Voice 2: It's just air conditioning. You know it's as hot as a furnace outside, that's why you don't want to leave ...