It was weird - we were at the mall the other day and I felt something was wrong. And this was before Ramadan and the food court being closed until sundown. Nope, something was missing.
I just realized it - Modhesh has left Dubai.
"But what the heck is a 'Modhesh'?" You might ask.
To be quite honest, I'm not exactly sure what Modhesh is. I mean, if he's an animal or mineral (or even a "he", to be quite honest.)
Modhesh is a cartoon character, actually. He's (she's?) the yellow springy mascot of Dubai Summer Surprises. And it was everywhere this summer. Everywhere. Walk-around characters in the malls. Statues. Banners. Plush dolls. I bet it was in ads on TV, if I watched Arabic TV.
See, in the summer there's this festival / fiesta called Dubai Summer Surprises. Pretty much it's the local malls and retailers promoting ... well, going to the mall.
I guess it would have been too easy for them to say, "It's 120 degrees out, we have air-conditioning. Come to the mall."
Instead they have come up with this goofy Modhesh mascot for the kids, and have stage shows and interactive arts-and-crafts time and all of those general mall-esque events for families, to lure them in. Then, "hey, while you're here, buy something!"
But, in traditional Dubai fashion, when they promote something they promote it big. I can't tell you how many times a person would see this Modhesh character in a given day. Pretty much the first thing you see when you get off of an airplane at the airport is Modhesh. They have these huge human sized statues everywhere. Liz has a pretty goofy photo of me and a Modhesh statue at Ibn Battuta Mall that was her phone's background photo for quite a while. I'll try and get it from her.
But now kids are back to school and Modhesh is back into hibernation for another year. Or at least until summer gears up and the malls want to draw in families again ...
