What Abu Dhabi means to those who call it home

At 6 am, before the heat has a chance to settle, the Corniche belongs to the early risers. It is an ordinary day in Abu Dhabi, and it says a lot about the city. ‘I was born here. It's where my story starts,’ said Mohamed Munawwar, Software Developer & Researcher and an Abu Dhabi-born resident.

The newly joined crews and the OGs who build their life here are finding themselves woven into the same community. Abu Dhabi is home to people from well over a hundred countries, and each of them has a version of the city they'd want you to see.

For Advait Bal, a Solutions Consultant, and a resident for two years now, Abu Dhabi is a peaceful and safe city. He said it began to feel like home, through small changes in his routine..‘When I started going around the city without a map, and also when showing around the city to the newcomers, it fell like home.’Advait Bal, Abu Dhabi resident for 2 years.

For young women carving out independent lives, Abu Dhabi can offer opportunities that extend well beyond work and career, a reality reflected in one resident’s story.

‘“The American dream is dead; the UAE dream is on.” That's what I thought when I first saw the city and realised what I could do in it,’ said Elizaveta Vartanian, an Armenian who came to Abu Dhabi in 2023 to do her master's but now, a lecturer.

‘At the time, I thought it would be a chapter of two years, and then I'd see where life took me. And here I am, still here,’ she added.

What Abu Dhabi looks like from the insideFor Munawwar, returning to Abu Dhabi after leaving for higher studies felt less like moving back and more like coming home.

‘You realise how deeply a place is tied to your memories,’ Munawwar said,.‘The first thing I did when I came back was go for the classics: shawarma, hummus, a Francisco and a cup of karak. It sounds simple, but that first bite and that first sip felt like the city welcoming me back.’Mohamed Munawwar, Abu Dhabi-born resident.

But Abu Dhabi, from the eye of a dreamer like Vartanian is poetic. ‘Abu Dhabi is nothing like you imagine if you've never visited,’ she said, emphasising the generic idea a second-hand observer has about Abu Dhabi being a place of desert and skyscrapers..‘I found a city full of nature, greenery and life. It can be almost an island life if you want it, with beaches, mangroves and slow sunsets, and a big city life if you want that instead.’Elizaveta Vartanian, Abu Dhabi resident for 5 years.

Abu Dhabi, in the eye of Bal, would begin along the Corniche, where the city lingers at the water's edge, and perhaps continue to Saadiyat Island. Between them, he said, lies ‘the aesthetic architecture and the overall class of the city.’'That's Abu Dhabi to me'Munawwar recalled the kindness of a baqala owner, who would often give him free juices as a child, assuring he could repay him one day when he grew up. ‘Years later, when I came back from India, I walked in, he smiled and said, “So, big man now?” That’s Abu Dhabi to me. Even as it grows, the city remembers you.’For Vartanian, it was the feeling of a place where possibilities seemed endless. ‘Everything seemed possible here. The city was building, growing and welcoming people with ambition, and I remember thinking: this is a place where you can actually make things happen.’According to her, the city’s diversity is not something to navigate, but something to embrace. As she settled into the city, its diversity became another challenge. Rather than seeing the mix of cultures as something to adjust to, she came to see it as an advantage, things that made Abu Dhabi feel welcoming.

‘In one week, here you can celebrate three different holidays, taste food from five countries and hear ten languages. Where else do you get that?’ she said.

Many residents arrive in Abu Dhabi without their families, creating ‘an openness you don’t always find in other cities,’ Vartanian added.

And while big cities are often described as lonely, she believes community depends partly on what people bring to it. ‘If you want to have a village, you need to be a villager.’A city still being builtAsk residents where Abu Dhabi is headed, and the answers tend to look forward with optimism while holding on to the warmth that defines the city today.

‘When I think about the future, I see Abu Dhabi becoming even more sustainable, innovative and leading in the region and the world,’ Munawwar said. ‘Being part of that through my own work is something I'm grateful for.’But for anyone who wants to know about the emirate, ask Vartanian, who compares Abu Dhabi to a person. ‘I think it would be like a generous older relative: always busy, always building something new, but never too busy to pour you a cup of tea and ask how you've been.’