Well I made it a point to go by there. It's run by an Arab Gentlemen in his late 70s who as a young man worked for the British in India. He has working for him a number of Indian staff who can read and write in Farsi, English (to a certain degree) French, Arabic and a dozen Indian/Pakistani languages. They mainly translate between the various languages and type out the material on manual Royal typewriters and battered IBM selectic machines. They use a 90 Mhz, 10 year old computer for email and have a host of dictionaries.

A quick sample of those in there were; an Indian worker from Hyderbad writing a letter in English (he doesn't speak it) to a bureacrat in India to excuse his family from maintaining a well, another Baluchi sending a message to an iman near his home to check on his aged parents and a Gujarti seaman seeking employment on a East African bound ship.

Interesting place

If you are ever in Dubai look for Salam al-Hija's Typing service, off A;-Wasl road near the Women's prison. Right next to the restaurant of some note, the translated name being, "Palace of those Chickens".

Not a bad tasting chicken I might add.