Abu Dhabi residents share how and why they make time for sports after work

Last updated: November 10, 2026 | 09:15

Abu Dhabi professionals share what brings them together, and they return to play. Image courtesy, Aman Parmar, Nilanjan Dutta.

The road to finding friends in a new city is jagged, and perhaps a little zigzag. Sometimes you change course midway, or maybe the road branches out into several paths and there’s a friend waiting for you at the end of it.

Possibly, near a football pitch, a badminton or a padel court.

For the love of the game and friendship

It’s the case for Abhijit Saha, among many others, who arrived in Abu Dhabi in 2024. "I belong to Kolkata, so I connected to a Bengali group, and so the Bengalis would gather to play," explains Saha, who works as VP in the Emirates Development Bank.

The game was badminton. However, friendships move quickly when sport is involved, and he ran into Nilanjan Dutta.…