Leaving the Desert Land..

13th April, 2005 8:00 PM (Saudi Time): Sitting in the Departure Lounge Right now I m sitting in the Jeddah Duty Free, waiting for the departure of the flight which will take me to India…and more than that, take me away from Saudi. Let me tell u, till the time the exit stamp was put on my passport, I was literally shitting in my pants…no particular reason but there is some unknown fear at the back of your mind which engulfs you while you are in this country. There is no one reason which can be called the determining factor, but there is something, which makes u very very scared and post my last incident here, trust me, standing in the queue for the immigration exit wasn’t the most comfortable of feelings. Just before seating myself in a corner seat, I was seating somewhere in the middle of the café in the departure lounge and what a sight it was…four hot females…(hot females…or even females…my eyes are starved!!.)….think Lebanese….tanned skin…and their looks …ah!!! As Bryan Adams would have put it …“ with those undress me eyes” in their body hugging tops and wraps, cigarettes on their lips. U smell nicotine but u also smell something else …maybe freedom…ah..not yet…still an hour to board the flight…maybe anticipation of freedom..maybe anticipation of seeing ur family soon…of meeting your friends.. of having beer going down your throat …the anticipation of that burb…there’s so much to anticipate… But that has to wait….wait for another hour or so…wait for the departure call…wait for me to get in the flight…wait for it to take off…wait to cross the Saudi airspace and finally wait for the flight to land at Delhi and me walk out of the airport, rove my eyes to see Jiju….wave at him and if sis aint there, light a cigarette… Just a night more dude….its coming …TOUCHWOOD…there is no goof up yet again…Till that time let me turn my eyes to see those babies again.. Damn!!! they are gone.. 14th April, 2005 02:05 AM (Indian Time): In the Flight So here I am on Flight No AI 890 to Delhi, still in saudi space but on my way home…on my way to India..on my way to my own country…on my way to friends…to family…to the joi-de-vivre and not just survival….BTW thanks to Air India for upgrading me to Business Class..making it comfortable enough for me to sit and write.. The steward just told me that it’s a cool 45 minutes before we cross the Saudi airspace..hence me thought, lets write something....The last two months that I have stayed in Jeddah have made me think on a lot of issues..Life here was tough…despite the material comforts being much better…True, cars touched 100 kmph regularly, true, the level of food hygiene was very high, true the law and order situation was much better than India, true the traffic jams were much fewer….everything true but even then the heart yearned to go back home…cause the biggest of them all FREEDOM wasn’t there…There was always this feeling at the back of your mind that you are an alien here, this is not your place, you do not belong here, anything might happen…if not anything else, the very fact that you needed to carry your passport every time indicated that you are just a number, you don’t have any identity without it…it all boils down to belonging and freedom and think about it, how casually we take freedom back home. Anyway, life in Saudi was more than just missing freedom; it was also missing the small things in life. To start off with, was the complete lack of friends and family. True, my colleagues were good (sorry Rajit, for fighting so much with you), but fact remains that I never had the luxury of calling anyone from my vast group of friends…Amit, Pattu, Saurabh, Kanods, Pasha, GJ, Jo, Punda, Pats, Aditya, etc etc and saying, “Oye kya kar raha hai…chal milte hain” I missed it like hell, more than missing going out, I bloody missed the option of going out…where do u go here..Malls, Malls n more Malls….n there also you keep your senses bloody awake, least u misbehave or do something which is not what is expected of u in this country… Then there were weekends…probably the most moron weekends I have had, have been in the last 2 months…Shit man…weekend doesn’t mean spending hours in front of the TV watching Mr. Himesh Reshamiya or some semi-nude female gyrating to some obscene remix… Another thing I really missed was obviously my weekend beer…As Nanga Baba told me in the car one day…Its not the drink, it not having the option of having a drink which hurts more…How true… I can go on and on…how things were…how we have just survived but then it’s all an experience…if not anything else, I can tell anyone… Look, I have spend two months in Saudi Arabia…. I can manage anywhere!!!! Hey, the steward is asking for drinks..and guess what I am having…Single Malt..just the perfect drink to raise a toast to Life..!!!!

Mere ghar ke neeche kuan kyon nahin hai???

I aint a car fanatic and if i pit myself against two of my collegues with me here in Jeddah, Pranav and Rajit, I am not even peanuts...but then around two months with them have made me knowledgeble enough to atleast not confuse between a sedan and a SUV and also know some names u shld salivate looking at. But what do u do when u see a dozen such sleek machines in a span of 15 minutes on the road at a time when u r discussing wether u shld buy an Alto or continue travelling in auto for some more time?? Last nite, we were sitting in Starbucks...so far so good...we get down the cabbie and guess whats the car standing next..A yellow Ford Mustang...thik hai dikh gaya..big deal...everyday u see some or the other swanky car here... The real drama started when we just entered the cafe...n look, which car is coming...Audi TT, followed by Porsche, then BMW 7 series, then a Lexus SUV (yeh to aise hi gajar muli jaise dikhti hai but still), Merc SL500, Merc CLK, Porsche again, Nissan convertible, BMW convertible, another Porsche, then Cadillac, Nissan Infinity and as a perfect climax, the last car in the virtual eye feast was a Hummer...there must have been around 12-13 of all these cars combined...bloody dont even remember the names now...and all this in a span of 15 mins...on the road...God!!!! And imagine our situation...4 guys..all IIM grads... sitting in a cafe and salivating...too much..all thinking...(if i put it in blunt hindi)..."kya ukhar liya itna padh ke..itna fite mar ke"....On an optimist note, if the Indian Govt decides to literally zero the duties we just might afford one of the lower priced car among these maybe a Mustang in 15-20 years time but sadly enough on a more realistic note we now that this wont happen.... and then the realization struck us and made us look upward to God and ask... Humare ghar ke neeche (oil ka) kuan kyon nahin hai...?????