Arabian Nights (Part III)

ने मजसी ने परत मातृभूमिला,
सागरा प्राण तळमळला....
भूमातेच्या चरणतला तुज धुता
मी नित्य पहिला होता
मज वदलासी अन्य देशी चल जाऊ
सृष्टीची विविधता पाहू
तै जननीहृद विरहशंकही झाले
परी तुवा वचन तीज दिधले
मार्गज्ञ स्वये मीच पृष्ठी वाहीन
त्वरित या परत आणिन
विश्वसलो या तव वचनी मी
जगदानुभव्योगे बनुनी मी
तव अधिक शक्त उद्धारांनी मी
येइन त्वरे, कथुनी सोडीले तिजला
सागरा प्राण तळमळला....

This poem, written by Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar conveys the emotions he experienced when he was in England, away from his homeland, India.

Arabian Nights (Part II)

Quest

Somebody has to tell you that "Al-Salam Holiday Inn" is a five star hotel, otherwise nobody will believe it. It is not a bad hotel, but compared to five star hotels I have seen in India, I was bit disappointed. Actually, somebody said that it was the only five star hotel :-). (I had not dared to think about how ordinary hotel here would be) But, One good thing was, breakfast was included in the deal, and it has variety of Vegetarian food options (more than its lunch and dinner menu has. Actually, I found only three veg. menus in lunch/dinner : Veg. Fried rice, Veg. Soup, and Pizza Margareta.) In afternoon, we have to take lunch in office canteen where for veggie you will get only rice and sambar. So in night, now it was necessary to search for food (veg) outside. Thus, our quest for food started from Sunday.

Jeddah is very big city, divided in number of districts (sounds strange, but it is the reality). like Al-Thaghar, Al-Kandarah(where our office is located), Al-Balad etc. Pawar (who met me on Jeddah Airport) was living in some hotel in Al-Balad, so we started our search from Al-Balad itself. Al-Balad is basically part of old Jeddah. You can find more than 100 years old buildings there. It is also part where you will find local market which they call Sukh. We roamed around main street of Al-Balad but didn't find any restaurant. Also, we couldn't reach Pawar as he was not in his hotel. After unsuccessful search we returned to hotel and had Pizza.

Next day, we enquired with our colleagues in office (also from India, but was staying here from around 1 month) regarding indian restaurants. They had told that, there are two areas: one is Al-Sharfiyaa, (near to our hotel) where we can find "Chennai Darbar" south indian restaurant. And other area was Azizia, somewhat far but lot of indian and pakistani commuinty are staying there, so we can find good indian restaurants. On Monday we didn't want to go too far, so, that day we went to Al-Sharfiyaa. You can call call Al-Sharifiyaa as very much part of Old Jeddah.

Arabian Nights

"All passengers going to Bahrain from flight number GF 0273 are requested to proceed towards Gate No. 1 for boarding". Airlines lady was announcing it. I was going towards Gate No. 1, somewhat like 'hypnotysed'.

It was like "Dream Come true" for me, first Onsite Trip, first trip outside India. Two times in past "onsite" trip had given me hit-and-miss . Not this time, anymore. I was totally frustrated specially when Singapore trip was cancelled. All preparation was over, and suddenly one morning, shocking news came that project itself is cancelled. It was so rude to me that I was finding very difficult to sustain the shock. Though it is common in service industry, I was new for it. Then, after I came from vacation in January, this Saudi opportunity came. At that time, I told to myself : Till you land in Saudi, don't tell anybody that you are going onsite. People may misunderstood you, but this time don't make fun of yourself, not this time. But fortunately after few hiccups initially other things went fine this time.

And, finally the Day came. I got almost no time for preparation. On Thursday I got Tickets confirmed and on saturday morning I have to leave for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was two stage journey, first Bangalore - Bahrain and then Bahrain - Jeddah. As, this was my first international journey, there was always some anxiety, some fear, some curiosity in my mind. And another thing was, I was going alone, my other colleaggue was coming next day. If he would have been with me, then atleast some company would have been there.

But, fortunately everything went fine. Plus, on Jeddah airport there was one nice surprise. One marathi person, Pawar was in queue ahead of me for immigration. He is garment Exporter for Oxemberg, and is regular visitor to Gulf countries. He told many things about city, food, culture here. I left him at his hotel in Al-Balad and went ahead towards my hotel Holiday-Inn, located in Al-Thaghar.

Taxi driver was from Pakistan (actually most of the taxi drivers here are from Pakistan, other are from either Bangladesh or Srilanka. You will hardly find any Arab taxi driver), he was also telling about culture here. He was living here for more than 15 years, but his family was in Pakistan only. He told that earlier his "kafeel" (Employer or master in Arabik) used to give him 3 months vacation per year, but now he hardly gives a month vacation per year.

In Saudi Arabia, you can't own business, you have to make 50% partnership with local person. (In general none of taxi drivers has nice opinion about Arabs, but still for their "Roji-roti" they have to live here.) He said, it(Saudi Arabia) is like Golden Prison, you will get good salary(enough for living and sending money back home) plus there are no taxes. But, prison is prison.There are lot of restrictions, neither you can't easily go back home nor you can bring your family here hassle-free. Law here is very strict, specifically for ladies, they should always were "Burkha", they can't drive, they can go outside only if they are accompanied with relative man. There is punishment if unrelated man and woman are found together in public. Ans so on.....

I was landed in such country. Forunately, Jeddah has lot of cosmopolitian society, so rules are bit realxed (Unlike Riyadh, capital of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where you will find Muttawa, religious police patroling on roads. I read news in New paper that in Riyadh this Muttawa caught one professor found with his girl studen in hotel). I have to adjust myself to these conditions, specially food. Being vegetarian here is really punishing. Even in Five Star hotel like Holiday Inn I have to struggle to find vegetarian dishes. Let's see what lies ahead in "Arabian Nights".....