Walking alone in Gulf - part 2

I was getting ready for the candle light dinner, planned in a 5 star hotel. I wore a red chiffon sari, a red bracelet in my right hand and a watch in the other. It was a very special day for me as I was turning 25. I had gifted myself a platinum ring as the silver jubilee gift and it was blazing in the middle finger of my left hand. Celebration of this day in my own way always gives me a special feeling that I enjoy every year on this day. Today I was living my dream. I was laughing under breathe and thinking about the next few hours. After bare minimum makeup which gave me the title of simple beauty, I looked up in the mirror. It broke my dream. I opened my eyes and then realized that today was my 25th birthday and I was in Abu Dhabi, far from my family and friends. Tears of sadness and loneliness rushed through my eyes. My close ones were not around me to wipe my tears and give me a birthday hug. My mom and dad were not present with me here and I badly missed the way they used to wish me on my past birthdays. This day I needed my family and friends more than I needed them on any other birthday of mine, not because I was alone in Abu Dhabi, but because I was really alone.

I put on the new dress my mom had gifted me and then went to office, like any other ordinary day. My days in Abu Dhabi were going good; I had stayed in a 1 BHK serviced apartment and used to prepare my lunch and dinner every day. Sometimes I roamed here and there to browse the city all alone by myself, and did lots of shopping. As soon as I logged onto my machine, I saw more than 80 mails in my inbox and few were still coming. Few pings on chat also lightened my mood. I had also received 3-4 calls on my cell phone, which used to be silent since months. It all gave me immense relief for few minutes. Still I felt lonely, as this was not how I had dreamt of my 25th birthday. After distributing few chocolates to my team mates and the client with whom I interacted frequently, I left early for the day, dropping a “signing-off for the day” mail to my team.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi is mostly populated with people across the globe, especially from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Philippines. All the working class people are mainly from the above countries and all the top level executives and VVIP people are the descendants of the Arab and Britain. People genuinely follow all the rules and disciplines be it the traffic or the general. In my hotel, the reception area was around 15/10 feet, and you could see 10 CCTV cameras in such small vicinity. Two were planted from the hotel authority and rest 8 were from the crime department of Abu Dhabi and other emirates of UAE. That day I got to know why UAE is among the top countries where crime rate is low and women are very safe. If we see the food habits, then you would find almost all variety of the non vegetarian food, one can think of. As I was there in the holy month of Ramadan, so could see "Haleem". It’s a special dish which is made by putting camel (now a days they don’t use camel as if you kill any camel they will charge/punish you equal to, if you kill any human)/chicken in the container with some water, flour and other ingredients, it takes hours to prepare, so that the main crux of the camel/chicken thoroughly mixed in the flour. If you eat it then you won't feel like eating anything for the whole day.

From office, I went to a mall and purchased birthday decoration items, a gift for myself, a cake, soft drinks and desserts. Before dusk, I was ready with Sāmbhar, Dum Aloo and Rice. Along with that the hall was also decorated with all the birthday decoration items. My team mates joined me for the celebration. I had invited them to my birth day party in that sign off e-mail. I then connected Skype to broadcast my birthday celebration at my home. My mom, Dad, sisters, cousins and grandparents all were there with me, not virtually but as an integral part of the party. After cutting the cake along with a great birthday bash, we had the dinner. My team mates had given me a memento of “Burj Al Arab”(world’s most expensive and controversial hotel till date). It made me happy, like I used to feel when I was a child and received a gift from the people in the party.The criteria to decide good friend was the size of the gift. I laugh recapturing those moments, as once again I was feeling like same child. I was really happy as my day ended beautifully. That day I realized one truth of life, “You are the only one who is responsible for your own happiness, and no one else is responsible.”

Road was completely filled with the luxurious cars. Rolls royce, Porche, Audi, BMW, Benz, Bentley, Land Cruiser and all the expensive cars/SUV's which I had not seen in a row together on the road. I realize now why I am so crazy about my first car. I have done a lot of research for my first car (after seeing these many cars in UAE); which of course will not be the one I have listed here, but certainly I would hope to have one of these someday. After browsing the store once again for the purse I wanted to have for my sister, I saw my watch. It was showing time as 10:30 PM, I surprised how on earth I din't realize the time. I quickly wrapped up my shopping and then came outside. Instead of taking a cab, I preferred to walk, there was soothing breeze flowing around, and sky glittered with moon and stars. I was walking alone in gulf and thinking about my life. I always enjoy the time I spend with myself, that walk was one of the memorable walk for me.

I was very excited for my return journey as I was missing my family a lot. Finally I was at the same Dubai airport, this time I was much familiar to it and least interested in intently gazing things around me. I was again in the same Emirates flight, but luckily this time I had a window seat, and I could see Burj Khalifa (One of the tallest buildings of the world) from there, top view of it was awesome. It(Building) looked like, the petals of flower spread in the garden. Few hours later, I landed in Hyderabad and next day I fly back to my home town, where my Dad, Mom and Sis all were counting every minute, when my flight got delayed for 30 minutes. Those moments of meeting with family, I can't describe here. Those were very emotional and precious moments which I don't want to do injustice, by writing it down here.

When I am writing this series of posts, I have drifted back to the same zone. I now again want to go to UAE, I want to enjoy those weekends/sometime weekdays drive to malls, new places, shopping, watching limited indian channels on TV, traffic, culture etc. Whatever it was, I really had a great time. I had a great time with MYSELF.

Journey in desert ends.

Walking alone in Gulf - part1

It drizzled mildly that evening all the way until I reached at the superstore from the office. Mom and I had planned to meet there for some shopping related to my business trip to UAE. We both ransacked the store for it and completed our day with all the packing. Soon the day had come when I was supposed to leave for Dubai. Mom, Dad and I were at the Hyderabad International Airport. They both were propped up against the rope which was tied with the purpose of, blocking people beyond the visitor’s area. Lot many expressions were dancing on my parents face. They were very happy, they were proud parents, they were sad, and they were worried about me.

I smiled and then went to collect the boarding pass along with check in of the luggage. My luggage was exceeding the minimum limit, it weighed 50 Kgs. Emirates has limit of 30 Kgs as check in luggage and 7 Kgs as cabin luggage excluding laptop for its international flights for the passengers of economy zone. I had food items which weighed ¾ of my total luggage weight. As being veggie, I was more concerned about my food. I got worried about the luggage weight and beads of perspiration spangled on my forehead. After few minutes of hassle I somehow managed to check in my luggage through my colleagues' bags. After collecting the boarding pass, I came towards my parents to bid good bye to them, I touched their feet, and could see tears prepared to pour down from their eyes but somehow they controlled it to giving me a happy see off. I then went for the immigration check. The guy over there was in his 50’s; he must have been handsome in his early years. I gave him my passport and boarding pass, after which he asked the reason behind my trip. He looked puzzled and gave a brief glance at me when I answered that I was on a business trip. I was about to take out the client authorization letter to show him the authenticity of my answer, but before it he seemed to be least interested in verifying it and said okay in a typical male voice. I silently thanked to one of my friend, who gave me those papers in the morning, which would have landed me in trouble otherwise. I received many calls from my family and friends wishing me happy and safe journey and safe stay further.

While attending to one of the calls, I heard the announcement, "This is the last call for the passengers of flight EK527, please report at the gate no 6". I was wondering when the first announcement was made, then thought I might have lost it. I went to the gate no 6 from where I saw a tunnel which leads to the gate of the air craft. It covered the entire air craft, making it difficult for me to guess which air craft it was. Only on stepping inside I realized that it was Air Bus 320, as I had to cross 3 compartments to locate my seat which was perhaps at the end of the air craft. Inside, I saw a very beautiful air-hostess wearing formal mini skirt and coat, followed by a traditional Arab "Naqab". She looked at me and told me about the extra work, which she had to complete, as the plane was fully packed with the people. Listening to her accent, I guessed she must be British. I nodded and said few words in reply to that talk and then smiled.

The gap between the seats was very less, making it difficult for me to stretch my legs properly. I have heard about Emirates flights that they used to maintain world class standard and they perhaps have been awarded for this, 6 times in a row, but may be an award criterion doesn’t pay much attention to the comfort of passengers in the economy zone. I somehow slipped in that seat and made myself comfortable. After distribution of the complimentary items, another air-hostess came and gave me a menu card, I browsed it to order what I wanted, but to my surprise she came up with the dinner without even taking my order. Later I got to know that they gave the menu card to the customers, to make them aware of the varieties of cuisine available in the dinner to be served. After having the undoubtedly delicious dinner, I saw our current position above Arabian Sea and Muscat was the next country we would fly above. I napped till I heard the final announcement made. As far as I remember, the announcement was something like, "Welcome to the United Arab Emirates, we are now flying above Dubai, which is our final destination. It is Ramadan month and it’s a holy festival here, requesting all of you to respect it and do not eat or drink anything outside. Have a pleasant stay and thank you for flying with Emirates". I peeked from the window, and gave a mesmerizing stare to the view of the city below. It was around 1.30 AM and the first thing that I did is to sync the time of my mobile and watch as per the UAE time. My team mates were seated at some different place. I was scared for some time till I saw one of my team mates coming towards me and then we both headed towards the exit of the plane.

My eyes were wide open when I moved out from the plane towards the airport. It was magnificent and most beautiful airport I have ever seen. I could see the gleams of white light turning to color one, when struggling to come out from the glasses propped up against the stairs and the walls and roofs, making the overall look and feel of airport more amazing. For few minutes I was trying to absorb the beauty of the airport, filled with people from different countries. Among them I noticed few officers dressed in white thawb, wearing a shumagg on their head, supported with the black ogal. Arab people are extremely beautiful and fair. I wished to have a photograph with them, but couldn’t get the courage to ask this stupid thing at the airport, so I went ahead and collected my visa. I then moved towards the immigration counter with a long queue. Dubai being a hub for all the international flights, so it is supposed to be the crowded airport. Queue was equally long at all the counter, so I chose the one handled by a handsome officer among all the counters available. I again started looking towards foreign people and the airport and was changing my gaze from one thing to another frequently as I wanted to soak up everything around me.

I was not at all prepared for this trip, but somewhere I wanted to relax from the current life. I wanted to go to some place where I can live in my own world, without people around me, due to which I had agreed for this trip in a gulf country. While I was lost in reminiscence of my last few weeks in Hyderabad, the officer asked me about my passport and visa. I gained my consciousness when he again repeated it. I provided him all the stuffs, he needed for verification, he then signed my passport. We came outside using the horizontal escalator, first time ever I had seen it. We then hired a cab to Abu Dhabi. I was surprised the most when I saw that, a beautiful Lady was driving it at midnight. I must say Arab government have maintained a high level of trust in its people, that they can roam and do their work in odd hours without being worried about their safety, as safety is being taken care by the government. Hats off to them.

Journey in desert continued ….....