Remembering when it all started. Exactly 23 years back.
Finally the day has come when I will be leaving for Saudi Arabia after exactly two months 3 Feb. 1993 night. I was suppose to fly on 3 Dec. 1992 but unfortunate incident of Babri Masjid happened and I had to wait in the burning Bombay, that's a different story, I will narrate it sometime later, today let's concentrate on the beginning of a new phase in my life. Travel to the Gulf.
I was very happy as well as very nervous. Happy because I always wanted to come to Gulf for the work, Nervous because, I did not had any idea about Saudi Arabia and N number of cheat stories of how people got cheated in pretext of getting jobs in Gulf, to make it worse whole lot of Hindu visas were been canceled after the Babri Masjid incident, we were few lucky people whose visas were not canceled.
On 3rd night I reached Bombay International airport. That was the first time I was about to travel in the flight. Gulf Air to Riyadh Via Abu Dhabi, around 3 hours break journey.
Coming from smaller place Nagpur, Bombay always fascinated me, big buildings, beaches, big roads, fast cars. I reached the International airport, if you remember the very old terminal, box building with nice arches, the departure was at the first floor and the road would directly lead to the first floor, I was quite impressed with that architecture. I reached a couple of hours ahead of the scheduled time, beginning of Feb. decent chillness was there in the air, before I was allowed enter the concourse I was roaming around outside, to keep myself warm I must have had 4-5 cups of tea. I reached the Immigration, double checked, triple checked all my documents before entering, there were lots of labor class passengers wandering around, looking somewhat confused state, Security guys after checking my papers, guided me towards the immigration counter handing the immigration forms, after filling my forms, I also helped filling the forms for 3-4 other passengers, between these labors I could see one decent face, who was approx of my age, looked much matured and composed, we exchanged a couple of smile whilst helping filling the forms, didn't knew that next two years every day I will be spending with this guy and he will become one of the best memories of my life, and I will be learning so many thing from him, meet Sachin Walwaker.
We were inside the flight and Sachin was seated next to me, we still did not exchanged conversation, just a smile.
We had a break journey at Abu Dhabi, flight was suppose to take off after 3 hours, we were allowed to roam around at the duty free area, ok duty free was new concept for me at that time. Coming from Bombay airport which was very flat but quite functional airport to Abu Dhabi airport, I was about to get my first shock which would be followed by shock after shock for next 7-10 days. BTW I am talking about pleasant shocks. Yeah! I enter the duty free area of Abu Dhabi airport, Cute little but beautiful area, I was amazed to see such a beautiful architecture, I was awed. Just 8 terminals, a central column from the center spreading to the circumference, with two colored hexagons spreading blue and white, from the centre small blue hexagons traveling towards circumference with increasing size and from circumference white small hexagons traveling towards centre with increasing size, beautifully done. Sparkling neat and clean with glittering shops and cafes. I was thinking was this for real, can anything be so beautiful, I didn't know what's up next. Riyadh airport.
At the Duty free area, with Sachin I interacted much more than a smile, I guess we had coffee together, but still did not exchanged personal details.
Landing time at Riyadh airport. We came out of flight, enter the concourse........... Jaws dropped, eyes become two inch bigger, did not wanted it to blink, I couldn't believe, I was not dead and this is not heaven. Very high ceiling, if Abu Dhabi duty free was glittering this was 10x glittering. Huge massive golden palm trees, escalators, marble flooring, massive columns, bright lights, beautiful palm trees and sparkling clean.
Finished our immigration, Jacob was waiting for us, now I came to know that Sachin is also joining the same company. We got into Jacob's car, Toyota Camry, after traveling in Bombay Kali Pili taxi, this was unbelievable, huge leg space, comfortable seats (no metal spring piercing my bum) nice music. We came out of parking space to the main road, Jacob was greeting us and was and enquiring about the journey, but I was not at all interested in his talk, all I was looking was out of the window, blazing speed (140 kmph) the car was travelling, at this speed other cars goes zip and overtaking us, 6 lane roads, smooth roads and the huge massive sodium vapor lights which were lighting up the roads, looked like a golden necklace.
We reached our villa, where all the arrangements were made for us, on this same day there were another 15 odd staff from India were joining the company, me and Sachin were the only two non mallus, so it was decided that we share the room together. When we started our journey from Bombay the temperature was approx 20 degree and then all thru we did not had any idea what is outside temperature as we were traveling in air conditioned area, though when we landed in Riyadh airport they announced the outside temperature but we completely ignored it. As we were settling down slowly the cold started catching us, outside temperature was 4 degree and it was effing freezing, we immediately got into the quilt which was provided to us, though there was a bit of relief but it was still very cold, those days no mobile phones, no land line at home, no emails, no internet and no google, to communicate about our safety we were suppose to write letter, but it was so cold that our fingers were frozen and we could not hold the pen and write. Office was pretty warm, but when we reach our room it was very cold, assuming everyone must be facing the same, we did not discussed this issue with our colleague. This went on for a week, Thursday came, Sachin informed me that he has invited a friend. Sachin's friend came, he came with his daughter approx 7-8 months old, as soon as he came to our room he said "pretty cold over here" Sachin and me just looked at each other and spoke in our mind "effing 4 degree outside, will it not be cold you idiot" Sachin's friend just moved towards the window AC, switched it on and turn the knob to warm......... 15 seconds just 15 seconds the room was WARM, we just looked at each other with an strange idiotic look, friend was there for a hour and left, we send him off and came back to room and both of us speak together "DID YOU KNEW THAT?" "NO", and we were rolling on the floor laughing. Coming from a middle class family both of us never knew that AC do have a warm option too, all we assumed is AC is only for cooling, before coming to Saudi the impression we had was Saudi is a desert country and must be hot and we did not had a single warm cloths and Feb. being the peak of winter.
First week of our visit in Riyadh, we use to walk around the neighborhood to get familiar with place, but we couldn't see people walking around, all we could see people in cars, though it was decently dense residential area, after sometime we started getting bit tense on not seeing people on road, we discussed this with our next room occupant our senior architect Rudy, he said just wait for the weekend and he will take us to Batha where we can see whole lot of people and we will get sick of seeing them. Coming from Bombay and Sachin from Pune we were so use to see people, that too I was coming from Bombay when it curfew hit. Yes, Friday came Rudy took us to Batha a market place where we saw crowds of people, which brought somewhat relief to us.
There is whole lot of things to be shared about our Riyadh stay, Zarir street, Zarir book store, KFC, Batha, Olaiya, foot ball stadium, share taxi, long walks, eat all you can, Zia sir, Ganguly sir, Jacob, our boss and Mahavir.
That's how my Gulf journey started. 23 years still very fresh in memory.
