Saudi Arabia Through My Eyes

Sitting on my hotel room couch and sipping a self made black coffee at 2 AM in the morning, I decided to pen down about my 6 months long stay in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah City.

A lot has already been said and written about the biggest country of the Arabian Peninsula, but today I don’t want to talk about the country’s strict Sharia Law, life of women in the Kingdom, the Wahhabi Islam that is followed in Saudi Arabia or any other controversies and negative opinions associated with this country.   

Today I just want to pen down my experience about this country. Closing the eyes towards the political and economical jargons, the issues and luxuries of the elite and powerful, the mysteries and secrets of the holist place of Islam, I just want to show you this country through the eyes of a 26 year old Non-Muslim commoner.   

Six months back I got official confirmation on the on-boarding for a new onsite project in Saudi Arabia. A new girl was introduced in my current project as my replacement and I was asked to complete the knowledge transfer to her.  Simultaneously with my KT sessions for my replacement, I was also involved in the induction and introductory sessions for my new project. 

Apart from the technical complexities of the project a lot was talked about the cultural sensitivity and restrictions of the country that we were going. Moreover our project manager was a Pakistani Guy and the Data owner of the objects that I was handling was also a Pakistani guy. Because of all the preconceived notions I had, I was just hoping and praying that these guys don’t hate me unnecessarily for just being a Non-Muslim Indian. The recent surgical strikes and the rising tension between the two countries were just adding to my fear.

Keeping the fear aside I was still very excited and happy about my onsite consignment because I believed in the fact that people will be good to you if you are good to them.


Hyderabad To Abu Dhabi (View when the flight was in Indian Air)

Hyderabad to Abu Dhabi (View when the flight was in UAE Air)

So armed with this confidence I boarded my Etihad flight from Hyderabad to Jeddah via Abu Dhabi. Excited about seeing the Abu Dhabi airport in my transit period, I was enjoying my Etihad flight. I landed at the Abu Dhabi airport and quickly connected to the free airport Wi-Fi to do a Facebook check-in (that’s how typical we act sometimes).  I wasn’t having a long transit time so I quickly hopped from one duty free counter to another and proceeded towards the gate for the flight to Jeddah. Near the gate area I met my colleague who was travelling along with me for the same project but he boarded the flight from Bangalore.

At the Abu Dhabi Airport

Abu Dhabi to Jeddah Etihad Flight

After exchanging pleasantries we boarded our flight. Most of the passengers were travelling to do the Umrah and to visit the holy place of Mecca and Madina apart from the few passengers who were travelling for Business or work purpose.    

Before the 3.5 hours flight land at the King Abdulaziz International Airport, I was given an immigration form. The first thing I could read in that form was a sentence written in bold red color “DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICING”. It was that point in time when I realized how strict the laws of the country are in which I am going to land in the next few minutes.

My Immigration Form

 

With an unknown fear in my heart I proceeded towards the immigration desk. The immigration officer asked me some general questions about the purpose of visit and the duration of stay after which he stamped my passport. Post immigrations and customs I collected my baggage and proceeded towards the reception area.

At the reception area I saw a man holding a Name-Card for me. This was the first time someone was holding a Name-Card of my name to receive me at the airport. It was a very good feeling. Though I had travelled internationally before but this was the first time I was travelling for a long stay in a foreign land.

A man holding my name card

So finally I was in my hotel room. It was already late by the time I reached so I quickly freshened up and prepped myself for the next day’s agenda.

At morning 6:30 my alarm started ringing. I dragged myself out of the cozy bed and stood under the shower. I got ready and did my prayers to Lord Ganesha to seek his blessings for this new venture.

That day I attended the kick off meeting in which we announced the official start of our project and introduced ourselves to the client. I personally went and met every possible person on my list of people to meet. Later that day I had a meeting with the Procurement Data Lead (the same Pakistani guy I feared about) and his team. It was a very professional conversation about the list of entities in scope of the project and the schedules and meetings for the coming days.

At 6:30 I left office and came back to my hotel. I had cup of black coffee and hit the gym.
After having my dinner I made a call back to India to talk to my family and I shared all the details of the day with my mom. Though tired, I sounded excited to her but she knew I was tired so she kept the call early and I slept off.

In this way a new routine was defined. With every passing day I got more used to the place, people and my routine. My clients became my friends and the professional conversations turned to friendly discussions.  Work wise we were all professionals but now with a sense of familiarity and friendliness in our work.

We all used to explore new restaurants every day for lunch.  Whether it is Indian, Pakistani, Arabic, Yemenis, Lebanese or Turkish, we tried all types of food. I used to love the Kebabs served in the Turkish restaurant named Ashwag near our office.

My interest in knowing and learning about the various cultures brought me close to my team. I used to love to listen to the stories about the culture, food, beaches and weather of Spain that Marc used to tell, the stories about the Egyptian mummies and pyramids that Ahmed used to tell, the stories about the Kaba and Mecca that Altaf Bhai and Shakoor Bhai used to tell and the stories about the places in Pakistan and its love for Bollywood movies that Hussaini used to tell. Whenever we used to get time we used to have this cross cultural conversation about our countries and what we love about the other countries.  

Eventually every member of my team became my very good friend. Today I wonder how futile were my thoughts and fears about a Pakistani Guy hating an India without any reason.   
Sometimes we even used to talk about Indo – Pak relationship and the misconceptions that still persist about each other back in our countries.
Today the same Pakistani guy whom I feared about has become my close friend.  

The project went on pretty well and we completed our mock loads successfully. It was now time to bid adieu.  
On my last day I we went out for my farewell dinner, gave everyone a warm hug and thanked for the wonderful time we spent together.

Now when I look back at those 6 months, I feel I have a lot to thank about.

Though my tenure was short, I had great joy in working with such a culturally diverse team (I had people from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Spain, Egypt and United Kingdome in my team).  
Each one of them has contributed a lot in making me a better person.  

Life lessons learnt while sipping in Sheesha with Ajaz and the discussion with Hamid Sir on how to balance one’s personal life and work and his powerful one liner on this topic “Work is work and Cup of tea is Cup of tea” are truly note worthy things.

I  didn’t just take with me the professional learning of the project but also took good people and valuable relationships in my life.  
I learnt that every person we work with has a story to tell and it is up to us how we interpret their story and what morals we take from their stories.

My stay in Saudi Arabia taught me one thing, regardless of nationality, cultural diversity and religion every one of us is a human being and every single human being is driven by love and respect.
So whether you are in Saudi Arabia or any other country in this world, whether you follow Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or any other religion, if you are polite and humble to the people around and if you are respectful towards their cultures then you can live and enjoy in any country in this world.