Aishwarya Francis
Cut me some slack while I try penning down my emotions being away from home. NRI or not, Malayalee or non-Malayalee everyone knows what it feels like moving away from home at some point in their life. It’s inevitable. Here are a few things NRI Mallus miss the most about the gulf.
1. The food
While people form cliques based on similar interests, playlists and sports, NRIs bond over food. Talk about walking down all the massive aisles to the exact spoke you know you’re going to find that Oman chips or Almarai’s laban you were looking for.
And I bet you this. Ask any NRI kid how different the chocolates, chips, of the same brands taste in India and back home. We will spend hours convincing you that there is indeed a difference. In all honesty, it’s almost like the blue and black/ golden and white dress that went viral or explaining to someone that a specific colour they see may not be the specific colour you see for the same colour. Most people wouldn’t get it.
2. The Shawarma
That’s right. With a capital ‘S’. Mallu or no mallu, check every NRI’s top favorite things about living in the Gulf. Not liking shawarma is not cool for the NRIs. It's unimaginable.
3. Smooth roads without traffic
The first week I moved to Bangalore, I noticed there weren’t any motion-sensor camera monitors on the highway, which is a common sight on the highways back home. Now I know why. Leave the roads being all smooth for fast driving, with all the vehicles and bickering happening on the roads, people here need to home two hours prior to the schedule! Oh, how I miss the most are those long drives with Jim Reeves or the Beetles playing in the background, down smooth highways with no worry of running into a ditch or an animal running at you.
4. The Khareef season
Believe me when I tell you this, Khareef is the most beautiful time of the year in Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
Khareef is a colloquial term used in Arabic for the monsoons. The months of July to September fill the mountains with colour and the wadis (a valley that channels water for later storage) with water.
5. Adhan/Azaan (call to prayer)
This one right here hits me right in the feels. I remember going up to the terrace at exact 5 when I know it was soon time for the Adhan ( it’s the mandatory call to prayer for the Muslims, which happens five times a day) and I would listen the chanting of prayers from all four mosques within the proximity as I watch the sunset. Some say they find the constant sound annoying , but although I cannot understand a word, it somehow feels magical.
6. Scents of the Gulf
Oh man! This one takes a personal hit. Being someone who’s heavily dependent on scents for recollection of memories, I hit home the minute someone passes by me, smelling of Attar. It doesn’t matter whether you like the smell or not. You just breathe it all in, the little you get to remind you of wading through corridors filled with shops selling all varieties of frankincense under one roof(the scents of the two are very different, mind you).
7. Petrol prices and Electricity bills
Kids who were lucky enough to get a vehicle and their license(trust me, getting the latter back home is a lot harder than the former) would know the struggle of the fluctuating prices of petrol. It’s only natural that we find the petrol prices so high. The fluctuating electricity bills in India is always a big shocker for me, having two very different bill amounts the very next month.
8. No unnecessary honking business
I 100%, blame it on the Gulf for not being able to the endless peace wrecking honking in India. People honk for no absolute reason here.
It’s almost each driver feels like all that honking is going to part all that traffic like Moses parted the Red sea for folks to pass by. The irony.
9. Generous Curfews
Well this goes without saying. The gulf is a thousand times safer to step out any time of the day. The cities are still alive even after 11 pm.
10. The Lulu mall
Where the world comes to shop. How rightly put. Whether it be the board of the shopping store, or an ad on TV, it takes me a trip down memory lane. What I say now is debatable. While the fact that you can get anything and everything under the sun at this place holds true, my favorite part about Lulu( Well second favorite, apart from the boss-ass feeling you have walking down those massive aisles knowing where exactly to go to find what your'e looking for) is that there’s no way of not bumping into another Mallu you know. You know you’re bound to find someone you know on Friday evenings and well, mot of Sunday evenings too.
No matter how much of a trip down memory lane this blog may be, it’s not the same as being there, just sitting on your bed sipping on some Dew, with not a worry in the world. No matter what people tell me, things like you'll always be considered an expat there and India is your true home, home is where the heart is. And my heart belongs to the Gulf.
P.S: Apart from my archives, pictures uploaded in these posts were shared by friends and family.
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