Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Out of place

I never thought I would come to Riyadh in my life, always dreamt about going to US. But my life is like that I never get whatever I dream.
Life here is so boring.
I’ll list down some good and bad things about this place which I felt during the last few days of stay.
Good
Weather: - Right now it’s cool
Roads are really good; the average speed is easily above 90, going at 120 is nothing great.
Get to see latest models of cars. The street I live, there are showrooms of all biggies; Lambhorghini, Porsche, Nissan and Renault etc.
Pakis and Indians are friends here, most of the taxiwallas are pakis and they are really helpful. Hindi works here as most of the people speak Urdu.
Petrol and Pepsi is very cheap.
Cars are very cheap. Almost all taxis are only Camry and Corolla, unlike in India where these are quite expensive.
Bad
Weather: - From next week the actual heat starts.
There are no theatres here.
Though the rules over here are strict, cell phones and laptop theft is very common
During the prayers almost all shops are closed and the worst time is between 6-8
Riyadh is full of shopping malls but there is no point going as we don’t get to see something good for eyes. ;)
As everyone knows the week here starts on Saturday, Thursday and Friday are weekends. Working on Sunday is so painful. Wednesday evenings are the best times.
New
I started learning Arabic. Now I can read and speak Arabic numbers.
Back in India never I used to go to kitchen, here once I come from office most of the time I spend in kitchen. Now I can make dal, egg scramble ,pulav (veg and non veg). The other day we tried making biryani that was the worst biryani I ever ate.
We get all Middle East TV channels and a few Indian channels. My favorite channel is Melody Hits. The song ‘ahla haga feeki’ by Mohammed Hamaki is my favorite song, and almost all Lebanese singers are really hot.
Yesterday I saw 5 movies at a stretch in one day.
Idiocracy – It’s not a great movie but can watch once.
Thank you for smoking – Nice movie
Stranger than fiction – Nice movie, good time pass
Bandidas – Penelope cruz and Salma Hayek, again not a great movie
Accepted – Funny movie, good time pass
One good thing is I’ve got around 100 movies with me, but rarely get time to watch them. Yesterday was the first time after a long time.
From tomorrow the week starts, huh its so boring life, one full week have to slog.
Waiting for Wednesday.
Till then…
Khuda hafiz..