The first 31st on an 'alien' land

Dear Blog,

One thing you don't want on a 31st is for your day to start with work. And o'course I ain't that lucky. But at-least I got a 'half day' (will someone inform the management that if you reduce 2 working hours from 10, it does not become 'half day'). O'course the thumb rule in such cases says "you take what you get, and be happy or else you will end up either very miserable or getting fired", neither of which interests me much.

The Idea

There is a thin line between "A Plan" and "An Idea". I had neither. I only knew this for a fact that no way I will spend this night in my camp. In came Mr. Tejaswi, with some 'amoeba like shit' in his head, to my aid. I will still refrain from calling it a plan, since you cannot be sure of things here in Qatar on days of holiday (family day and stuff like that), although no once can stop you if you are really stubborn and a little innovative. As for The Idea, it had a little of everything: bowling, movie, marine drive, hookah, food, and a little Hope that our path crosses something that will, well, make me want to blog this day :).

The Drive

I am still a baby at blogging but I had to try. Here goes my attempt at photo-blogging.

Please do not be overwhelmed by the pic. Only a small part of Doha looks like that. The rest is just the same old flat roofed, single storied, yellow coloured buildings, the ones that you generally associate with a desert city (nothing new for people who studied in BITS Pilani).

So we should have gotten on our way at 1500, but you do find workaholics in every group (No, I am not talking about myself here). Nevertheless, we managed to sneak out at 1540.

Finding cabs is no meek task out here, and it ain't getting any easier. The new traffic regulations, which will come into effect soon, have shot up fines for offenses like not wearing a seat belt or crossing a red light from 100 odd riyals to 10,000 riyals (ie Rs. 1,30,000). Its like jumping from sea level to top of the everest in one leap. The latest news from an insider is that 980 something Karwa (Taxi) drivers have already resigned and more are expected to follow, as cabs get more dearer. You do find private cars however, who are more than eager to take you anywhere to make a few extra bucks. I did board one of 'em and landed at City Centre.

City Centre

Villagio is by far the best mall that I have been to in all my life, with all the artificial sky, some superb brands and an amazing crowd of qataris and expatriates that you find there, always. City centre, although not in that league, is not all that bad. With an ice skating ring, a gaming parlour, a splendid food court, a 14-screen multiplex, amazing shops, and the best loaction in doha, it has lots to boast about.

There is this movie that has been praised a lot. 3  idiots. And there is bowling. We (5 by this time)  were divided and undecided, but since couple of us had already watched the movie, we decided to ditch it and go for bowling.
I was completely taken aback at first to hear that I was the only one to have bowled before, though it didn't seem like when we started off. O'course I ended up with the maximum score, although it was a close shave.
Anyways, what i really wanted to talk about here is an arab kid (definitely younger than me). This 'fat' dude started bowling in the lane next to the one besides our. At first all was well, until he started throwing the ball at weird angles (nearly threw one in my lane, imagine), twisting his body in weird shapes to gain god-knows-what advantage while bowling. I mean for fuck's sake, bowling balls are supposed to be heavy and he made the whole thing look like farce. We stopped entering the lane area to click pic, you know just in case.

Snack
Here I would like to make a formal request to all the non-vegetarians out there.

Please Please Please, would you all get over KFC already.

I mean come on. There are so many eating joints (many of those that you don't even have in India) and still your antenna always points there. If nothing else, think about me. Its hard enough as it is to live in a non-vegetarian world surrounded by non-vegetarians, that you have to make it a little bit harder by going to a place where the word 'Vegetarian' is listed as shown.

By the way, I just always wanted to say all that. These guys did went to KFC o'course, but I had company and since it was food court, it was not a problem. The Sub was good (finally after 5 months), the donut was ok, the meal was filling.

The Walk
One thing that you can never dissociate with a gulf country is sports cars and bikes. And there were plenty whooshing past us today (you do look twice before crossing the road if you aren't suicidal). The Harley Davidson's, The Ducati's, The BMW's, The Lamborghini's are only a drop in the ocean of things that you might find yourself craving for out here.

Anyways, after 4-5 hrs at City Centre, yes, i did purchase a pair of swords for home, i mean that thing felt arab enough to me besides the usual 'flying carpets' and hookahs, we were off to the Corniche street. This place does remind you of Marine Drive in Mumbai or the streets of Panaji in Goa. (The only thing that Delhi is missing :-( ).

Brilliantly lit up streets, in the backdrop of completely lit high-risers (this is the place where fuel is cheaper than drinking water, what did you expect), with a chill in the air and ocean by the side, is the perfect set up when you want to walk for a little more than couple of hours, cut a little more than semi-circle around the marine drive to reach that all famous Souq Waqif.




The Joint
Two things.
Firstly, where the fuck was this place hidden for the last 5 months. (Perhaps a blessing in disguise, I mean, special days, special places)
Secondly, Doha does have social life after all :)

Such was the aura of this place. Built in a traditional arab market place style that we all have seen in the movies or perhaps that Aladdin video game, this is definitely the place to be if you ever come to Doha. You pick an ethnicity and you are likely to find someone belonging to it at this place.

The Meeting
It is true. You find 'unlikeliest of things' at 'unlikeliest of places'. You just have to give it a chance, take risks and head into the unknown when the opportunity presents. This in one of the many reasons of me coming to Doha, amongst other more important stuff.
So, there was this guy I met, exchanged a few words, and shook hands with, at the joint. None other than 'Picasso of India', Mr. M F Husain. He's sure active for a person who is 95 yrs old, and to be at that place at his age, unexpected. I guess I am lucky after all ;)

Fate, you cannot fight. There were many things that we could have done differently during the day, like walking for 2.5 hrs in cold without our jackets after waking up at 4:30 in the morning, but fate, you cannot fight. As for Mr MFH, he was very approachable (it was we who were confused on how to manage it, after all he was out on dinner with what looked like his family, but as soon as we uttered as much as 'Hi', he put his hand "The Hand" forward). The rest was easy, and the photograph did turn up nicely considering we only had 5800 at our disposal and bad lighting.

Confessions
Before I end this, I do need to say a couple of things.

Firstly, I need to get a fix on India's greats, I mean I know nothing about MFH except his name and perhaps his face (I took my time to believe that it was really MF Husain, after all it was totally unexpected, and if it wasn't for Tejas, we would have definitely missed him, but then again, if we had listened to him, we probably would have been back at our acco), and it was really surprising to find about the curious relationship he had with shoes, i mean i ought to have read atleast about that before.

Secondly, I did have hookah again (grapes and apple) and a puff of cigarette (never again, anyways I did it wrong, according to Sailesh and Ajay, btw, I am really surprised that you guys managed to keep your new years resolution to quit smoke until now, keep it up guys).


Hope all of you too had a wonderful new years eve and have a equally wonderful year ahead.

Signing Off
Harry
31/12/2009

P.S. Check out the pics here.