Sunday, December 21, 2008

Experiencing Z Plus Security Part I

The year was 1997. I was working in Dubai. I used to handle the Middle East region sales for the company. The boss had asked me to go to Amman, Jordan to visit my client and close a deal which would have given the volume for the month.

It was my first visit to Jordan. I had no previous experience of the country, the customs and the people. I was aware of the net but had no resources to find out about Jordan. Wikipedia was not born then. One fine morning I check-in at the Dubai airport counter of Royal Jordan Airlines. As I was checking in the person at the counter asks me whether he can add another persons excess weight to my ticket. I was a bit apprehensive and looked confused. The person pointed to the lady next to me and said that she had excess baggage and whether could I help her.? I said ok and collected my boarding pass and left the counter. I completed all the formalities and was waiting to board the plane. I was wondering how I would be able to cope alone (first trip to another country without any colleagues accompanying me) without knowing Arabic. I need not have worried as I later came to know that Jordan was once under British control, therefore English language is the norm there.

I boarded the plane and occupied my seat and a few minutes later found out that the lady who I helped out at the check-in counter was seated next to me. She started the conversation as I was a bit apprehensive about initiating conversation with a local ( U.A.E National) lady. She seemed free enough and started chatting amiably. Like most people unaware about India, its customs, Hindu religion, she started asking me about them. She surprised me by telling that she had relatives in Hyderabad, India. I asked her about her family. She told me that she had a local father and Iraqi mother. She was going to Jordan for her brothers wedding. I got invited to the wedding. We had a great conversation to the envy of the passengers who kept staring back at us wondering what were a Arab girl and an Indian guy talking together for so long. She kept smoking every 5 minutes and drinking black coffee. The stewards would keep plying her with the coffee and totally ignore me...............

The recollections of the conversation have dimmed over a period of time but it went something like what is Hindu religion all about, why do Hindus worship cows, trees, etc?

I shall post part II of the trip shortly where the explanation of the title of post becomes evident. That incident was a part of the memorable trip, that's why the long prelude to the main event.........

2 comments:

  1. Great, Ganesh it is a nice post. Enjoy blogging and looking forward to interesting posts.
    Vivek

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Vivek Sir,

    Thank you very much for your kind comments. Looking forward to any inputs from your side regarding improvements of the writing style or anything else.

    Ganesh

    ReplyDelete

What you would not have otherwise, said on my face