Taxi stories from Riyadh

Hey everyone. Couldnt post for the last 2 weeks becos work schedule got crazily hectic.
There were days (or nights) when I and my colleague would leave the hotel at 9 AM in the
morning for work and return at 12 pm ....the NEXT day ! On the face of it, our deliverables were
just a Word document and an Excel sheet, but the work involved a lot of meetings,
information gathering and , not to forget- FORMATTING the documents which can drive a person
insane at times. Anyways, we have the project coming to a close tomorrow (Saturday) and so, I am relaxed enough today (incidentally only the second out of 5 Fridays that I am NOT in office) to be updating my blog. Thought of sharing a few 'Cabbies' stories with you.... here goes :

1. A pakistani cabbie talked with us with such joy and exuberance during the ride and seriously offered to completely waive the charge of 21 Saudi Riyals ( 1 SR = 0.27 USD = 13 INR approx) . His reasoning- Arre aap to hamare bhai hain - hamare humzabaan hain- aapse kya paise lena ? !!! Of course I insisted on paying, especially this guy.

2. A cabbie from UP, India (INdian Cabbies are quite rare in Riyadh) got talking with us and when asked if he preferred Saudi to Air india, narrated a little story. He said, the problem is with Indians, whether they work in Saudia or Air India. Once when he was travelling from Bombay to Riyadh, he stood in the line for a business class seat in Saudia counter at bombay airport. According to him, the (Indian) lady at the counter made fun of him for not knowing English and yet wanting to travel in business class. He then spoke to the Saudi guy in the next counter in fluent Arabic (which all the south asian cabbies here know well) and the Saudi guy scolded her and put the lady in her place firmly !

3. Then there was this bangladeshi driver who loved a bollywood song of Udit narayan which he put on full blast for my benefit. And for the rest of the 20 minutes ride he kept asking me the meaning of all the urdu words (I had never heard the song before) !

4. Another bangladeshi driver scared us out of our wits when he narrated tales of how women in purdah , in a particular area called Battha, robbed innocent men. Their plan was simple- go and demand money from a man and if he refused, threaten him that she would complain to the Muttawah (Religious police) , that the man was trying to get fresh with her. The system is such that the Muttawah would believe her and then the man was a gonner.


5. There was a Pakistani driver who was very friendly also and told us of Saudi women customers of his, who wanted to get friendly with him. he, being afraid of the consequences, would decline, or so he said. Personally, I felt, Saudi women would be a frustrated lot , for a woman, generally likes to be looked at and admired for her beauty. Now, if she were to be in purdah in public gaze all the time, how could anyone pass appreciative glances at them ? Leading to my theory that Saudi women (in general) were a frustrated lot. Disclaimer : I had no way to verify my theory- so i could be wrong !


So, I will close for today as I have to take a small nap and then plan to visit the Kingdom Center (KC) and Al faisaliya buidlings (the 2 visible-from-anywhere landmarks of Riyadh city) . These buildings (I visited the KC briefly on my first day here, for a meeting) are lavishly built inside out and contain shopping malls, restaurants and offices. More about these later if I find anything interesting to write about them.
CIAO !