The Bollywood Connection!

People in Lebanon are a big fan of our dear Bollywood.  They know all the actors, films, and songs! Bollywood connects me to these people. Every time we meet, they ask me how is Amitabh Bachchan doing. I secretly wish that I knew him that well to know how he was doing! I feel like I am the 'focal point' between the Bollywood actors and these lovely people! I should really thank the Indian filmmakers for all the good-bad films they have made as they bring me a bit closer to my new friends; which otherwise was a bit difficult considering that I still am struggling to speak their language! 

Recently, I got to know an adorable Lebanese family. When I visited their place, their mother was really happy to meet someone from 'India'. The initial formalness disappeared when we discussed Bollywood and her favourite actors such as Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan etc.! She told me that when she was young, around 30-35 years ago, she and her sisters were allowed to watch only Indian films and not the Hollywood hits, let alone their own Arabic films. I was very surprised at this revelation and when asked why, she said, "the reason was simple! Only Indian films showed the love for family, it had spectacular sets and beautiful songs and dances! My parents disapproved of all that intimacy shown in the Hollywood films and violence in Arabic Films. So, I love the Hindi films since then!" Wallah!

Apparently, in Lebanon, they stream Zee TV where the Bollywood aficionados can watch all old-new Bollywood Masala films! When we turned on the Zee TV that evening, to my most wonderful surprise, the evergreen "Andaz Apna Apna" was playing and the "Crime Master Gogo" was in full swing and that too, in Arabic! The icing on the cake was when she sang "Chahe mujhe koi jungli kahe" and "ayayyo sukku sukku"!! I couldn't believe my ears that I was listening to these songs from an old sweet Lebanese lady in her house in Beirut, miles and miles away from home! Talk about randomness!

Last week I visited one of the schools in Lebanon's largest Palestinian Refugee camps for work. After the usual introductions, the school principal got to know that I was from India. He told me immediately that he was in love with Bollywood and he especially adores Aamir Khan and Anil Kapoor! Apparently, the film 'Disco Dancer' affected him so much in his adolescence that it changed his perspectives about life!! (Jeez! 'Life-changing' Disco Dancer? I should really check that film out!) He was very happy to retrieve that film after a long search for it and now apparently he has it on his laptop and listens to the songs all the time! He even offered me to bring some films on USB if I wanted! I politely refused his offer considering the general awkwardness in the room and joined my boss for the presentation.

The school which we visited yesterday was in one of the most orthodox areas. On such visits my main work is to take pics of students talking, participating in the discussions and of the general ambience of the school along while helping my boss for the presentation. All girls yesterday wore 'hijab' and were very shy. They would turn their face the moment they saw my camera in action. I was a bit disappointed as I couldn't take many pictures and was waiting at the entrance of the hall after the presentation. To my surprise, a group of few girls approached me and asked me if I was really from India. They had asked my boss about it and wanted to confirm! When they got the expected answer, I could see the thrill on their faces! Probably I was the first Indian they were ever meeting! They shook hands with me, asked me if I had Facebook. Of course, Bollywood had made this contact possible. To my own surprise, this time, it was "Shahid Kapoor" who was in demand. I was awestruck! Never expected this! One of the girls sang some song which I remembered faintly and asked me to sing along! Talking to these girls made me forget my disappointment and I was very happy that they were opening up and trying their best to talk in English! It was far more rewarding. Shukran Bollywood!

There have been many such incidences but these three were unforgettable! However, I must mention that our Indianness is limited to only our films and the other aspects of our culture, except spices, have failed to reach Lebanon! 

But I am looking forward to more such encounters hoping and counting on the Bollywood connection, till I learn some Arabic! This way I can open them the other doors of our culture!!

Getting around!

"Where are you from?"

"India"

"Wallah!! Speak good English?"

"Yes."

"(something in Arabic)"

Le me speechless!

This is how my mornings usually start here in Beirut, where I am compelled to take a "service"; a.k.a taxi in simple terms; to go to the office. I had kind of liked the use of word "service" in this context as you "take a service" from the taxi drivers and pay back for their wonderful (?) door-to-door service! However, this whole business of "taking a service" isn't that simple and can be a source of (unwanted) adventures that one could possibly ask for at 6.45 in the morning!

After two weeks in Beirut, I think I have got the hang of the place and I am getting accustomed to this different mode de la vie, except for the interesting modes of transport!

Beirut is a city of cars par excellence. If one day all cars disappear from the streets of Beirut, I am sure the city will come to a stand-still and the roads will breathe a sigh of relief! Initially, the huge four-lane roads, flyovers, fancy cars, spectacular highways etc. might impress you a lot. The moment I landed here, I was in awe of this awesome, very-first-worldish infrastructure. However, now as I am roaming the streets with my observant glasses, I can see that that first impression was indeed not the last one.

Though Beirut may resemble a high-fi-modern city, getting around here is not easy. Pedestrians are invisible to the rash drivers and there are hardly any proper crossings. The footpaths are in good condition, however, are occupied by cars (yes, cars!) leaving very little space for walking. They beat us dear Punekars in their amazing skills of double, and at times triple parking!!

The 'public transport' mostly exists on paper! There are some buses, but their appearance is so discrete and gels so well with hundreds of other vehicles on the road, that it's just impossible to identify them! At times, there are these mini-vans which trot around the city collecting and dropping passengers. But again they are not the easiest to identify. They can be blue at times, red at times and sometimes even white! The only way to recognize them is their more or less similar size, the red nameplate, and the honking. They honk at you the moment they see you walking on the streets. It's their way of asking you whether you want to their service!! Same applies to the taxis also. They are omnipresent. But I have been advised that the mini-vans are more reliable than the taxis and now I know why!

Two days ago, after finishing my first leg of two-tour-journey-to-office I was waiting for the next 'service'. Three-four comfortable looking taxis went by. I should mention here that every time I am on the road, I brace myself for all the unimagined challenges that may pop-up at any moment and anywhere. I was doing the same when I hauled for the next taxi coming my way. An outdated model of a car, with paint peeling off from everywhere and with seats giving away their age thanks to the yellow foam coming out from every corner, stopped in front of me. Its old master, who himself resembled his car, with only 2-3 teeth with a perfect shade of "ombre", a torn bonnet and an equally torn brown sweater asked me, "wein? (where?)". 'Ganapati Bappa Morya', I said in my mind and got into the taxi. The ritual of introduction started and his second question threw me off!

"Working as a maid"?

"What?! No! I work at the UN"! (I couldn't digest that 'offense' and insisted on that last sentence with much pride!)

"Oh, good education?!"

"Yes."

Actually, it wasn't his fault that he thought that I might be a maid as almost all Indian-Bangladeshi-Philippino women here usually work as maids. He demonstrated his love for India and flaunted his 'Hindi'. I must say I was impressed that he could speak such good Hindi. Good for him!

We reached a junction where we were supposed to go straight, but he turned right... Unknown city, unknown language, unknown roads and no 3G - I was alarmed immediately. When asked why he turned right, he threw an angry look at me from the rear mirror and yelled at me saying he was the driver and I shouldn't be telling him which road to take!! Now, you can imagine how freaked out I must have been after hearing that. Was he going to take me to the destination where he thought was appropriate for me?

My skin prickled with some unpleasant emotion. I had the immediate urge to get out of the taxi but it was obviously not possible. This man, whose aunt was apparently in a very high position in UNRWA and who knew I wanted to go there as we were discussing UNRWA and its work for the past ten minutes, suddenly started blaming me that it was my fault that I hadn't mentioned where exactly I wanted to go. I was so freaked out and angry that I literally yelled back at him. But the threatening look and a streak of madness in his eyes silenced me and I let him blabber about how it was my fault till we reached a familiar locality. He eventually dropped me a few blocks away from my office. And of course, he charged me extra!

It took me good ten minutes to recover from this ride and I was grateful that nothing had happened. Yet, I was shocked to the core just by thinking what could have gone wrong, especially in the background of the recent Delhi rape case.

It was by far one of the most disturbing mornings I have ever had! I am hoping that somehow I will be spared from these taxing taxi rides!

Inshallah!

Field Experience...

I think I have finally understood why the International Organizations insist on having the so-called “Field Experience” when they hire people. Just three days in Beirut and oh man it has been such an eye-opener! The difference between “saying and actually doing it” had never been so clearer!

Never in my life, I have seen such rains, never. Beirut easily beats Cherapunji! The monstrous and roaring winds do not hesitate to show that they can go anywhere, whenever they want and that whole world belongs to them. God! They do it so powerfully as if they are angry with someone and retaliating… And rain that follows seems to be weeping continuously, hard, at such an audacious act of the winds. This parley between the wind and the rain freaks the life out of you. It reminds you of the bickering between a short-tempered brother and his mellow sister. Especially at night, like the domineering brother, the wind gets nastier and the rain cries harder!

It has been raining relentlessly for the past three days. Not so normal even by the Lebanese standards! This must be really a lesson of “adaptation to the environment”. Well though rain cannot be considered as an extreme condition, such rains certainly do. In an unknown city, where you barely speak the language (yes, I can’t speak Arabic, as yet!), where you don’t know the roads and have just the address, where you have to manage to not to get soaked in the evil rains and not to get blown away by the foul wind and also reach the office on time to sit there the whole day with your wet feet, is an experience you don’t get in your hometown! Such familiarity with these situations is what they must be expecting from us, the International Civil Servants. These incidences enrich your life to an extent that nothing else would ever compare to it. The rains have been so unpredictably strong that they made our Internet LAN wire carry the water on my table as if it was a water pipe, of course wrecking our Internet connection!

Apart from just the environmental conditions, I think even the cultural adaptation is a part of the “field experience”. Hearing the gunshots at night is apparently a very common phenomenon here. Playing with the guns and handguns is done to express joy too! For example, there could be guys bursting handguns or small bombs (?) on the occasion of marriage, birth, birthdays etc. Quite a cultural shock huh! When I discussed my astonishment with a friend, she assured me that if there was something really wrong and the “real” gunshots, we’ll be getting a message from the UN to avert us.

Of course, I am fully aware that only three days of stay isn’t sufficient to conclude anything and yet a lot more is to come. But it has already given me so much to think about that I can’t wait to welcome the next weeks with a grin on my face but a small knot in my heart!

Out of the world "Check-in" !

Well, as almost all of you asked me what was the deal about the "check-in" and "uncheck-in" maybe I should explain it a bit more in detail!! :)

So this is what happened: all excited and prepared me reached the check-in counter of the Gulf Air. With mixed emotions sprinting through my mind, I gave my bag, the female at the counter weighed it and even put the tag without questioning the over-weight!! I was so happy that this time also, that extra kilo had passed! Oh well, who knew that such feelings of happiness don't last! The female took my ticket, paper visa, and my passport. After doing her stuff on the computer, she got up, gave me a look, discussed something with her colleague and went to discuss further with her senior officer. Here she comes now... "You will have to wait for some time." Me: "wait? for what"? The female: "actually your PNR doesn't show that you are allowed to enter Lebanon". I, devastated: "what? How come? I have the visa!!!" The female, coldly, ignoring completely my plea: "Sharad, take mam inside in our office. Sir would like to talk her." Hmmm! This didn't really sound normal to me! And while I was thinking about what the hell was exactly going on, she took out the tag from my bag, tore my boarding pass and said: "I am unchecking u."

Le speechless me!!

Never ever in my life had I heard about such a thing!! "Uncheck me in"?!! I don't even know if that literally means something, but oh in real life apparently it does! So, I took my 31kg bag and other belongings and followed "Sharad" to their office to talk to their boss. Apparently as I had received the entry visa (something similar to "On arrival") from Beirut, it wasn't stamped on my passport. According to their Boss, they had not received an "Ok to Board" signal from the Gulf Air Beirut office which hadn't received it from my boss! Well, of course, they hadn't received it! Only if the new and stringent rules were made public! They had to confirm that I had actually been granted the visa and hadn't just fashioned an official visa from somewhere! No confirmation was ever going to come on that day as everybody in Beirut was fast asleep, oblivious to the whole chaos! Optimistic me waited till the gates closed, yet there was no "Ok" from Beirut. And so eventually, it was time to go home, again. Whatever happened was so damn unexpected that I was quite numb for some time. I was so lost that I think the officers at the desk must have thought that I was mad to ask same questions three to four times! Well, even if they did think that they didn't show and they were very kind :) Meeting such nice people is always like a "silver lining to the dark cloud".

However, nobody had a clue from where did this unusual rule come from! Not my boss in UN, not my travel agent and not me. We were told that due to the security purposes such a rule had been created and was being strictly implemented. (Maybe I was the first victim of such a rule!) So after millions of emails, phone calls to and from Cox and Kings and from UN Lebanon Field office and relentless work of my boss and Aashish, finally that "Ok to board" signal came and it looked like this!

Marhaba from Beirut!!

Finally, the wait of 4 months is over! This is me writing to you from my cozy apartment in Beirut. Feels great to finally have reached the destination after overcoming a series of hurdles such as bomb blasts, flight cancelations, visa issues etc. I have traveled abroad quite a lot in past three years but I can say that this visit to Beirut has turned out to be the most "happening" one! Right from getting an interview call from UN to yesterday morning where I had to go home from Mumbai airport because of some unknown new rule I didn't have the "ok to board" authorization from the Beirut Gulf Air office! So they had to "un-check" me!! Never ever had I imagined that such a thing would happen! But oh well, it's just an experience and I am taking it positively! Maybe such incidences are an unwritten description of my job!

Of course, it's been only a few hours that I am here, but still the city gives a positive vibe and people too seem to be nice! My house is pretty far from the airport, so on my way here I got to see a bit of Beirut and it's like any other international metropolitan city! There are nice, big, well-maintained buildings, super traffic (however being a Punekar, the traffic condition here didn't really surprise me! :p People were merrily going from no-entry, honking etc!), a lot of Arabic Banks which show the wealthiness... But I can't really comment on that now, as I haven't seen the other parts!

Well, this is all I can tell you after spending two hours in Beirut!

Before concluding this post I have to thank some important people! Aai-Baba for being soo cool and supportive! My travel agent Aashish who worked relentlessly to get things sorted and all my friends who have been such a great moral support in all these up-downs! (OK! Enough of filmstar-style-formal-thanking !! )

More later!

Till then, ciao!