Sukran, Saudi Arabia!

 

Sukran’, Arabia!

The searing sun basks its golden sunrays, piercing through chunks of cumulus clouds. The silhouettes of camels, embellish the undulating terrain of ups and downs. The oblique cresses adorn these orange waves of sand, like God’s epitaphs. You can hear the susurrus murmurs of traditional Arabian music, creating an ethereal aura, of the ‘sahara’ experience. You can feel the swathes of sunbaked sand, hit your iridescent eyes, as they lethargically stare at the sleeping mountains, swooned by their pulchritude. One could say the carnicular days are perpetual here, not a single trickle of rain, farmer’s hell, should we call it?

The desert ostentatiously stands silent and resilient and I, with my feet cuddled amongst its abysmal expanse of sand grains, am stupefied by picturesque panorama that is bounded before me. It’s formidable. It’s evocative. It’s unimaginable. But deep inside this perplexed pretense of mine, I laid despondent and frantic of it, but my neurosis stood ephemeral, it was time to conquer the desert, once and for all. There was a sudden intrepid urge, followed by a plucky adrenaline flow, well that’s all you need to create a stimulus of fearful excitation! Who knew a camel was going to become my constant companion? Shemaar, the camel. It snorted and his nostrils flared at the first sight of me, not the best first impression, you would say. Its hump looked ready to carry all seventy kilograms with the additional five for the buffet breakfast we had devoured. As it pretentiously lifted us up, after we were comfortably saddled on, it’s voluptuous body started jerking us slowly deeper and deeper into the Arabian Desert…

The sand of the desert was like a disintegrated, diaphanous fabric powdered to coarse particles. The plods of the camels formed a byzantine pattern, on the dunes, but shortly started to dissipate due to the sweltering wind, which seemed to sway the sand away with it. We experienced the Bedouins or the inhabitants of the desert, and were astonished with their living conditions. They lived in antiquated huts in small communities, and the camels served their mode of transport, hence the name ‘Ship of the Desert’. The normal, plebeian people today, would never be able to adjust to what these Bedouins have to face, its really intriguing to see to what extent these people go, to preserve their culture and tradition. It’s unbelievable! If only we gave that much reverence to our own cultures…

The desert is like a metaphorical reference to life. The desert reminds me of how harsh this ambivalent world can be, we face different impediments during the course of our lives, the desert poses the most unforgiving conditions, but we must persevere and bear through in as the ups and downs of life, are like the sand dunes scrambling through the desert. You can see your goal at the horizon line, you still have a long way to go, but as long as you keep going, you will reach it. The desert inspires me to keep my fortitude and composure during the tough times. And I’ve made a scientific analogy to go with this, “We’re all pieces of carbon and those who handle pressure well, become diamonds.” You see, every place you go to will instill you with something you can never forget, travel isn’t just seeing the world, it’s seeing the world from different perspectives and understanding them. And in this way, the desert inspires me to be brave, to be courageous, to break the metallic shackles of cowardice and run free to a universe of possibilities.

It’s scintillating to see how experiencing new things can broaden our horizons and aggrandize our attitude towards life. So what are you waiting for? Go travel the world out there, it awaits you. Do not fear it. Be brave.

 (sahara-desert (Arabic))

(sukran-thank you (Arabic))

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