A Year Abroad

By shakila habeeb

Books with great in-depth and research into the characters professional background and work life has always inspired me into writing something similar. Working in Qatar in the travel industry had sown in me an urge to write something with that backdrop. I have woven several incidents that had taken place in my own office, and have brought to life the people I had met and worked with there and subtly added my own imagination and storytelling skills, which would surely give a real life like taste for my readers when they read my debut novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: May 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482822519

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by shakila habeeb.

ISBN:      Softcover         978-1-4828-2252-6

               eBook              978-1-4828-2251-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

January 3rd 2013

The Rest Of January

Cool February

The Busy Month Of March

Summer On The Way— Month Of May & June

Qatar’s Hottest Month—July

The Heat Had Not Decreased Still—August

End Of August And Cooler September

September With A Serious Shade

October Was Calm

End Of October And The Month Of November

The End Of Cold December

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To my dear daughters Sabreen and Nasreen who are voracious readers and have been honest criticizers for my creation,

To my husband who had shown confidence in me,

And to my former work place, GM, colleagues and friends in Qatar.

Books with great in depth and research into the character’s professional background and work life has always inspired me into writing something similar. Working in Qatar in the travel industry had sown in me an urge to write something with that backdrop.

I have woven several incidents that had taken place in my own office, and have brought to life the people I had met and worked with there and subtly added my own imagination and story telling skills, which would surely give a real life like taste for my readers when they read my debut novel.

JANUARY 3RD 2013

Sumaiya’s flight landed at the right time in Doha International airport. She was traveling business class, a present from her loving sister, who was living in Doha along with her husband. Her sister’s husband Amir was there at the airport to pick her up.

Hi Bil I’m here. She waved happily at her brother in law as soon as she set eyes on him. She always called him Bil, which was short form for brother in law, according to her.

Amir was General Manager in one of the leading travel agencies in Doha. Since Sumaiya wanted very much to live in the same city like her sister at least for some time before her own marriage, Amir arranged a work visa for her as ticketing officer in his office. Sumaiya was doing exactly a similar kind of job in Chennai, so the switch over was not going to be difficult for her.

How are you Sumaiya? The normal lively and contented texture was terribly missing in his voice.

She looked up questioningly at him, Something wrong? She asked.

Oh the usual stuff, I have an emergency in the office. Shall we go peep into the office before we go home? He was speaking in a preoccupied manner which in no way irritated Sumaiya since she knew very well how it was when urgent matters crept up because she was in the travel field too.

That’s fine. But first let me call up sis. Sumaiya’s voice was breezy as she spoke about Arshiya, her dear sister. Thoughts about her sister always made Sumaiya feel warm and spirited. Their mother had passed away when the girls were very young, and Sumaiya always looked at Arshiya more than her sister.

That reminds me, we’ve got a new Qatar number for you. Call her from that mobile. He passed on a new mobile to Sumaiya. She looked at it with keen interest and smiled. She dialed Arshiya’s number and almost shouted with joy,

Hi Akka! Akka meant elder sister in Tamil a South Indian language, which was their mother tongue and Chennai city was their native land in India.

Where are you? Arshiya enquired excitedly. She was very fond of her sister too and was almost dying to see her.

Bil needs to go to office, some urgent issue. So I’ll be home may be after a couple of hours. Sumaiya supplied the required information quickly.

Okay then, let me finish cooking before you both come home. Then we can chat without any hindrance. Arshiya had taken an off today. She was working as an IT specialist in one of the oil companies in Qatar.

Sumaiya started looking around at the airport which was so huge and posh. While she got down from the flight she had noticed that there were more than 50 check in gates and at least 40 parking bays for the aircrafts. The airport staffs both men and women looked smart, were dressed neatly and were of different nationalities. The duty free shops looked attractive and adorned brightly with lights. The whole airport looked so busy and she looked at all this with awe. Outside, the car parking area was lined up with cars and she noticed that maximum number of cars were the spacious, large, four wheel drives. She could make out the Fortuners, Prados, Land Cruisers, Path Finders, Hummers but there were so many more. Mercedes, Audi, Jaguars and BMWs caught her eyes now and then.

Amir was riding a pearl white, fully automatic Land Cruiser. He had to wait at least five minutes in queue to just pay the parking fee which was all completely automatic. It was January, so the weather was cool, almost chill. The roadsides and roundabouts were all looking green, lush and colorful with well maintained grass, flowers and ornamental plants. There were plants of different heights, colors and textures which brought delight to her senses. She was thoroughly bewildered looking at all this because she always thought that most of the Gulf roads would look barren and dry.

She took out her makeup kit and powdered her face. She was looking better than how she felt. She tightened her hijab (scarf which Muslim women wore to cover their heads) and wore a splash of lipstick. Now she was very much ready to check on her new workplace.

Amir parked his car quite roughly and almost ran into the office. Sumaiya had to walk very fast to keep up to his vigorous pace. She uttered a small little Dua (a small prayer) before she stepped into the office.

‘Wow! What an office,’ she was more than stunned just by the look of the office. People were talking over their headsets, sitting in front of their pcs. Most of them were speaking English, a few Hindi, a few others Malayalam and other Indian languages. Some were speaking foreign languages which she did not understand. All the men and women were dressed in dark suits with pale lavender shirts. The whole office was cool with centralized AC. There were numerous flight models of different shapes adorning the office with style. Tables, chairs and small little cabins and cubicles, everything was painted a fluorescent green which gave a heavy punch of life. There were around twenty staff in that huge lobby and almost every one of them got up or waved and wished Amir. Most of them uttered Good Morning boss! And Amir gave a loud wish in return. All of them gave Sumaiya a curious look wondering who she was. Sumaiya just followed Amir without giving heed to their looks and when Amir raced into his cabin she just followed suit.

The first thing which struck her as she entered the room was its extreme tidiness. There were numerous books arranged in massive wooden shelves all along the sides of the room. Sumaiya noticed that the books were mostly about travel, office management and sales. The table itself was very huge and solid to match up with the size of the room and shelves. The table and the huge oak shelves were almost filled with mementos, trophies, beautiful art and show pieces. Each piece must have come from different parts of the world because Amir had travelled widely and had an interest in collecting art pieces wherever he went.

Amir quickly picked up the phone as he got into the room.

Siddarth please come in and get all my calls transferred to Brindha. Amir kept the intercom down and within seconds a tall person walked in, which Sumaiya guessed to be Siddarth and she was right.

Siddarth, this is Arshiya’s younger sister Sumaiya. She is going to join our team and believe me, she is brilliant. Sumaiya was thrilled to hear such a compliment from Amir. After this quick introduction, turning towards Sumaiya Amir said,

Sumaiya, meet Siddarth Shetty, my greatest strength in this office. There was a feel of pride when he introduced Siddarth to Sumaiya and she could sense that immediately.

Siddarth turned towards Sumaiya and smiled genuinely. He stretched his right arm to shake hands with Sumaiya. Sumaiya stood up and bowed slightly and said,

Hi Siddarth, pleased to meet you. And in a softer tone she added, Sorry, I don’t shake hands with men.

Siddarth was taken aback when he heard this. In Qatar the local Arabic ladies do not shake hands with men. So when men meet the Arabic ladies, it was a normal pattern that they do not stretch their arms to shake hands with them. But as far as Indian ladies were concerned, even hijab wearing ladies this was something new.

Hi Sumaiya, How was your travel? He asked formally. He cleverly managed to disguise his surprise.

Oh! That was okay, but right now I think boss has something very important in mind. Take care of him. I can do nothing about it. Just let me watch for the time being. She said shrewdly.

Yes Siddarth. Amir intervened quickly, Tell me. Did you find anything? Amir sounded restless and at the same time curious.

Qatar bank’s CEO had called up Amir from Dubai airport half an hour back. He had a first class ticket to fly from Dubai to London on the Emirates flight which was supposed to depart at 10.30am. The counter staff said that his booking was cancelled and there were no more first class seats. This came as a shock to James Andrew. He was stuck in Dubai airport and had an important meeting in London the next morning. He knew Amir personally well and so he had called him immediately.

Find me a flight that will take me to London tonight. It has to be first class. Call up my secretary Manal if you need any more clarification. Her number is 55752097. How long will you take? Andrew had dictated what he had wanted almost ruthlessly because he was quite upset about this cancellation.

Give me an hour Mr. Andrew. I’ll come back to you. Amir understood the urgency in the current situation. This conversation took place when he was at the Doha airport to pick Sumaiya. He had called up Siddarth at once and briefed him the details.

Siddarth started off like a machine, I had called up Emirates Dubai office. No more first class seats. Manal his secretary says that he will take only direct flights. The next Emirates flight is at 12 noon time. First class full, business class seats available but Andrew will not travel that. British Airways also full. Siddarth explained his findings cleverly and briefly without going into unwanted details.

Oops! What other options do we have? Amir asked. He wanted very much to find a way out.

Etihad flight is at 11.30 am. Siddarth came out with his findings without wasting time.

Will he mind the drive from Abudhabi to Dubai airport? Amir asked. Etihad flights depart from Abudhabi which meant there was an hour’s drive between the airports.

Yes. Very much. He will not like it at all. Sumaiya noticed that Siddarth was not using any ifs or buts in his conversation. It was just plain facts that he spat out. At that point there was a loud noise from outside. Brindha was waving her hand and simultaneously shouting, Boss, urgent call from Emirates.

Transfer! Amir reverted loudly, picked up the line and put it on speaker.

Hey Amir! You guys are at luck. That was Naser, Emirates Reservation Manager on the line.

What is it? Amir almost screamed. He could not afford to waste even seconds on small talk.

Someone has cancelled a first class seat on the same 10.30 flight on which Andrew was supposed to fly. I have confirmed a first class seat for him. Get the ticket issued. I have already sent the booking reference to Brindha.

Good! Good! Good! Amir laughed almost like insane. So did Siddarth. Brindha just popped in. Amir turned towards her and spoke rapidly,

Brindha, get the ticket issued at once with the same return date as in his original ticket.

Issued already and here is the ticket number. She handed a paper over to Siddarth.

That’s our dear little Brindha. Amir was almost jumping with excitement.

Now I’ll call up Sir Andrew and that call is going to be a sweet piece of cake which I like to eat every day.

He dialed Mr.Andrew’s number and the call was answered within a ring.

Yes Amir. What have you got for me? His voice reflected no emotions.

Sir, it’s good news. I have got you confirmed on the same flight, first class. I’ll sms the new ticket number. You can go to the Emirates counter and show them the number.

Are you sure? Andrew questioned Amir with great uncertainty in his voice.

Yes. One hundred percent. Amir roared with pride.

That’s good. And don’t forget to get the bill settled with my secretary. Andrew seemed to be pleased and he laughed out loud as he disconnected the call.

Amir gave a huge sigh of relief and Siddarth got up and said, Let me call Manal and get the bill settled.

Yes, we shall settle this bill, but soon we’ll have to start an account with them. Shouldn’t we? Amir spoke in a dramatic tone and gave a mischievous smile. He knew very well now that Andrew will want to transfer all his travel requests to Traveler’s Point very soon.

Sure Sir. Siddarth nodded with a smile as he left the room. His pleasure was contained unlike Amir’s.

Amir was in very good spirit after that. He took Sumaiya along with him and introduced her to everybody in the office. She was tired after the journey but still showed no signs of it to her new colleagues. There was a thank you message from Andrew which confirmed that his travel schedule was in order.

Amir then took Sumaiya to their beautiful duplex flat which was maintained with care and style. Arshiya was a good cook, and once Amir opened the door the beautiful flavor and aroma of cooked chicken welcomed both of them. Arshiya ran and hugged her sister, pulled her to the sofa, sat along with her and started chatting with great excitement about her father, aunt, cousins and friends. Their father Jaleel was a well known person in Chennai. He had several book shops and libraries. He was very fond of books, reading and education. Ever since he lost his wife when she was in her late thirties, he had almost spent most of his time in his office and library. His passion for books was so profound and he found his solace in them after he lost his wife. His sister Subaida had taken care of his two little daughters, and played a main role in their upbringing. Soon after lunch Amir left for office and Sumaiya took a