Monday, December 31, 2007

Road to Mecca: Tiny among Giants

Asian, particularly Indonesian, is considerably small in term of physical human body. I am Indonesian, and I am already small when you compare with other ordinary Indonesian men.

I was a tiny among Giants, there, at Hoora – Manama, the meeting point of Haj travellers. We all flocked into a large car park at Hoora. There were a lot of people coming with their luggage’s and I noticed most of them were huge.

I suddenly remembered what Baba saying. He told me a short conversation when he met some Pakistani guys from southern area.
“Where are you from?”
“North,” the huge guy answered.
“Wow, no wonder.” Baba replied.

According to Baba, my best Pakistani friend, culturally and geographically, Pakistan, his country is divided into two main areas, south and north. South is more civilized, because it is close to coastal area, where people there can easily have interaction with other worlds, trading, etc. It is more open, but generally people are physically smaller compare with the one living in the North Pakistan. “It’s a kind of Jungle men, huge and whatever you say…”

I am a tiny among those giants, Pakistani, Bahraini, and other Arabic nationalities. I was the only Indonesian, struggling to get equal services from the Haj Travel agent. We were about to leave for Saudi through land access, by bus. Everybody was busy with their group, while I was alone, searching my bus, my seat, my tour leader…

There were 5 buses, each one has 52 seats. Total was around 250 to 300 persons, I guess. Mostly were Arabic, Indian, Pakistani and I was the only tiny Indonesian.

Yalla…!

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