When Ananya qualified for the Global rounds of debate to be held in June, Shikha and me decided to take this girls trip in Doha. We were excited but I won't deny i was a little stressed by my personal prejudices about visiting a dry rich country with no natural beauty and history around. Neverthless, knowing the heat, frankly we had adjusted our expectations and were prepared to limit our outdoor activities in favor of indoor attractions such as museums, malls, cafes and air conditioned cars.
But when you think of traveling to the Middle East for the first time, you cant miss recalling the desert tales of Arabian nights. Desert Safari? when temperatures were at sweltering heights and humidity is unbearable? We wondered if that was a good idea at all. We were anyways so tired after two days of non stop shopping and Ananyas's long days at Qatar National Convention Centre. However, we decided to go just because....
The guy who organized this day trip was at the hotel to pick us up. We Jumped into a luxury Land cruiser towards high sand dunes of the desert just outside the city of Doha at the Inland Sea that is an inlet of the Persian Gulf, not knowing what we were headed for. As we drew closer to the Sea line beach, the sandy beach desert , we were taken by the stunning vistas of the natural beauty enveloping the country. On the way we stopped for a short thrilling ride over the sandy dunes of south Qatar on camel.
Post that , I wondered what our 4 x 4 professional driver, Ibrahim was doing with the tyres. He infact was deflating them to make the vehicle ready for the thrilling session of dune bashing- an authentic experience of a rollercoaster ride on the desert. Have you ever done skiing? So imagine that gliding sensation, but instead of skis, imagine you’re in a Land Cruiser, and instead of snow, imagine it’s sand. That’s what dune bashing feels like. After the camel ride which we thought was adventurous enough, we set off with seat belts. When we saw the car ahead of us, we surely assumed that the stunt went wrong as it dived down, totally naive that we are aiming directly at that dune as steep as a mountain as well. Again and again, we climbed up a dune, or roar along the side of one, and glided down a sandy slope as if it’s a run in the Golden shimmering Alps. It was absolutely exhilarating as he sped towards another crest.
Next was Sunboarding on the list. In essence, sandboarding is pretty simple but when he asked us to glide down a tall golden dune, we looked at each other in disbelief. I could recall myself preaching my kids, " Face the fear till it disappears" but at that point I wondered what that even means. However, we did get over our fears in our own way at a pretty impressive speed while whizzing down. The speed and the glide, I am sure Shikha, Wricha and Ananya would not want me to elaborate more on it.
Hmmmmmmm.......the last bit of a fun filled day, I wondered why sunsets are more colourful in deserts. Had I asked this question to Gagan, he would have explained that drier air means more vivid color wavelengths and blah blah blah....but to me that orange patch of cloud was as orange as a Crayola crayon with a pallette of tan and yellow ochre around- a luminescent beauty as the sun sat beneath the desert mountains, holding its breath as night fell upon the solitude, reminding me yet again that every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn. And so, I sat there in peace watching the pink sky surrender, nudging me to let go. May be I don't have to be worried as I used to be. May be I can choose to believe that I will not miss out on what's really meant for me while I watched a sloop of amber slipping away on the banks of the Golden Yellow Sea.
