By Nisaar Nadiadwala | Contribution to Saudi Life

THE great Arab desert looks like a dry empty ocean from the window of the plane. Amidst it, a thin black road runs through the desert like a snake creeping over it. The red sand with patches of green farms appears like beads of flowers on a child's cheeks. Someday, I wish to travel across the desert from Riyadh to Jeddah by bus and embrace the warm desert wind, feel the red sand scattering all over my clothes. Arabia is famous for its hospitality which is also reflected when the expats host guests from their native land.

The history of Arabia speaks a lot about great men and women who made history through their unimaginable contribution and sacrifices in spreading Islam across the globe. But, I don't know if anyone has written any book on the life of expats in the Kingdom. For me, they are the other landmarks of the Kingdom. They have contributed immensely in building modern Saudi Arabia. They say that a few decades ago the Saudis ran across their nation on camels and now they run their whole nation on computers! The poor Bengali who sweeps every tile of the Haram and the strong Pashtun lifting heavy loads on a hot afternoon, the engineers, the professors... all of them are important parts of the Kingdom.

The story of each expat is unique, but their sacrifices are similiar. Many of them leave behind their old parents and young wives; they are cut off from their active social lives in their native cities and miss out on the joy of watching their children grow before their eyes. I met someone whose four daughters are studying back in their native cities and visit their parents only during vacations. Every year they wait excitedly for their vacation to be with their parents ...a vacation that ends with a painful departure ... walking towards the security check at the airport, leaving behind a tearful mother and a heavy-hearted father, only to meet the next year.

My friend, Salman Bhai, has four daughters and a son who is just 9 years old. Salman works as an executive and is 54, just 6 years away from the age of retirement. By then his son would still be in school...he has a long way to go and already, ailments like diabetes seem imminent. He has an ailing widowed mother in his native city, missing her son. Two of the biggest worries that I have noticed among the expats is the higher education of their children which cannot be continued in the Kingdom and post-retirement life. A man like Salman Bhai needs to work for a few years more after he reaches 60, as his only son would still be a pre-teen and four daughters need to be married. Many expats can identify their own needs to work for a longer period like Salman Bhai. Like my other friend Raza, who has a disabled son along with other children and his income does not suffice his expenses because the cost of living is soaring in his native land.

Abdullah, a taxi driver has met his children only for a few months in his lifetime. Now his daughter is getting married and his son too has grown... he sighs with pain: "I missed my children's childhood.... My distant relative Noor Mohammed too has been here for the last 25 years, going back to Mumbai for only a month every year. He has earned enough money and bought a lot of property in Mumbai but the sting of missing out on his children's childhood still pains him.

As the buildings around the Haram grow taller, my concern for the expats grows. The only hope they have is: In sha' Allah, my chidlren will grow up and I willl return to my native country soon. The Kingdom offers a simple Islamic life , unlike the glitter of Dubai that blinds you from your pain. Visitng the Haram once in a while is a soothing comfort and the community gatherings are another way to remind them of their own culture, so each community stays with their own kind.

As my plane leaves behind the red dust of Arabia and settles down on the strip of Mumbai airport, my family waits for me eagerly though I was away from them only for 6 days .This reminds me of those fathers, sons, daughters, wives and aged parents who will be together for only a few days once a year and I thank Allah for the Rizq that He has given me in my native city.

Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on socio-relgious issues from an Islamic viewpoint. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com