'Abu Dhabi Mall !/?'

There are a lot of things about being in a country and working there, that can get you feeling un-comfortable, to put it mild. You tend to walk out from the airport the very first day with some preconceived notions about the place, and it does take a while for you to realise that they were entirely baseless. However, the fact that you can buy that kickass new phone with a fraction of your salary does help you come out of it. And you do get your occasional laughs, largely because of the fact that asking the simplest of questions to strangers can bring you down to sign language (flapping your arms from side to side in a manner that would resemble a rain dance), in the vain hope that the person you are trying to converse with would understand you just wanna know where the toilet is, rather than their views of the much-talked-about big bang theory experiment. A case in point is the recent encounter i had with a gentlemen i will hence refer to as 'X'.

Friday is the weekly holiday in the UAE, and thats something i ll never get used to (i hope). And it is for that precise reason, that Thurdays are a nightmare for anyone planning use the public transport system, where you are a person who cant afford a car, or one who just dreams of passing the driving test (trust me, the latter outnumber the former by a more than significant amout). It so happened that on a thurday, i was foolish enough to think i'd manage getting a cab at 8 in the night. The fact that 15 people were standing in the queue befoe me certainly didnt help. Nor did the fact that an empty taxi in the UAE on a thursday night is as rare as an Indian politician without a criminal record. So it was only natural that when i saw a bus that was going to somewhere near my destination, i sprinted towards it. I wouldnt normally get into a bus so full of people and the smell of sweat, but under those circumstances there werent two pills to choose from.

Not long after I stepped on that montrosity of a vehicle, I started wondering how I'd know when i got to Abu Dhabi mall. As if on cue, Mr. X got on, and asked me if the bus would go to Abu Dhabi Mall. At least, I thought he was asking me that, considering all i understood of was he said were those 3 words. I recollected reading 'AD Mall' above the windscreen so i told him not to worry, a bit too confidently, perhaps. After a few stops, the crowd in the bus had notably thinned, and my worry as to where to alight had more than occupied my mind. The last thing i wanted to do was to get off the bus and have to wait for another taxi to go back to where i came from. It was at that moment that i decided to shed my reservations regarding the expected language problem and ask the gentleman to my right, whether the bus stop we had just arrived at was Abu Dhabi Mall.

'Abu Dhabi mall? Abu Dhabi mall?', i couldnt have put it simpler. The reaction of that man was something i didnt expect, as he suddenly sprang up from where he was sitting, and promptly got off, turning back to watch the doors close behind him. Where had i seen him before? Dammit, that was X.

As the bus slowly pulled away, i hoped he would realise, after finding out that he was miles away from AD Mall, that i was, in fact, asking him if we were there, and not stating it. Oh, well.