While most DDB’ers were off jet
setting around the world, my dust-ination was Riyadh. It was holiday season in
Saudi Arabia celebrating Islam’s annual pilgrimage of Hajj.
Fortunately, I wasn’t Riyadh
bound alone. Khaled, Amjad, and Murthy stayed behind as well in the sandy
capital. Murthy spent his days off with friends, relaxing lazily. Amjad was
with family and loved ones. I spent my break with my family, having three consecutive
nights of BBQ. We kept exchanging bags of meat with our neighbors in the spirit
of generosity. Little did they know, that we were simply replacing the cutlets
into new plastic bags to re-gift them to other neighbors. Now that, ladies and
gentlemen, was money laundry 101. As for Khaled, his situation was merely
ironic. He sought to spend his time in relaxation but ended up driving his son
around. What he thought would be a one time father son favor, unraveled to
become a holiday duty of driving his son to parties, tennis practices, and
basically to every corner of Riyadh. However, that came to his benefit because
he found it to be an opportunity to give his son driving lessons.
The Saudi Commission of
Tourism and Antiquities would be proud to take in Ali, Mohammed, Fadi,
Abdulrahman, Saleem, and Abdullah as spokespeople to promote domestic tourism,
since they traveled across the kingdom. Ali went from Riyadh to Medina and
back. He spent Eid with his family in Medina and spent the remainder of the
holiday in Riyadh trying to lose weight. - Take a moment to applaud for Ali
before pursuing on to the next sentence – Saleem was also with loved ones in Medina,
but they did not get a chance to meet. Mohammed chose to invest his time wisely
by going to Hajj and officially becoming a pilgrim. Apparently Hajj Pilgrimage
this year was very much digitally oriented with people checking in on
Foursquare benchmarking holy sites. Mohammed must have unlocked the ‘Be blessed’
badge online. Fadi, an unlikely drifter, spent his holidays between Dammam and
Bahrain. Frankly, he seems to be more Saudi than me. Abdulrahman met him
halfway by vacationing in Dammam. Abdullah was out and about in Al-Qassim.
Serge and Ibrahim took a
flight to Labna Hills AKA Lebanon. Ibrahim spent his Eid with the family
celebrating traditionally. Serge added a twist to his stay by throwing a
birthday surprise for his mom before catching a plane to Istanbul. The
fantastic four of graphic design hit their home country of exotic India. Sameer
visited his in-laws and is not fond of his parent-teacher conference at his
son’s school. He enjoyed his stay with his family by having movie nights on his
new big screen HD TV. In Ajit’s own words, his holiday was short and sweet. I
assume Vishal’s trip was similar and perhaps sweeter. Abhilash is yet to come
back from his retreat.
