Today, there was a lot of activity at Maalu’s house. Chittappan and his family were coming home after five years. Chittappan had got a job in a country called Abu Dhabi five years ago.
At last Chittappan, Kunjamma and their
two children could be seen coming out. “How big Shanta and Sashi have grown,”
Appa said.
Many suitcases and bags were fitted into the taxi and everyone was on the way to Maalu’s house. “Shanta, you must be very tired after your long journey, Appa told me that Abu Dhabi is another country, far from India,” said Maalu.
Many suitcases and bags were fitted into the taxi and everyone was on the way to Maalu’s house. “Shanta, you must be very tired after your long journey, Appa told me that Abu Dhabi is another country, far from India,” said Maalu.
Chittappan – Father’s
younger brother in Malayalam. Kunjamma – Father’s younger brother’s
wife in Malayalam. “We are not tired. Even though it is
far, our flight took only two hours,” said Shanta. “The plane flies very fast.”
Maalu was surprised.
She remembered that when she had gone on
a school trip to Chennai, they had spent almost 12 hours in the train. And on
the map, Kochi and Chennai seemed quite near.
Maalu, Shanta and Sashi chatted all the way
home from the airport. Maalu remembered how much fun she had on her school
trips. She wanted Shanta to tell them all about her trip from Abu Dhabi.
“Did you see many interesting things
from the plane?” asked Maalu.
“Most of the time we saw only clouds
because the plane was flying so high, even higher than the clouds,” said
Shanta.
“But before it went so high, we could see that we were flying over sandy areas. It was sand but the colour of the sand kept changing – white, brown, yellow, red, black.
We saw mountains made only of sand.” “They are called sand dunes,” added Sashi. “I
have seen sand only at the seashore,” said Maalu. “Then you should come to
visit us,” said Chittappan.
“The countries around Abu Dhabi are
located in a desert area. Even if one drives a little away from the city, one
can see miles and miles of sand – no trees, no greenery – just sand.”
“I
used to dream of the thick greenery and cool water around our home in Kerala,”
said Kunjamma. “I am so happy to see all this after such a long time.”
“The children have almost forgotten how
it feels when it rains. You know it almost never rains in desert areas,” said
Chittappan. “Water is really very precious over there. No rain, no rivers, no lakes,
no ponds.
Even below the ground there is no water.”
“But,” added Sashi, “there is a lot of oil under the sandy soil. So petrol is
easily available in these countries.” “In fact petrol is cheaper than water,”
said Chittappan.
By this time the taxi had reached
Maalu’s house. Shanta and Sashi were surprised to see so many fruit trees–
coconuts, bananas, jackfruit, papaya, betelnut … so many kind of trees!
Sashi said, “We used to see only one
kind of tree there – the date palms – because it is the only one that can grow in
the desert. The date is the
most common fruit.”
Sashi showed Maalu some notes and coins.
Shanta explained that the money they used in Abu Dhabi was different and was
called Dirham.
It had some writings in their local language – Arabic. They also showed many photographs of the place where they lived. Chitappan gave Maalu a globe. He said, “Maalu, why don’t you locate Abu Dhabi on this? Locate Kerala also.”
The children enjoyed playing with the globe
and looking for different places on the globe. Maalu found Chennai and Kochi
also.
They saw that in Abu Dhabi the buildings were
tall with many storeys and big glass windows. Maalu said, “You must be getting
nice cool breeze
through the big windows.” Chittappan
said, “We cannot open the windows because of the heat. It is air-conditioned
inside where everyone stays.
As the weather is very hot, people wear loose
cotton clothes and keep themselves fully covered – even the head is covered.
This protects them from the strong
sun.”
Maalu enjoyed looking at the pictures
and finding out about the other country from her cousins. She constantly kept
comparing her city with the things that they described about Abu Dhabi. She decided that she would make a
project report about Abu Dhabi for her class.
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