The chubby guy

Do you know the song by U2 called “Stuck in a moment that you can’t get out of“? Well, there are moments that you don’t want to get out of. Like flying above the clouds and seeing the sun turn red and purple and then set at the end of the sky. Or flying through the black night above the sea and all of a sudden you see the lights at the shore of Dubai.

No pictures, just imagine.

But there are moments that you get pulled out of, for example when you meet the chubby guy. It’s not like I forgot his name, we never introduced each other properly. On my flight from Dubai to Dhaka we were sitting next to each other. Emirates Airlines has these entertainment systems that you can watch movies on demand on. So all of a sudden he asked me to help find an “NDA” movie.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

He said from his flight from Ta’if, where he used to work in Saudi Arabia, to Dubai he was watching “NDA” movies. I still had no idea so I went to “All movies A-Z” and asked him for the spelling. He just kept on saying “ND, ND”. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me, that he meant “Hindi, Hindi”. He wanted to watch the colorful Bollywood movies with lots of singing and dancing, which are in Hindi language.

But that wasn’t it. Of course he had to tell me his life story. The chubby guy wasn’t that old and had been working in Ta’if for eleven years as a salesman at a store. He was really dark skinned, well dressed and probably in his early thirties. He was returning to Bangladesh, leaving his life in Saudi Arabia behind to get married.

When I was filling out my immigration form to enter Bangladesh, he did not only ask for a pen, which would have been fine, he indirectly asked me to fill out his immigration form as well, which I kindly declined.

Then later, when it was time for breakfast, the steward asked whether he wanted the “vegetarian”or “non-vegetarian” dish. He just shook his head, not even looking at the steward. Do you know how South Asians shake their head the same way when they mean “yes” AND “no”? That’s how he shook it, leaving too much room for interpretation. I am pretty sure, with all the “ND, ND”, the immigration form and the breakfast incident, that he was illiterate. I saw him last waiting in line to pass immigration and still wonder how his life in Bangladesh will be after eleven years abroad.

Touchdown Dhaka: February 21^st, 8.33 am, 21° C.