Meet an Ex-Con

Yesterday morning, I was driving to work with my two of my friends (and co-workers). We were a little late so I was hard on the gas. The first traffic signal on our way is at the junction of two major roads of Jeddah thus the wait is very long. It was green and I had made up my mind that I will cross it ... well I tried ...

First of all, my car was not in a favorable speed ... secondly I was on the service road which was closest to the next signal ... The first three cars advanced a few feet but stopped on seeing my car ... alas the last one got me ... got me real good .... there was little damage to my car .... but the other pakistani Baray Mian's car bonnet was shattered ....

The Baray Mian explained the incident to the cop who came to the spot in no time ... and I just stood there nodding in confession .... The other car was winched and dragged to the police station, I followed. It was a clear violation but I didnt know that it was a serious one too .... I was thinking that I will have to pay the damages to the other person plus the traffic violation fine and that will be it ..... Those lovely gentlemen locked me up !!

At first I was like WHOA!! Am I really in jail with all these criminals .... It turned out all of them were in only for the traffic violations .... and the first thing I noticed in there was that we Pakistanis were in huge majority .... Five carpeted rooms with ACs, cushions and blankets and pillows .... and lots of friendly looking cockroaches .... and healthy bed bugs roaming around ....

I was welcomed in the Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi room .... there was one room with Arabs ... one with Phillipinos etc ... Of course the first thing they ask "What traffic rule did u break?" .... "O koi nae ... bas 24 ghantay ki baat hai .... ao Sutta lagao " Anyway ... I had some interesting conversations with all the ppl there ... one of them is worth mentioning ...

it was an indian guy ... who had entered saudia on Umrah Visa .... and then made a fake Bangladeshi Passport and was living here since 15 years .... of those 15 years he had spent 3 yrs in the biggest jail in the Western Province for "accidentally" running down a cop ... he said the cop bugged him a lot so " Socha us ko Ura Doon" .... he had a metal cutting business in which the saudi partner robbed him off 2 lakh SR ..... he filed a case on him ... and they are still doing business .... in fact that saudi called him for a 2 million SR deal ... and I was listening .... He had escaped from this prison twice in the last week but had to come back as his documents were with the police ....

If it wasnt for my dad who toiled from 8 till 5 with the Baray Mian I would have certainly have to spent the night there ... I stayed there for 9 hours .... In the end I say Alhamdulillah for saving everybody from anykind of physical injury and our lives ...