Memories of the Kuwait War ~Chapter 14~ The Nomadic life!!

Picture Courtesy: Google

For breakfast, and I guess for every meal, we got Khubz, tomatoes/cucumber, and canned sardines in tomato sauce. All we did was eat and sit in our tents. Since we carried some story books, my brother and I spent our time reading. It was our favourite activity and we used to read so much when we were at home in Kuwait, so much that when Amma put us to bed and turned the lights off, we would open the small fridge that was in our room, and read by its light. 

Days went by slowly, with nothing much happening. It was just the heat, the cold, my sister coming back with an updated chin dressing, Khubz and sardines for every meal, etc, etc. The only exciting part was meeting friends and acquaintances everyday, on our way to ‘the Sea'. We met Mili and her mom again, and this ‘kulikadavu’ was a regular spot for chit chat. 

One day we went for a stroll in the camp. Acha found out that one of our friends were at a tent quite far from ours. “We’re bored anyway, let’s just take a walk”, he announced. His idea seemed welcome, and we set out. When we reached the tent after 10 minutes, a strong smell of fish curry filled the air. “The evil games hunger plays on your brain!!”, I thought as I forcefully pulled all of that aroma in through my nostrils. Guess what! It wasn’t my hallucination. I saw rice, fish curry and tomato-cucumber salad as we walked into that tent. I couldn’t believe my eyes!! “Come, come, let’s have some rice and fish curry”, invited Acha’s friend. 

Well, this is how the explanation goes....That whole tent was occupied by people who came in the same bus. They were all friends and some of them were related to each other. They carried with them, rice, oil, spices and a gas cylinder with a small stove! Can you believe it?!! “Anyways we are leaving everything and running with our lives, and we had these supplies at home, we decided to carry whatever we had. So now we can eat well.”, that uncle said. “Here, we put together all the food we get, and cook it for everybody. So there is a huge bowl of salad for everyone to share, and a big pot of rice and fish curry every day!”. I was blown away by that explanation. “These people really know how to survive a war, such seasoned refugees!!!”, I thought. 

We couldn’t say no to the food, it was home food after so many days and definitely appetizing. We had just a little though, they weren’t expecting visitors, obviously, and we didn’t want to finish it all up. Uncle kept insisting we eat more, “How long will you eat this dry khuboos? Come here if you want rice. We will share whatever we have. Let the kids eat well.” It was a very happy trip we made, not just because of the food, though that played a major part, but also for the joy of forgetting our worries and tensions being in the company of cheerful people. It was for me, like visiting a relative’s family home on a wedding eve or something! 

Our life went on without much excitement for the next few days, it was more anticipation for me, dreaming of our flight to India. My sister had her dressing done regularly and the size of her bandage started getting smaller and smaller. Everyday, Acha would go to the ‘office’ tent to check if we (all those who came in the same bus as ours, coz we were a ‘unit')  were ready to fly yet, and come back with no good news. Yes, every single day, until the 11th day, when he came back with some papers. He was jumping in the middle of the tent like a little child who just got candy from Santa Claus!! We were all so happy. He explained that we have to leave early morning the next day, a bus would take us to the Amman International airport. We could finally go home!! 

~priya~