www.pinaki.info

  because the best stories are our own



Home:   Middle East:   Oman:   Desert:   Abu Shenab:

next generation

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow/ Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,/ You cannot say, or guess, for you know only/ A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,/ And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,/ And the dry stone no sound of water. Only/ There is shadow under this red rock,/ (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),/ And I will show you something different from either/ Your shadow at morning striding behind you/ Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;/ I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
T S Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922

What is even more remarkable is that you will find only one model of this 4WD in the deserts of Oman, making the Land Cruiser pickup the only vehicle in patches of desolation that stretch hundreds of kilometres. In a fickle land where a car is as important as fresh water and survival, such a choice of generations quickly acquires legendary status. This pickup has become so ingrained into their culture that the tribes even have an Arabic nickname for it: the Abu Shenab, or, literally, the ‘father of the moustache.’

< Previous   Next >



© 2001-2007 Pinaki