Hilal al Mingi is the sheikh's son, the other end of the spectrum. He didn't have to sweat through the desert or car workshops, and enjoys fast bikes, his mishkak and the three houses he is building for his family in Qafifa, which he visits over the weekend. On a good day, which means in the wee hours, he can reach the clock-tower roundabout at Seeb in 45 minutes. "Forty, actually," he points out, correcting himself. "I lost five minutes at the petrol station." That's averaging about 250kmph around the bends, so low and fast your body makes contact with the road as you lean into the curve.

"I wanted to get out of the routine of our village, to graduate from the farms to the oilfields. I saw the ad in the paper for a new maritime college in Muscat, and was the second student to apply. In time, I will be a ship's captain."

But even Hilal's beginnings weren't so rosy. His father had a shop in the Muttrah souq in the Eighties, and left it in the care of his son — Hilal's brother — while he attended to family and business in Zanzibar. When he got back, he found the business in tatters, and sold it off, trying his luck elsewhere, while the wife stayed back in the village to look after the plantations. The fastest Hilal has clocked while trying to reach his mother? "295," he says with a wink.

< Previous     Next >



© 2001—2012 Pinaki