_{(Shahid and me at the office)}

Dedicated to my once in my life Bengali Friends

This post is dedicated to my old Bengali friends whom I meet n my more than 10 years working in Saudi Arabia. In addition to a number of Indian friends I met, Bengali are as good as those Indian friends although, honestly there are also those that I considered with bad attitudes but I know there's a reason why they acted like that.

_{(another friends in the office, one of them is from Bangladesh)}

Treasured Friends

In this post I will present to you some Bengali whom I treasured although those friendship will only remain in my memories because there's no way I can see them again in the future.

But they will surely remain in my heart and will be remembered.

Long time ago

It was in the year 2003 when I first left my country Philippines for a work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There I met people from different countries. Although since I was assigned in the head office in Riyadh, I did not meet anyone from Bangladesh I know a lot of them were assigned at the site. I stayed and work there for 3 years and went back to my country.

My second time in Saudi Arabia

In 2008, I went back to Saudi Arabia and this time I was assigned in one of the site offices of the company who hired me. the city is called Al Khafji and in our accommodation we were mixed with site workers although different room, different mess hall.

_(Kamal)

There I met the first Bengali who became my friend. He was then our office boy assigned to bring coffee or tea to all who are working in the office.

Said was in his 20's, he hardly had a friend in the office because he was the only Bengali there, actually he was just taken from the work site area, he used to work as a pipe fitter.

Racists are everywhere

I admit there are a lot of racists in Saudi Arabia, and I can sense Said experienced that. I even notice some Filipinos who are not treating him well but not me.

I remember his job aside from cleaning includes serving coffee or tea but for rank and file office workers he was only required to give us coffee once a day.

But since he acknowledged my kindness to everyone in the office, he was giving me coffee or tea depending on my preference in a particular time of the day. Yes, he gave me coffee/tea more than twice.

Sad fate

Before I left Al-Khafji he was taken back to the site, I heard that he had a fight with one big boss who was a Lebanese. I pity him but there's nothing I can do I was only a rank and file employee of that company and our bosses were mostly Lebanese. If anyone here who are familiar with the companies in Saudi Arabia, it was actually Saudi Oger Limited, a company dominated with Lebanese and Egyptian.

So I lost one good Bengali friend, until I decided to go home for good. I was hoping that time not to go back to Saudi anymore.

I was wrong

Yes I was wrong, due to monetary constraints I was forced to go back in Saudi again in 2014. This time I was assigned in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Although my new assignment was in the head office, we had a lot of companions who are from Bangladesh and made friends with them again.

Bad people are everywhere but we should not generalize

Other people see them as bad people but not me and some of my Filipino friends. That is why these Bengali friends really look up on us and offered their services with open hearts.

While others had a hard time making these Bengali do as they wanted, I find it easy to request some favors from them even favors not directly related to our work like buying food outside.

If you are good to them they will do otherwise

Maybe because I used to gave them a little rewards every time they do a special favors, or simply because i treat them well.

But I lost them again because in the year 2018 I decided to go home for good. And while in the Philippines I heard that they were terminated because of some issues.

A keep sake that will be kept forever

Good that I was able to take pictures with them, that was during my last few days with the company. These photos will be kept as remembrance for the wonderful 4 years of friendship with them. I know I won't see them anymore being situated in different parts of the world. But I am hoping and praying that they are okay and doing fine in their home country.

Note: Be good to everyone, people will look up on you and respect you. Wherever you are in the world, treat everyone right - @long888.

_{(Photos of mine with some other nationalities)}

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All photos are mine.

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