Having got the site engineer in Kirkuk accept the consignment of pipes and withdraw her ‘rejection’ note, the journey back to Baghdad had to be completed without any breaks. The 12th part of a series describing the unknown triumphs and travails of doing international business in Asia in the seventies and eighties

We felt happy that after considering our detailed explanations the site engineer expressed her willingness to accept the consignment and withdraw her ‘rejection’ note that caused us to come for discussions in the first place. After all, she also admitted that broken pipes would leak and such damage could have been caused at any time, in loading to unloading, and even during shipment time. A certain negligible percentage of breakage should not condemn the whole shipment.
 
With all these matters sorted out, we began our journey in right earnest; it would take a few hours, but, hopefully, by midnight, we should be able to reach Baghdad, provided there were no major military crisis.
 
In fact, our return journey was just as peaceful as the onward journey; the highways were deserted and occasionally we saw some military vehicles moving about. Only at a couple of places our vehicle was stopped for inspection; the men in uniform were kind and hospitable, offering us tea and giving us the directions to reach Baghdad safely.
 
We stopped for a break and moved on; about four or five hours later, I cannot really recall how long it took, but we safely entered the outskirts of the city. We had to stop at several check posts before we were allowed to reach our hotel.

Abbas was half asleep; we relaxed for a while, helped ourselves for a drink or two, ate the leftover khubbas with some cheese, and went to sleep. We planned to leave by about ten in the morning, so that, safely we could reach Basra by night, including a brief stop-over, if possible, at Nasriya.

In the next morning newspapers, we saw a lot of stories about the progress the defence forces were making; there was hardly any information about the death and destruction this senseless war was causing; neither was there any data about the casualties in the area.
 
We tried to get through to our hotel in Basra; lines were unclear and he told us to come a day later, as no room was available. Stephen felt this to be some kind of a message for us not to come, for some reason. He decided that we stay for a day more in Baghdad.
 
There was nothing to do; it was not a holiday trip when conditions were totally unpredictable.  All that we did was to walk on the road, parallel to the Saadoon Street, which ran along the Tigris river.  In the past, when I had visited Baghdad several times before, I always stayed at the Ambassador on the banks of this river. Across the river, one could see some nice government buildings and guest houses, including the bridge. In less than an hour we returned back to the hotel and spend the day, for complete rest and taking stock of the situation.
 
We packed our bags and left rather early; except for greatly damaged roads and destroyed military vehicles, and the army movement, we hardly noticed anything else.  Civilian traffic was fear and far between.  On the way, we were able to pick up some fresh dates, both raw and ripened, and were joined by other vehicles, which were now joining the traffic, as we proceeded towards Basra.
 
Our stop-over at Nasriya was short; in fact our host advised us to move on and try to be in Kuwait by night fall. We enjoyed their hospitality and cautiously drove to the outskirts of Basra; here the military presence was visible and vehicular traffic under check and control. There was not much of gun fire, but we could sense the seriousness of the situation by the grim faces of personnel on the move.

At our hotel, the receptionist advised us that as the traffic had slowed down a bit it may be a better idea for us to proceed to Kuwait instead of taking a chance for overnight stay, though the room was available. As our major job was completed in Kirkuk, Stephen was determined to push through and reach home by night. We left the hotel immediately.
 
The exit formalities at Iraqi border did not take long and nobody even checked our luggage. The no man’s land was crawling with vehicles; mostly foreigners were trying to get entry permits to Kuwait.
 
Stephen took a little longer this time to get our passports stamped with entry permits to Kuwait, and we completed our customs formalities without much delay. I do not recall how long it took, but by about 10.00pm or so, we reached home safely.
 
Once we were in Kuwaiti territory, Stephen stopped at a roadside shop for some soft drinks and rest; alerted his wife about our arrival plans and requested her to get some nice food for starving folks from Iraq!
 
We thanked the Lord for His kind mercies. After a relaxing shower, we sat down, enjoyed our meal with the rest of the family before we hit the sack. We were tired, but our minds were running ahead, as to when we may get our seats to fly back to Dubai.  

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce and was associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts. From being the advisor to exporters, he took over the mantle of a trader, travelled far and wide, and switched over to setting up garment factories and then worked in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected].)

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