On Oman

Vikrant, my brother recently moved from Hyderabad to Muscat (Oman) for a short project. One week in Oman and the below were his thoughts:

One misses the decadent luxuries of living in a hotel: the on-call room service, the no-effort cleanliness, and – to cap it all – the immensely disproportionate per diem! But one must immediately get used to coming closer to the realities of life… in Oman!
The first thing that weighs on me is the loneliness: there are no project mates at call, no one at the office that one can immediately socialize with (though – as met so far – friendly colleagues), and no one from KASPL / KPMG India staying with me: So I have a huge three bedroom flat all to myself, am the only one bothering about the place’s upkeep, or my dinner, or the TV to be got re-working,or getting up in the morning, or breakfast in the morning etc. etc.
But let’s not unnecessarily focus on that. The real Oman – the part I saw from the flight and around Muscat – is rugged and beautiful: My first sight of Oman was of barren hills bordering the see… as far as the eye could see. Most of Oman is not a sandy desert (like its neighbours are), it’s a rocky one. Most of Oman, it seems, is these rocks: hard, mostly sedimentary, seeming to stand as broad spikes that have no intention of letting go of their space. At one point, the hills even dropped straight into the see, a sort of rock-and-mud Antactica, no cliffs, no beaches. Soon, however, small pockets of civilization came into view. One look at the vastness and inhospitality of the terrain and I can only gain measures of respect for the people who have civilized it, to whatever extent. Somewhere on the flight inland, one sees a huge barren valley, sort of ring-fenced by mountains, that might remind one of Leh in the summers. It has pockets of civilization in it here and there. And although one has been promised that Oman is greener than the rest of the Gulf the only green that one sees outside of the city is rough scrubland, calling which green might make the Kutch seem equatorial.
Landing in Oman is another pleasant experience. A very small airport (MUCH smaller than Mumbai, or even Hyderabad), fairly courteous immigration personnel (unlike the haughtiness one saw at Dubai – one feels this is brought only partly by the sheer load of numbers they – the Dubai folks – face), and a drive into the city which made me feel I was driving somewhere in Navi Mumbai! Except the broad roads, right-hand-side orientation and much more highly disciplined traffic of course  The feel is very distinctly middle class, not the imposing glamour and splash of wealth that one sees in Dubai. Even the people seem friendlier – some claim it is because most Omanis work for their living, unlike some other Gulf states, but more on this and the Sanad programme later. And an Indian used to Gurgaon or parts of Navi Mumbai would very much identify with the spread, the feel of the traffic signals and road signs, of the pavement underfoot, and the people crossing roads in the middle of that furious traffic  But then, don’t forget the hills, they are everywhere! That makes the geography slightly different. I will come to more on this part when I cover stuff about where I am staying: I don’t know if the people around still notice the magic of the location, in the middle of the city yet surrounded by hills – however barren – on all four sides!
The Sultanate of Oman was formerly known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman… that is, until 1970 when the current ruler took power. It has five Regions (Ad Dakhiliyah, Al Batinah, Al Wusta, Ash Sharqiyah, Az Zahirah) and three Governorates (Masqat, Musandam, Zufar). I swear that – at the time of writing – I remember none of the names and have taken the luxury of copy-pasting them! All I remember is that Masqat is around the Capital city (wah! what genius to have remembered that!), and Zufar is way down South, just to the east of Yemen, with it’s major city being Salalah (the second among six paved airports out of 136 in the country). Musandam is a small peninsula jutting out into the sea, to the north of the UAE and geographically split from the rest of Oman, over the control of which Oman has some sort of agreement with the UAE. The details of this agreement have, however, not been made public.
The Sultan of Oman – Qaboos Bin-Said Al Said – took power in 1970, after his father abdicated in a coup. It would seem his rule – even though not democratic – has been significantly popular. The Sultanate has been moving gradually towards an increasingly democratic form of rule since 1970, the latest step being the formation of the Majlis al Shura (1997), a set of 83 people’s representatives elected by universal suffrage who have an advisory role in the Sultan’s government. Oman has very close relations (especially business; and despite usual neighbourly spats about borders et al, said to have been recently sorted out) with UAE. And it has a surprisingly well spread out import market. China is it’s most significant export market, contributing over 27% of total exports, and the rest of the major markets are spread over South East Asia itself. Surprisingly, Europe and America rank nowhere in the top six-seven. India is not among Oman’s major export markets, but it does import significantly from Oman, constituting over 4% of Omani imports. Here too, Oman’s trade sources are well spread out: UAE, Japan, UK, Italy, Germany, USA and India.
Most people in the Sultanate of Oman follow the Ibadi sect of Islam - the only remaining expression of Kharijism, which was created as a result of one of the first schisms within the religion. I will update you more on this sect of Islam and it’s particular beliefs etc. subsequently.