{"id":3776,"date":"2014-10-12T10:30:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T04:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2026-03-13T22:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:07:26","slug":"qatar-from-afar-the-last-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/qatar-from-afar-the-last-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar…From Afar: The Last Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had just about an hour left of the adrenaline-driven day<\/a> in Doha, Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had just gone through immigrations at the airport. After being surrounded by people pretty much all the time since being released from prison<\/a> the previous afternoon, there I was all alone! But alone and isolated, I didn’t want to feel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was on my way out of the country for good; out and away from a country and people that had brought me considerable pain and suffering<\/a> during my 20-month stint; out and away from a country that had brought a lot of grief to my family, friends and others in the last five days; out and away from a country that brought a lot of pain and suffering on untold number of other Nepalese<\/a> and Asian workers, and their families<\/a>. I was anxious, very anxious to leave the country and pretty much every one behind, except for a number of friends and colleagues at QA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But alone, I was a bit apprehensive too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked over to an area from where I could see the friends who had seen me off just minutes before. Waving good-bye to let them know that I had gotten through immigrations without a hitch, I started on one of the longest hours I had ever experienced!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For “company” and reassurance, I began sending group text messages to them and a whole bunch of other friends totaling about two dozens! I would inform them of where I was at every stage of my progress to my flight, while those friends would respond with well wishes etc.
\n\"airport<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I sent the first one from the boarding gate. That the text wrongly states where I was says a lot about the anxiety I felt! (Incidentally, since these screen shots were taken in Nepal, the times stamps are Nepalese. Doha would be 2 hours 45 minutes behind!)
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I followed that up with the following to another group of friends. (Can you read the anxiety?!)
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ushered through the gate and accompanying the rest of the passengers down the escalator, I didn’t make it into the waiting bus — it got filled by those in front of me. That further added to my anxiety. As the electronically-controlled exit pulled shut, I fired off this text!
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s more, the other bus takes its time further adding to my apprehension, and inducing me to send this text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After what felt like a very long wait, a little worried if the Qataris were planning something else for me, the bus finally arrived and, as I boarded it, I fired off the following text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, even though I had taken that ride a number of times in the past, this particular time, it felt like a long one! But, as you can tell, I had begun to relax a bit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my seat, buckled up, and ready for take off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the final one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No sooner had the plane taken off and reached cruising altitude, the anxiety, the apprehension and the hyper-alert mode dissipating — and very much alone — tears started streaming down my cheeks, tears that didn’t stop flowing…for a long time…tears of relief, hurt, anger and rage<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final hour in Doha, Qatar on May 13, 2013, I was at Doha Airport, headed to my flight taking me home. So that I didn’t feel all alone, which I was, I texted my friends in Doha, providing them updates on my progress toward the flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Qatar...From Afar: The Last Hour http:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-YU","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,31],"tags":[106,60,166,578],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-qatar","category-qatar-academy","tag-discrimination","tag-free-dorje-gurung-campaign","tag-qatari-jail","tag-rage"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Qatar-Airways-plane.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-YU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29873,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/29873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}