Part 2

It was only on February 26 1991, the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait ended. The Desert Storm unleashed by the American forces routed the Iraqis within 42 days. On that day, a new life emerged in Kuwait. The flag of free Kuwait was raised in a celebration. Overjoyed groups of people gathered in suburbs and city ecstatically, congratulating each other with tears of happiness and relief. Portraits of Saddam Hussein were torn; Iraqi flags were ripped down from public buildings and replaced with Kuwaiti ones. By the next day, the celebrations had reached a fever pitch. The delighted residents thronged the streets, cheering, clapping, blowing car horns, waving flags and carrying large posters of the Amir and the Crown Prince .Kuwaitis danced in the streets in gay abandon, thanking the allies.
Osman Rahmani, the Dealer of Cars had narrowly escaped capture by the Iraqis and had returned to his country as soon as semblance of normalcy was reestablished.
Overcome by emotion, he dropped to his knees and thanked Allah Taala as his forehead touched the precious soil. The worst lay behind him and now he only had to look up. He walked through the streets of Shuwaikh only to find almost every shop burnt and destroyed. He could not distinguish his office from far and was scared to think about the damage done there. As he entered his showroom, he found it to be absolutely vacant, minus his beautiful cars. The Iraqis had used his cars till the time they were in Kuwait. Some must have been taken to Iraq, some left abandoned on the streets, Osman pondered as he ascertained the loss.
Dejected, he walked to his cabin and was appalled to see it completely burned. These Bastards, Osman imprecated in his breath. He had spent a huge amount of money to make this cabin and had sat for hours till the construction was complete to his satisfaction. All that was in vain. Tears in his eyes, he walked to his safe which had been burnt completely. He tried to open it with its handle, sure to find it empty. But what is this? The safe was tightly shut. He could not believe it. The safe had bullets lodged in its body, it showed dents which could only happen from heavy hammering, it was totally black in the front due to burning but it had not given in.Osman could not believe his luck. He almost laughed sensing the frustration the Iraqi assholes must have gone through.
“So you were in my country for seven months but could not open my safe, so much for your arrogance you bastards, as he shoved the key into the safe.
Click…. Click….then Osman with an awaited breath held the handle as the safe opened gently.
The contents in the safe were unharmed and oblivious of the assault on them.Osman picked up the daily collection money of the last days of the month and important documents of his office
He still could not believe it. He checked the Safe again. Wanting to know where he bought this safe from and its country of origin, he moved his hands all over the safe searching for the make. And he was surprised.
He never thought products made by this country were so reliable though he loved the culture, cuisine and the people.
You know what country the safe was from???
Yes, it was our very own INDIA.
You know who manufactured that product???
Yes, It was our very own GODREJ.
Osman smiled as he shut the locker again. He had to replace it but already knew where he will go to buy the safe. Being a frequent traveler, he also decided which country he will visit the next time after sorting out things here, the country he started respecting, which was India. Finally he had a reason to smile after a long long time.

(A true story though the characters are fictitious for the sake of dramatization. But the safe was owned by a car dealer and some Iraqis did try a lot to open it up. For us Indians, I guess this is one more story which should make us proud. We may not have a Microsoft or a Toyota but we sure have a Godrej.)