The Fruit Market

One of my best memories of Bahrain is the fruit market. I'm not talking about the new air conditioned structure they have just put up a few years ago... I'm talking about the oooold massive maze of interlocking sheds with these white fans that hung really low from really long stems that made a rumbling hum and shook like a salt shaker. When I was young, I used to go to the fruit market with my father. He used to wake me and my younger brother up early -around 6 -to take us there. The perfect start to a friday morning. i can still smell the mix of apples, orange, watermelons and oh dont forget the mangoes.I get nostaligc whenever i walk into a fruit store. i loved watching my dad, smile and say salaam to every fruit vendor and argue and haggle about prices.Only in bahrain can you return a half eaten 'sharifa' and say its not tasty. I was hardly ten years old. the connection was awesome, people from all sizes, shapes, colors all working together. Not to forget, the guys walking around with chai- everyone was just chilling. my father walked there. i walked with him. Thats my best memory- the fact that my father walked those streets and i smiled with him.


Thajba, 30 years old, Saar