It was good to know that apart from Sri Lanka, the Indian rupee is welcome not only in Iraq but in some parts of Damascus too!
In the Iraqi holy town of Karbala, just outside the Faiz-e-Hussainy, the centre for Dawoodi Bohra Muslim pilgrims, there is an impromptu one-man currency exchange booth.
And guess what? Over 90 cent of his brisk business hinges around converting Indian rupees into Iraqi dinars. No prizes for guessing that in the post-war, strife-torn Iraq, the Iraqi dinar has been really battered and Rs 100 fetches you 2,500 Iraqi dinars! One US dollar fetches 1,000 Iraqi dinars. Before leaving for Iraq, my travel agent advised me to take US dollars in small denominations. “If you ask to convert $100 into Iraqi dinars, they might have to weigh it rather than count it out,” he joked, adding, “But carry Indian rupees with you, they are very welcome in Iraq.”
Well, if the forecast on some currency Web sites are anything to go by, the Iraqi dinar is expected to recover sharply in the next 2-3 years on the back of the huge oil reserves Iraq holds.
Anyway, with Indian rupees you can buy in Karbala or Najaf food, the most delicious, refreshing, sweet fruit juice (Rs 10 for a tall glass) and even SIM cards; shell out Rs 20 and you can munch tasty pistachios and almonds as you walk around the lanes bustling with all kinds of trinkets – from clothes to cosmetics, perfumes, cheap sunglasses, scarves, footwear, handbags, and of course, Baklava, the traditional West Asian sweets. But the ones I tried in Iraq, costing barely Rs 10 for a small piece, was nowhere near the delicious and much pricier ones in Damascus.
Once the black chador-clad women have finished the frenzied rounds of pilgrimage in the twin shrines of Imam Hussain and Hazrat Abbas, they all converge on these roadside stalls and shop to their heart's content, picking up goodies to take back home. Local people are, of course, busy picking up the freshest of fruits and vegetables and a variety of breads fresh from the bakers' ovens.
SIM-card blues
The currency dealer mentioned above was also selling local SIM cards. Elsewhere in the Arab world you have to produce your passport and provide a copy of it to get a SIM-card for your mobile phone, but not in Iraq. With a Rs 300-SIM card, you can get 10 minutes talk time to India, with free incoming calls. Forget the rip off you'd be subjected to if you used international roaming on your India number… it could be upward of Rs 250 or so for outgoing per minute, and Rs 150 for incoming calls per minute.
The local SIM card rate is cheaper even than Matrix, but more important, it is a lot easier and more convenient too. The Matrix number goes to India via London and there is a complicated way of getting connected; the charge is around Rs 35 a minute, but the ease of use is missing. So stick to Matrix while travelling to the US and Europe; it works like a song, but try it in North Africa or West Asia, and you are in trouble. In Syria, by the way, even the incoming calls for Matrix SIM cards are charged.
India gets huge respect
The Indian currency is eagerly accepted at fruit or juice stalls, shops and restaurants in Karbala and Iraq, and in some places Indian pilgrims/tourists visit in Damascus. In Damascus, of course, they are not familiar with the denominations.
A Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 note is accepted, immediately sent to the moneychangers at shopping places, and converted into Sryian pounds. A Syrian pound is at par with the Indian rupee.
One also found huge respect for Indians in both the countries. “Hind or Pakistan?” was the question directed to me numerous times.
The answer ‘Hind' was accepted with a huge smile and ‘Welcome'. Pakistanis are not liked here; I suppose it has to do with Pakistan hopping on to the American bandwagon as an “important ally” post-9/11 and when Iraq was bombed in 2003.
The Indian Parliament, Iraqis recall, had condemned the invasion of Iraq. If they only knew that this was during the BJP-led NDA regime, and the ideology of BJP, their respect for India would go up several fold!
(To be continued)