A man with a wrinkled face stands still on a cement block at the edge of a huge abstract white sculpture facing the sea. He turns his head to the right and sees yachts anchored at the marina, with a small triangular building far away behind them. Behind the building is a tornado shaped high rise, a basket shaped one, and some others. A small building is next to the marina with a sign on top of it saying “Alzubara Coffee Shop”, and a group of people is sitting outside. He turns his head to the left and sees an Oryx shaped tower standing in front of other towers.  A four-lane road is in front of the towers with a green sign next to it saying “Doha” with an arrow pointing south. Another green sign is set next to it and has “Qatar Metro Station next right” written on it with an arrow pointing west. The wrinkled faced man raises his head, closes his eyes, breathes hard and says “I miss the old Doha”.

He puts his right hand on his ghitra holding it while its corners move with the wind. He looks back at the street and he turns his head toward a group of children walking beside a large billboard with “Qatar 2022, six months to go” on it.  The children are wearing maroon t-shirts with Qatar 2022 on them. Three children are looking at a billboard that has a large drawing of a cartoon character wearing a thoab, a ghitra and an aagal and a bubble next to him saying “watch me on my new show at Aljazeera Cartoons everyday at 4:35 pm” and with bold letters “Abood, the smartest kid on earth, Habitain” Bellow the character, a logo with Aljazeera Network written on it, and next to it 25 small logos with “subscribe for Aljazeera Network for only 59.99 Khaleegi Dinars a year and broaden your view of the world” written under them. The three children turn their heads and stare at the wrinkled face man and one of them walks toward him and says “you are wearing the same thing Abood is wearing.” The man looks at him with his mouth widened and his eyes almost closed. He taps on the child’s head and says” Don’t you know what is that called?” The child says with a big smile on his face “No, but it looks funny in real life” The man’s eyebrows rise up as he says with a high pitched voice “kid! Aren’t you from here?” The child says with his eyebrows going down and a small vertical line appears between them “I am a Qatari. Come on Old man, don’t you see the t-shirt?” The man bites his lip and more wrinkles appear on his face and says “Kid, you have to respect the elders, you can’t talk to me in this way, I am as old as your grandfather!”

Two men pass by the wrinkled face man and the kid. One is wearing a green t-shirt with a script saying “Lusail Rocks”, and the other one is wearing a red polo shirt with “Qatar Formula-1 Team” on the back; bellow it with fine print “Sponsored by QP-Shell, a vision of a cleaner World. World’s leading clean fuel producer”. The guy with the green t-shirt says with a big smile on his face “Did you get to go to the Armin Van Buurin tribute concert last weekend in the Souq Waqif Hall?” The face of the guy with the polo shirt turns red and he says “Man I was stuck at work. Had a double shift plus I had to cover up for my friend. I wish I were there. Old school techno is the new thing man, plus I heard the concert was awesome”. The guy with the green t-shirt moves his arms left and right and his mouth widens and a set of teeth appears and says “Ya dude, it was crazy, and the crowd was going nuts. It was little expensive to get the tickets though. I had to work too hard for the previous two weeks to be able to get the ticket. 200 Khaleegi Dinars man. That was a lot, but to tell you the truth. It was totally worth it”.

Ahead, people are entering the crowded Alzubara Coffee shop. Guys are in jeans and loose shirts, and girls are in colorful accessorized Abayas. One girl wearing a purple Abaya looks at her friend who is wearing a pink one and says “Did you check the new Apple-Sony phone? It’s the bomb. You can make it as personalized as you want.” The girl in pink takes out a device from her large pink purse and shows it to her friend and says “Madree walla, I’m not really into the Apple-sony products. American and Japanese products are over rated and unreliable. I just went with this one. I am a big fan of the Chinese products. Amazing quality and competitive prices. Plus it has got everything that you need in a cell phone. It’s got the new wave technology that would allow me to get into anyone’s phone around me and check their profiles and all their info. It kinda bugs me sometimes, specially when guys over load my phone with their stupid comments to get to know me, Sij ma3indohom salfa, yet I still like this phone a lot.” 

Two guys sitting at the corner of the coffee shop chatting, one leans forward and taps the shoulder of the other guy, winks and directs his head left. He looks at the two girls in purple and pink Abayas, and says to his friend “check out those hot girls sitting by the corner, I’m gonna check their profiles and see if any of them was available” The guy sitting in front of him answers with a deep voice, “Shfeek int, you are crazy, we’ve got more important things to worry about. Man we have been searching for jobs for over a year, and my parents are bugging me to find a job and move out of the house, yet you still think of these small things. “. He leaves the coffee shop and walks toward the sea passing the wrinkled face man and the child. The sun starts to move downwards closer to the water and the lights in the coffee shop, the towers, and the street turn on. The child leaves the wrinkled face man and runs toward his friends. The man breathes out hard and says “I miss the old Doha!”