📚
Books with a pulse
Arabic novels, local horror, characters that refuse to leave quietly — and of course, دلشاد.
The one where Ali turns thirty-eight
Chapter38
For the spoiled city boy with excellent taste, suspiciously good jokes, a weakness for dark green Bentleys, books that stay in your head, and stories best told after midnight.
enter the story
01 / Things that feel very Ali
A man of details.
curated, not random
🌿
Dark green everything
Not just green. Bentley green. Deep, polished, expensive-looking, slightly dramatic. Correct taste, unfortunately.
🪵
Omani soul
The wooden Omani stick, local stories, tradition without being stuck in the past — heritage with personality.
🧴
Perfume memory
Because some people remember a place by a photo. Others remember it by what the air smelled like.
🎨
Art + music
Things that make ordinary life less ordinary. The right song, the right room, the right person.
☕
Monica energy
Smart, intense, funny, particular. “I KNOW!” — but with much better perfume and an Omani passport.
“Some people are easy to meet. A few are difficult to forget.”
02 / Mirbat, Salalah
Once was enough.
We met once. That is objectively not a lot of data.
And somehow, Mirbat still became one of those places that now carries a person inside it.
The conversations, the jokes, the quiet moments, the chemistry — all of it made a very short chapter feel unusually complete.
في أماكن منمرق فيها… وفي أماكن بتضلّ معلّقة فينا بسبب شخص واحد. مرباط بالنسبة إلي صارت من النوع الثاني.
03 / A birthday soundtrack, theoretically
For your 38th season.
no skips allowed
01 — For the long drivessomething cinematic
02 — For midnight readingsomething haunting
03 — For being dramaticobviously essential
04 — For Mirbat, againunfinished business
05 — For the Bentleydark green only
06 — For usto be determined
04 / classified page
One last chapter.
This part is not really a birthday message. It is more like a page I almost left out. Which is exactly why you should probably read it.
Ali,
I don't know what the smartest way to say this is, so I’ll choose the truest one. Meeting you in Salalah felt unexpectedly easy — the kind of connection that didn’t need a long history to feel real. I liked the way we talked, the way we laughed, the way the time around you felt different. And since Mirbat, I’ve caught myself wondering what happens if we don’t leave it as one beautiful, random chapter.
I like you. Not in a dramatic “let’s name the future” way. In a curious, honest way. I want to see you again, spend more real time together, and find out whether this chemistry has somewhere interesting to go. No pressure, no script, no forced ending. Just an open door — if you feel that curiosity too. يمكن أحلى شي صار بمرباط إنّي ما كنت متوقّع منك شي… ومع هيك رجعت وأنا عندي فضول كبير أعرفك أكتر. مو لأنّي بدي أستعجل قصة، بالعكس. بس لأنّي حاسس إنو في شي بيننا بيستاهل نعطيه مساحة ونشوف لوين ممكن يوصل. إذا إنت كمان حاسس بهالفضول… أنا حابب نكمّل الفصل.
I don't know what the smartest way to say this is, so I’ll choose the truest one. Meeting you in Salalah felt unexpectedly easy — the kind of connection that didn’t need a long history to feel real. I liked the way we talked, the way we laughed, the way the time around you felt different. And since Mirbat, I’ve caught myself wondering what happens if we don’t leave it as one beautiful, random chapter.
I like you. Not in a dramatic “let’s name the future” way. In a curious, honest way. I want to see you again, spend more real time together, and find out whether this chemistry has somewhere interesting to go. No pressure, no script, no forced ending. Just an open door — if you feel that curiosity too. يمكن أحلى شي صار بمرباط إنّي ما كنت متوقّع منك شي… ومع هيك رجعت وأنا عندي فضول كبير أعرفك أكتر. مو لأنّي بدي أستعجل قصة، بالعكس. بس لأنّي حاسس إنو في شي بيننا بيستاهل نعطيه مساحة ونشوف لوين ممكن يوصل. إذا إنت كمان حاسس بهالفضول… أنا حابب نكمّل الفصل.
— A.
M I R B A T