Salim Eisa Saab is just 17, but he stood like a king as I photographed him for our cover. He is a Mahra, an ancient tribe that proudly traces its origins through Dhofar and across the desert into Yemen.

You can see that pride in him as he shows off his family house, spread over a handful of wooden cabins built on sand. Each sandaka is separated from the other by a couple of metres of flat, hot ground. We walked through the majlis, with its red carpet and broken television, the kitchen, with its industrial-sized freezer, and finally the master bedroom that was the real pièce de résistance with its chandelier and fake flowers – pure, unadulterated kitsch.

From the Mahra cabins of Mitan to the Kathiri villas in Shisr to the dead-ends of Hasik, concrete is being poured, destinies decided and lives changed. This is Oman, today.

Pinaki Chakravarty
pinaki@apexstuff.com