Circumnavigating the Western Desert: Part Three–Bashendi and some reflections.

Dakhla is an exact opposite of Kharga. If Kharga has deteriorated into a suburb of Cairo, then Dakhla is a modernized and planned version of Siwa. Though of course, due to lack of tourists- things remain simple and beautiful. Mut is the central most town of Dakhla oasis, and also its biggest town. On either sides (east and west) it is flanked by small oasis villages, worth visiting once.

On its route from Kharga, for instance, it is preceded by the villages of Teneida, Bashendi and Balat. All three of them are special in their own ways. Teneida is the starting point for a desert trek into deep desert where some human settlements from the Stone Age are located. In fact most of the artifacts shown in Kharga museum from this age, come from this place near Teneida. However the trek is treacherous, done by fully equipped professional groups. Balat is a beautiful village- with donkey slow pace of life. It is also famous for its desert architecture, which spreads from Western Desert in Egypt to Libya, Chad, Sudan, Algeria- however people told me that Balat has started seeing some development and therefore the old mud architecture is giving way to concrete and therefore, I may avoid Balat in favour of Al Qasr (west of Mut on Dakhla- Farafra road).

But there is something absolutely wonderful about Bashendi. Bashendi comes from two words Basha and Hindi. In Arabic they denote a king and an Indian, respectively. Apparently some five hundred years ago some Indian noble or a saint came here and settled here. He was a Sufi and even today is venerated by the villagers. In fact he can be termed as the saint of the village.

In Egypt most of the villages have their own saints and their Moulids (their birthdates) are celebrated with a lot of festivities. It is something like the Urs; we have for our Sufi saints. One of my Shiite friend once pointed out that though Egypt is officially Sunni but has a lot of traditions from the Shiite Islam, probably due to the Fatimid dynasty. In fact Eid Al Milad Ul Nabi, prophet's birthday (PBUH) is a very important festival in Egypt, much like Iran and India than the Sunni Saudi Arabia. And the root of this tradition has its root in the Fatimid rule over Egypt. If you are in Egypt, trying going to the more ethnic locations of Cairo and you will find people selling dolls made up of sugar, during the feast of Prophet's birthday. I was instantly reminded of similar such things being sold in India during Deepawali. Is there a connection, may be there is, India-Iran-Iraq-Syria-Egypt-Morocco were thriving medieval civilizations and had a lot of interactions among them. Some years ago, I read the travelogues of Ibn Batuta who traveled from Morocco to India and died there. It is an interesting read, he also points out as to how different cultures have adapted the teachings of the Prophet- different customs and yet the essence is the same. Now I can relate to the travelogue.

For instance when I was first introduced to the local comic hero, Goha and his antics- I jumped with glee and said that he is nothing but Khoja Nasiruddin. Now we were told that Khoja was located somewhere in the Central Asia or even closer in the Pashto heartlands of Pakistan or Afghanistan, the Iranians believe that he was actually an Iranian, Egyptians believe that he was an Egyptian and Moroccan claim it to be their Hero- nobody willing to budge from his stance- but this obstinacy, actually points towards something unique- that the global culture, which people have started talking now and the concept of global village is not all that new- probably when Islam and Christianity were preparing for Crusades on the western frontiers of Islam- a very peaceful cross synthesis was happening on the eastern frontiers of Islam in Iran, in India and further east in Indonesia.

A few days ago, I was hearing a lecture by Professor Ahmed Darwish of Cairo University- and he was telling as to how Panchatantra has spread in entire Islamic world and the Mediterranean Europe with modifications reflecting the specific socio-cultural milieu. His insights were wonderful- as to how even the animals depicted in the story changed from a deer to a camel to a horse, once the stories of Panchatantra moved from India to Iran to Egypt to Morocco to Spain, Italy and France. The lesson- do not judge a civilization by the turmoil or morass set in last 100 or 200 years- civilizations have strengths and wisdom beyond the limited human understanding. Today, the Islamic civilization is ridiculed but less than 500 years ago it was doing path breaking researches, creating new sciences, redefining and expanding oriental knowledge, and may be 500 years from now- nobody knows!!!!

I alighted for a while in Bashendi. Though my destination was Mut, but I wanted to see the village where an Indian saint is revered till date. I gave myself two hours to roam around the village and find the tomb of the Indian saint. I was greeted by a swarm of village children, who gathered all around me and urged me to take their photographs, I obliged and as I had a digital camera- I could instantly show them what I had shot.

I was led to the tomb of Basha Hindi, which was in the centre of the village- all along people told me that "He" was also an Indian like me; there was a natural affection for me in the hearts of people, as I belonged to the same country, from which their saint came. Once at the tomb, I just kneeled down in front of the place and muttered a prayer joined my hands and prayed with Hindu rituals. My rituals were strange for the villagers, but everybody understood that I was actually praying, like they use to do.

While walking back towards the road- somebody asked me if I was a Muslim, I said no, I am a Hindu. He smiled at me, I smiled back. No questions asked, no suggestions given. At that point of time, we both were Humans, brothers and isn’t that what Islam preaches and what Hinduism says.