Off to Syria and Jordan- Part Two... Three existential questions

A visit to Syria and Jordan….raises lot of questions, bordering existential… first, what to see and what to leave… second, is traveling done for the purpose of reaching a destination or traveling per se is a destination… thirdly shall we travel with a plan or the road ahead is itself a plan…. all of these questions are inter-related, in a way.

The first question rises due to the fact that I am trying to combine two disparate streams… one of seeing more and more of Syria and Jordan in a very small time frame… and the other of traveling shoestring… I have realized over the years that traveling shoestring, even though the most wonderful way of traveling, is time consuming… to an extent that it cross-subsidizes lack of money with abundance of time… so a shoestring traveler must have more number of days for vacation.

I would like to travel Aleppo, Saint Simeon, Deir-Ez-Zur, Dura Europos, Palmyra, Damascus, Hamah, Apamea, Krac De Chevaliers and Bosra in Syria and Jerash, Ajloun, Madaba, Mount Nebo, Dead Sea, Karak, Petra, Wadi Moujib, Dana and Amman in Jordan. This is 21 places in 11 days… and this is not all, people tell me that to fully appreciate Aleppo, Damascus and Petra…one needs at least two days (in case of Damascus, even 4-5 days don't suffice). 11 days and 21 places is an impossibility… so I need to curtail the list… People tell me that if such is my predicament… its best to curtail non essential sites… and they are Deir-Ez-Zur, Dura Europos, Apamea, Bosra, Ajloun, Mount Nebo, Karak, Wadi Moujib and Dana. Some even tell me that I can skip Saint Simeon and Madaba if need be. Each of these places has their own importance… Deir-Ez-Zur is a town on river Euphrates… imagine coming to Syria and not seeing the Euphrates… that harbored the most ancient civilization. Dura Europos is the birth place of Selecus Nicator… the man who ruled parts of Western India (now Pakistan), after Alexander… till he was defeated by the might of Chandragupta Maurya and the shrewd of Chanakya… Selecus married his daughter to Chandragupta Maurya, which for starters make Syria seem like a long lost brother (or brother in law). Likewise in Jordan… Dana is a valley (in fact a part of same rift valley system that starts from Horn of Africa and goes on to the Dead Sea, where Bedouins preserve their age-old life style. I am not even talking about Wadi Rum, which by far is the most beautiful place in Jordan…but this is not the right time to do it due to summers. I intend to come back to Jordan for canyoning and desert trekking.

Second question is again, quite a bit related to the first… Is traveling done for arriving or traveling itself is an activity… to relish. I have mixed opinion about it. Many a times, I have enjoyed the mere activity of traveling. The best example is the Konkan journey I undertook, six years ago. There was nothing, to be double-quoted as a destination, and yet when told to recall the best part of my life… I readily recall those two weeks of wandering. Sometimes, however, destinations are enticing… they often lure us into undertaking some journeys… that we would like to forget.

Regarding Syria and Jordan, I have two options… one is to map the entire length and breadth of the two countries… see towns and cities… meet people… and as if it was incidental, see the monuments, scattered all over… The other is to stay back in major tourist destinations and mull over them… absorb them… People tell me that the journey from Aleppo to Deir-Ez-Zur is beautiful… meandering alongside the river Euphrates… punctuated by small towns and villages… and yet there is absolutely nothing to be seen in Deir-Ez-Zur. Should I go there? I really wish that I should!! And yet I fear that if I do, I may have to cut some magnificent places out of my list… most probably Jerash or Madaba.

Third question rises out of my indecisiveness… if I am unable to decide what to visit and what not to visit… and am unable to decide whether to travel or just to arrive… then isn’t it better to not to make any plans at all… It has two advantages… one it keeps my mind away from the clutter of information… and two it gives me a lot of flexibility to redesign my programme… as per the advice of the locals, depending on the situation. Yet it has two disadvantages… a lack of plan may kill a lot of my time… it is always better to arrive at a place with everything taken care of – hotels, place to see, travel connections etc. than arriving at a place and struggling to find a hotel, plan of action etc.

Anyway why to bother you with my musing… good news… I have succeeded in acquiring the visas of Jordan and Syria… Jordan was welcoming enough to give me a multiple entry visa for 6 months… but Syria gave me single entry visa… this means that if I want to go to Jordan again… then it is easy… Jordan can be a wonderful place to do some offbeat activities… In the Jordan River rift valley… there is an adventure sport called canyoning… then off course the Wadi Rum desert trek… so I can plan to come back to Jordan again… traveling to Jordan is not all that difficult… especially if you don’t want to avoid Israel…. There is a 16 hour bus ride from Cairo to Amman… also from Nuweiba Port (if one wants to avoid Israel), there is a daily ferry going to Aqaba… so the most important thing needed to go to Jordan is intent… and I have it.

Now for the final tally of the places, I am planning to go… Aleppo, Hamah and Krac, Palmyra, Damascus, Jerash, Madaba and Dead Sea, Dana, Petra. I will spend more than one day in Aleppo, Damascus and Petra… however there are riders… this is a tentative plan… if the road ahead seems to be a better plan… I will conveniently ditch them all.

For the last few nights, I have not been able to sleep very well… the names of these places have been knocking my dreams again and again… I eagerly await the moment, when I would be able to actually embark on the long awaited journey.

This is my last write up on the prelude to the journey and now when I write about the two places… it would be a first hand account of a traveler and not the pondering of a dreamer.

Off to Syria and Jordan- Part One.... Comfort Zones and all that

Some words just cling on to your memory…. During the process of my growing up…. I was an avid fan of Indiana Jones… and used to imitate and enact him during my lonely hours. I remember in one of his movies…he is standing amidst of Blacks and Berbers in an African souq and asking aloud

“Does anybody over here speaks English”

This dialogue reverberated within me for years… I used to wonder- how it would be like to stand instead of him, surrounded by people unknown and trying to find your way out.

Traveling beyond your comfort zone is difficult, if not in reality then in the mind. However, everybody has his or her own set of comfort zone… for someone it may just be his city… and for some other it may be the entire world. The idea is to keep expanding it, the more you expand it… the more you feel empowered and emancipated.

I remember when I used to take some personality building classes at Career Launcher in Gurgaon for prospective MBA students… there I met a very meek and timid boy, who lost his father at a very young age and was brought up by his mother in very difficult circumstances- who dreamt to stand on his own in the ruthless world and used to think that MBA was his passport for doing it. After conducting a mock interview, I realized, what he needed was not any career counseling but a total personality re-engineering. I was sure even if he did his MBA, he would still not succeed because he did not have any courage to stand up and be counted.

I called him back after all the mock interviews were over and told him that I would be conducting his next interview after a week, and that I wanted him to do one practical exercise… I told him to pack his backs, today- and not tomorrow- take 500 rupees in the pocket and head alone…without any company to Agra… stay there for three days, see Tajmahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, Sikandara and then after seeing them all come back. I told him that I have no way to ascertain if he does it all alone, I told him that I do not even have any means to force him to do it all… and yet as a senior, as a teacher…I place my trust on him… as I am sure it will help him.

One week later, I met him again… till then, he had gathered all his courage and done the trip all alone… and he was a changed person now… he was speaking more confidently and cheerfully…he had a sense of achievement, a sense of accomplishment…

What happened…? I believe that he just expanded his comfort zone… earlier his comfort zone was limited to the four walls of his house… and suddenly he was thrown into the big bad world and still he survived… he realized that beyond the confines of his house, there is a huge world out there to be reclaimed… to be experienced…

Coming to Egypt did something similar to me… earlier when traveling within India…I was never gripped by a fear of the unknown… for I was traveling in my own country… between my own people… people who will understand me… who will help me… and even if they don’t then help is one phone call away…

And then I used to take a hard look at my globe-trotting friends and feel jealous at the ease they use to hop from country to country… I was so ignorant… I did not know as to what is the difference between immigration and emigration, between passport and a visa (really so, I laugh at my ignorance now… but that was it… everybody develops with time and covers up his Achilles heel)

When coming over to Egypt… I developed cold feet and wondered how I will complete all the formalities and how would I survive… Thanks to my wife, I completed all my formalities and survived (My wife, strangely, is cool in such circumstances… she has amazing levels of confidence… I believe 5 years in sales teaches you to be a survivor)

So coming over to Cairo, dismantled my self doubts… but then was another set of self doubts settling in… as to how will I survive on the roads of Cairo…without any inkling of the local language… slowly but surely I learnt to survive there also… I realized English is on the way to become a global language… and quite a few people in Cairo understood most of the operational words of English… and learning a few words in Arabic was never a problem… Another self doubt sprung up, thereafter… as to how will I survive in the hinterlands of Egypt… where people do not speak or understand English. For a long time, therefore, while visiting hinterlands of Egypt… I just preferred third party operated tour, but soon gathered enough courage to travel places alone… I traveled the Sinai desert all alone… then the Western Oases alone… and mind you these are the places which are not even visited by hordes of tourists…

Slowly but surely I have developed very high degree of comfort level for Egypt…. It now seems to be my own country in all the respects… also regarding international travel; I have developed a high level of comfort level… And yet sometime I wonder … what if I am thrown into a sub-Saharan country without my official capacity. Say in Congo where, my Friend Paritosh tells me, an absolute anarchy prevails… (Actually I envy Paritosh for having seen such countries…soon he will be going to Sudan and Angola… yesterday I was telling him… the last 500 years were dominated by Europeans… because they took the challenge of finding sea-routes to newer vista…. Before that the 500 years were dominated by Arabs… because they established land routes between the far flung economies, despite the challenges thrown in by difficult terrains… I, therefore believe the next few years will be dominated by forces who invest in these untapped areas… who take the challenge of doing business in such hostile areas… who discover the economic potential of these places… did somebody say China!!!!!!!!)

Now is the time to expand my comfort zone even further…. Very soon I will be roaming in the expanses of Syria and Jordan… more about it later.

Learning from my soon to be two year old son…

Few months ago, my wife brought a puzzle for my son. It consisted of a board with 26 alphabetical shaped grooves and 26 wooden blocks, again of the same shape and size. The idea was to identify similar structures and fix them at the right places.

Initially they were merely a plaything for my son, Vidhu… to be thrown around… but soon, upon seeing my wife fixing them up… he understood the method behind the madness. And started trying the same.

However in the very beginning, he was just trying to fix things up without any consideration of shape or size… a Z for an A and N for a C. But with time he understood the concept of shape, if not size… he started seeing the difference between say A and B… though still, he was having a lot of problems with the somewhat similar structures… and sizes…

So he would confuse between A and V, then B and P, then C and G, O and Q, M and W, N and Z, E and F, L and T and so on… nevertheless, he would try and test for the fixability of the blocks and was sometimes successful in putting forth upto 10 blocks in the right places.

Later, he realized his follies… thereafter he could differentiate between shapes at a finer level….so most of his confusions were gone… his differentiation, it seems, were based on add-on to a particular shape and also the sizes… so very soon he realized as to what add-on a Q comes with, when compared to O… he also realized that N and Z are not similar because one is shaped longitudinally and other is shaped horizontally. So he learnt about the importance of sizes, too.

There remained, however, one problem. Even though, he was able to find the right place for every wooden block… but when it came to actual fixing of the block in the groove… he used to struggle. Say, he was trying to fix A in its groove the same way as V… that is upside down… he was not able to understand orientation of a particular letter. And either I or my wife had to help him with that. And clap for him, when he used to do it successfully.

Yesterday…something magical happened… (It was in logical continuation of the way he was learning… but understand my feeling). Suddenly, he picked up a few blocks brought them closer to the groove and then thought for a while and then at one go… rotated them either clockwise or counter clockwise to arrive at a near perfect orientation. He understood the importance of orientation too. And yesterday, he was able to fix all 26 alphabets at their respective places…. He smiled after doing that and clapped for himself. Then he did it twice, all over again.

There are a few patterns, by which he does them all. And I should imbibe them in me for success.

1. Learning from the past- He has this knack of not forgetting or not to unlearn, what he has already learnt. So once if he recognizes the difference between A and V… then very rarely he will commit the same mistake again. Don’t Unlearn the Past

2. Concentration- When he is playing with this game… no amount of disorientation can shake him. He forgets food, his favourite cartoon shows…everything… it is just him and the game. Concentrate on the problem at hand

3. Thinking before doing- He doesn’t jump on to conclusion… he chooses the block before embarking on the journey for its logical end… even after choosing the block, he takes a hard look at all the grooves before deciding its destination… and then while fixing it up, if he encounters any problem… he steps back and thinks again. Think before you act and when mistaken do the course correction

4. Slowly but Surely- I have seen him… that he solves the puzzle very slowly… but surely. There is no rushing… and absolutely no haste… he takes all the time in the world… He understands that time is not the essence, solution is… Quite often we rush things up and compromise on quality…. And set false deadlines for ourselves, when there aren’t any. In any case, there is no deadline for a shoddy work. Slow but steady wins the race

5. Patience- Vidhu demonstrates immense patience, when solving this puzzle… he often resembles a Yogi…doing his meditation… if he goes wrong somewhere… he never cribs…he just puts down the erring block and starts with another block… and after he is finished with the new block he comes back to the older block. Sometimes he errs with 4-5 blocks in continuation, and yet he never loses patience or hope. Patience is a virtue and so is hope

Kids are a reflection of God…they are born with a lot of Godly qualities… before being corrupted by us humans… so very often their ways are the purest and the simplest ways of doing things… I was told by the Yoga Teacher at the Indian Culture centre that the kids adopt the best posture to sit… with absolutely straight back and later they just imitate their parents and slouch…

Then take a simple case of chewing food… I see that Vidhu always chew his food well before swallowing it… he has a natural liking for the food that is healthy and dislikes what is not… he loves fruits and hate French fries…. He eats egg white and leaves egg yellow behind. Often the parents force the kids to develop a liking for a particular unhealthy food… than the other way round.

Parent hood is not a responsibility, but an opportunity given to us by God to remember… how simple is life… and what are the purest and most correct way of leading it… In a way, every kid is son of God… his messenger…

Regarding the lessons… I foresee my wife yelling… I used to always tell you.

An ode to Egyptian beauty

(Disclaimer: This write up is a light hearted one, written with no malicious intent, if somebody finds it offending or sexist…I would like to apologize before hand.)

A thing of beauty is a joy forever……

Few days ago, the Urdu teacher at the Indian Culture Centre… light hearted and very friendly Dr. Abdul Majeed told me an incident about an Indian poet who came to India… and was so enchanted with the beauty of Egyptian girls, that he wrote a couplet… (Dr. Majeed has a vast repertoire of Indian Urdu poems and literature)

The translation of the couplet goes like this…. That I was given an apple to eat and a knife to cut the apple, and there sat an Egyptian girl in front of me….. And I was so enchanted by her beauty that instead of the apple, I cut my finger.

It set me thinking, and I wondered about writing a blog piece on the beauty of Egyptian Girls…

The area west of India, starting from say ….Pakistan till about Algeria is full of beautiful people…tall height, fair complexion and voluptuousness being their hallmark….. I have always maintained that the most beautiful girls in the world, if earmarked on the basis of nationality or ethnic background….will be either the Lebanese or the Iranians… more so, Lebanese…. Lebanese have an advantage….and that is of having a well organized beauty industry and fashion conciousness, translating into better grooming and presentability.

Egyptian girls are probably part of the same stock… Egypt had had the advantage of being a melting pot of many beautiful races…. The Pharaohs, the Romans and the Greeks, the Syrian and Iranians, the Turks…. And the people over here progressively absorbed the features of all these races…. To add to this- the degree of beauty awareness, fashion consciousness is fairly good in Egypt (even though accesses to the beautification methods are limited due to the poor financial condition)… add to this the fact that girls in Egypt have a fair amount of say in day to day life…. This sense of empowerment provides an extra edge to the sexuality of them all.

Feature wise, there are two distinct effects visible among the girls… one that is distinctly European… reflecting the Greco Roman past…pale skin, locked hairs, light coloured eyes and hairs, softer contours of face… more so among the Copt or Christian girls. (Copts of Egypt have very strict rules of marriage and no Copt is allowed to marry beyond his or her community… this has resulted in preservation of original Pharaonic and Greco-Roman features). The other being the Arab features… sharp features with well defined jaw line, distinctly feminine physiology, dark eyes and fair to brownish complexion… This is found more prominent among Muslims (a catch, actually Muslim girls in Egypt display a wide range of features…..from distinctly European to the distinctly Sub Saharan African….and therefore it is very difficult to categorize them in one broad group).

Initially, when you see an Egyptian girl on the road for the first time… your aesthetics senses are shaken…. For we are born and brought up seeing a particular image of women… one that is governed by the oft repeated jingle in the media… that a women should look this way, dress this way…and this is the in-thing and this is a big no no. But sooner or later you start getting accustomed to it.

One, Egyptian love to eat… and therefore the girls come across as much weightier than what media prescribes for beautiful body. But soon you realize that this means they are voluptuous and have more prominent feminine features…. Salute to them for not succumbing to the western media viz portrayal of beauty. Two, Egyptian girls believe in extensive makeup… bordering bizarre….apparently the attempt is to somehow look fairer, but also accentuate the prominent features of the face….especially the eyes and the jaw line… but yes once you get to accept it as normal… you will see that the make up is done in a away so as to accentuate what is beautiful and not create an artificial beauty. Three, they believe that when it come to accessories, more is better… one can see an Egyptian girl adorning all types of accessories… from usual to unusual… from fashionable to outlandish… after a while they start looking normal and beautiful. Four, they have a very unique sense of dressing up… that picks up from both the western fashion and from the traditions… the stress is to look great and desirable, without exposing… this means that the fashion are somehow redesigned to suit the Egyptian familial sensibilities. Five, smelling stale is a fashion crime…, Egyptians in general treat themselves with a more than liberal dab of perfume… stress being on oriental oil based perfumes (for a lasting effect) than those based on alcohol. Six, it is often considered by many that head wear for women is mandatory… and therefore most of the Muslim girls are seen wearing head wear…and yet they are wore in such a way that they are fashionable, chic and go with the entire costume worn for the day.

Having attuned oneself to the above pointers, when one takes another hard look at the girls in Cairo… one starts appreciating their beauty…

Cairo streets are full of happy, giggling and confident girls… beautiful and charming in their own way… living life with a dignity… making their own decisions… working, seeking financial independence in a society that is increasingly becoming lopsided in favor of the male…

This is an ode to the beauty of Egyptian girls… a word of respect… when I see them walking down the street….I wish I were young again… at least at heart…

Hahahahahahahaha

A night in Alexandria Part One- Some thoughts about Alex

OK… so anyone who might be reading or casually going through my blog must have seen a brief lull in my blog…. From 30^th July till 8^th August.

The reason for that is that I was busy organizing an Odissi dance and Sitar recital programs in Egypt. The programs were held in Cairo, Ismaelia, Fayuum and Alexandria on 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 6^th August… tight enough to keep me busy and at tenterhooks.

The performances were given by Delhi based odissi dancer Ms. Kavita Dwibedi (www.kavitadwibedi.com) and Kolkata based Sitar player Mr. Purbayan Chaterji (www.purbayan.com). The performances were wonderful, though the backstage was a bit chaotic. This was my first brush with an event management from the scratch… and at least what appeared to the audience, my efforts were successful. I would soon be writing a post on the highlights of the occasion. So this was on a professional front.

On a personal front, however, when accompanying the group for a performance in Alexandria…. I spent one night on the roads of Alexandria with a colleague of mine, Sudhir. And what a wonderful night it was.

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt…and yet in a way it has no trappings of a large city. For the larger part of the year…it remains a sleepy town… but in summers, it is flocked by families all over Egypt… to escape the heat and enjoy the cooler climes of Alexandria… (it is however debatable whether Alex is cooler or not… it is only a few degree lesser than Cairo, but the humidity levels are daunting… nevertheless the ensuing Summer vacations…and an urge to take a dip in the sea…make Alexandria a wonderful spot…like Marsa Matruh and Al Arish)

Alexandria is a linear city….spread all along the coast… with little or no spatial depth. Thus entire life of Alexandria rotates around the sea. Specifically, from the Citadel that holds the mighty Quatbay Castle (built upon the ruins of famous light house of Alexandria) to the Montazah Garden (that houses the famous Montazah Palace or the summer retreat of the former Egyptian royalty) - sandwiched between the two is a magnificent sea front, among the best I have ever seen.

This linear design of the city enables the city to have an effective public transport system… in the shape of trams (off the sea front) and a by-a-minute microbus service (on the sea front). This translates into a lighter traffic, despite the density and a better civic sense (in comparison to Cairo).

I have a theory that a city with a better public infrastructure is more humble and civilized a city… for- a better public infrastructure brings a degree of egalitarianism and therefore a sense of belonging to the city dwellers… a clear cut example of it is the contrast between Delhi and Mumbai or Kolkata…. A better public infrastructure also tones down the pre-eminence of money and therefore cancels the disenfranchisement that may set in due to unequal distribution of wealth. Any government worth its salt should strengthen the public infrastructure in a city to develop it… without which it would always remain a soulless entity… I am often reminded of Gurgaon…. That lacks even a modicum of public infrastructure and therefore remains a soulless destination.

In the summers, the city comes to life…. with thousands and thousands of Egyptian family coming over to Cairo for a dip in sea and a public gathering… These families mostly travel in groups (comprising of extended families or close neighborhoods)… and therefore assume a centrality in Egyptian life… these vacations often enliven the budding romances, for young couple get a chance to spend time- in a legitimate fashion, these vacations also become a meeting ground for many a families who have lost touch with each other and finally these vacations breathe life into people who are zombied by the hard life of Cairo.

So in summers, one can encounter a lot of Egyptian families enjoying themselves sans the tense looks one encounters often in Cairo… Not to forget the beautiful Egyptian girls, who leave their makeup and inhibitions behind and enjoy themselves to the fullest… so the usual tacky “head dress” gives way to fashionable head wear or altogether an absence of it. (I realized that the incidence of adorning a hear scarf is relatively lower in Alexandria than in Cairo… moreover a girl in Alexandria is exempted from wearing it till she attains a higher age, in Cairo, sadly, I have seen girls wearing the head scarf from a small age of five). Thus when in Alexandria, one can sniff a freedom in the air… a few days ago I met a Copt girl who spent her childhood in Alexandria and now lives in Cairo, due to her job… She rued over the fact that how Cairo is a sad city in comparison to Alexandria and how Alexandria is progressively being turned into another Cairo, with time. Till a few years ago, she told me, Alexandria used to be a toned down version of a bohemian Mediterranean city… with cafes, night life, parties and today it has become more or less like Cairo… with a sharp divide in lifestyle and morality of people, depending on their strata.

Whatever she said, might be true, and yet I still sniff freedom and fun in the air of Alexandria.

So on the evening of 6^th August, I reached Alexandria and checked in one of the most fascinating hotels of the city…. The Sofitel (previously a landmark in the city known as the Cecil)…. The hotel was founded in 1902 and used to be one of the most wonderful hotel in entire Egypt… the elevators used in the Hotel are an engineering marvel from the yesteryears… I stayed in a sea facing room, it was one of the rooms that was part of the suite in which King Farooq stayed for a day (or at least that is what the staff told me). It also has one of the oldest continuously running night clubs in the city…

So at the very outset I realized that this visit is going to be memorable.

Fun thing to do in Cairo

What is the most interesting thing one can do, when in Cairo? See the pyramids, visit the Khan e Khalili and sit at Fishawi Ahwa, stroll around in the City of the dead especially on a Friday when people come to their familial graveyards and hang around in the Souq Al Goma'a, visit the Islamic Cairo, hang around in the Coptic Cairo….or just visit the Grand Egyptian Museum…

Everybody will give a different answer- Cairo has everything to cater individual's interest…

Pyramids-for instance- are the only surviving wonder of the world, seeing it makes you wonder as to how on earth human could make it 5000 years ago. It is absolutely delightful to watch the evening sound and light show- even though a bit infantile and kitschy.

Khan e Khalili still preserves the wonder of a medieval era market…a weary travel will often be dazzled by the sheer variety of knick-knacks being sold in the market, the personal touch of the sellers, the bargaining, the dust and the heat… and get a taste of the markets as they used to be, till big corporations took over-firstly the production, then the supply chain and then the retail. Sit at the Fishawi Ahwa… that never closes… and smoke a Sheesha and feel like Naguib Mahfouz… life can not get more idyllic than this.

City of the dead is a wonder in itself… a graveyard that has got converted into a residential neighbourhood… For us Hindus, it is difficult to understand the concept of afterlife… (Same goes for the Occidental religions to understand the Hindu concept of Life Cycle)… The Occidental religions believe in the concept of Day of Resurrection and thus believe that the man who is born preserves his identity till the eternity (or at least till the Day of Resurrection) - therefore among a lot of Occidental cultures, it was perfectly normal to live in the grave quarters of one's own family members… the necropolises near Pyramids, the Catacombs of Alexandria bear a testimony of this age-old practice. We Hindus, on the other hand believe in the ephemerality of humans and permanence of souls…. However today the practice of living in the Grave Quarters is governed more by the poverty than the age old practice. On Fridays, a lot of Cairenes visit their family graves and picnic around it. There is an absolutely wonderful Friday Market in the vicinity that sells cheap wares and about everything for household needs…. Do visit it.

Islamic Cairo is very close to the Khan e Khalili market and yet for me transcends its usually defined boundaries… in fact entire Cairo is an specimen of Islamic Cairo…beautiful mosques, prayer calls, devout Muslims… there are ahwas, the hammams in the narrow alleys of this part of Cairo… which impart all the fantasies, one might have conjured up while reading the tales of Thousand and one Night or the Journeys of Sindabad or Alibaba and Alladin, a life.

Coptic Cairo is again a fascinating place… it is the only place in the world, beyond Jerusalem- where a Mosque, a Church and a Synagogue are found…. Visit it on a Sunday, when hordes of Coptic families come to pray in these churches… these churches have been around for years…the architecture is fascinating and beautiful.

The Great Cairo Museum is a small, red unassuming building… in midst of a concrete jungle… flanked on one side by the infamous Mogamma (the Egyptian interior ministry) and on the other by Nile Corniche. But it houses one of the most enduring and enchanting treasures, to be found in entire world… a treasure so valuable that museums around the world proudly display few pieces of it and feel smug about it… whereas on the contrary…this aging building displays an entire deluge of these wares (and hides even bigger deluge in its go-down, waiting for the completion of an even grander museum to shift) and still remains humble. Do visit the mummy room and the Tutenkhamen's treasure to gawk at the treasures of this place….

One will say, there is hardly anything to do after having done all this. But I beg to differ… one of the most liveliest and delightful thing to be done in Cairo…looks so commonplace that most of us just overlook it, as pedestrian and vulgar.

For months together….while sitting at the banks of Nile, I used to see dozens of boat plying cross and forth with blaring music, tacky lights and people dancing, picnicking and enjoying… I used to wonder if that is the idea of enjoying themselves… and if it were, do the aesthetics of it go for a toss. And yet one day, upon being insisted by my wife…I did go for a boat ride….And thereafter just got addicted to it.

Although you can find the moorings for boats all over the Nile… yet Maspero in Downtown Cairo is the most famous and oft visited mooring…. There are two different jetties for the private boat owners (smaller boat with a seating capacity of 20-30, powered by a diesel engine- it charges 2 Egyptian pound for a half an hour boat ride) and other for government owned boats (these are bigger boats, with more facilities aboard, have two storey… lower one is a hall with seats and big windows to see around and the upper one is an open deck- it charges 6 Egyptian pounds for an hour ride)

Both the rides have their advantages… the government boats are bigger and faster and therefore cover a larger distance…. Yet they are somewhat indifferent and impersonal… people keep to themselves… the smaller boat do not have the advantage of traveling large distance and yet because of the proximities involved, the experiences are more intense and personal.

Cairenes love picnicking, especially in the evenings….So one will find a lot of families coming over for a boat ride…. Not to forget the lovers who enliven their romance on a boat, coyly whispering in each others ear and giggling… for them it is a refuge from the harsh reality of Cairo life.

And when the moods are upbeat, the blaring music of the boat … that otherwise may seem like noise… gives way to a wonderful session of dance. And then you can see the art of belly dancing, as practiced by the commoners…that doesn’t have a vulgarity attached to it…. But a pure intent of enjoying oneself….

So if in Cairo, do ride a boat…it doesn’t even cost a fortune