On Kandahar Air Field

Kandahar Air Field is a treat to watch…

Many a times and often, when I flew over the Kandahar International Airport… I was mesmerized to see the expanse of the Kandahar Air Field.

Kandahar Air Field… popularly known as KAF… is the base of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan. Most of the soldiers within the KAF are of either Canadian or American nationality… with sprinkling of other nationalities like British, Dutch and Australian… in fact, all international troops, who come to volatile southern region, are fist brought to KAF for area familiarization and then sent to different provinces like Uruzgan (where a ISAF base is in Tirinkot), Helmand (where a ISAF base is in Lashkargah), or Zabul (where a ISAF base is in Qalat)… and many other forward posts in hinterlands and along Afghanistan-Pakistan borders, which is the transit route for the Taliban.

Apart from the forces, a number of international NGOs also work from the KAF… most prominent among them is USAID.

And then there are number of civilian contractors, who manage the utilities for the international forces… utilities like gymnasium, mortuaries, housekeeping, canteens, shopping malls, construction etc. Now most of these contractors employ people from India, Nepal, Srilanka, Phillipines etc. And I use to think that about 1000 odd Indians were working in KAF, until something happened some ten days ago.

While sitting in my office, I received a distress call from one of the Indians working in KAF. His name was Shiva, working for a contractor called “Copenhagen”, he worked as a supervisor in the company… he told me that two Indians have lost their passports while they were being sent to Kandahar Regional Foreign Office for extension of work permit and visa. And that he required help from me… in this matter.

And then I decided to pay a visit to the Copenhagen contractors in KAF.

Entering KAF is a Herculean task… it is a fortress… an entire township well guarded by layers and layers of Hesco, Texas and Jersey Barriers… and then by a number of security guards, who have guns like one you have never seen… in fact last time on I had a near death experience while trying to enter KAF… when our liaison officer from inside KAF was late to come to receive us… and therefore in exasperation, I came out of my vehicle and tried to walk towards one of the security guards… who upon seeing me pointed his gun towards me and unlocked his gun… one shot and I would have been a history. Firstly, I cursed the security guard but then after that I could understand why he act so funnily… there is always a threat of Body Bound Improvised Explosive Device (popularly known as Suicide Bombers)… lurking in this part of the world.

This time, I told Shiva to be there at the gate in time… so that I do not undergo a near death experience once again. And this time on… Shiva was on time, sparing me from an aiming gun and a feeling that I could have been a history.

Shiva is an intelligent chap… suave and well connected… he not only took me to the Copenhagen Headquarters, where I met a number of Indians and assured them that we would take all necessary steps to solve their problems… he also told me about other companies where Indians are working and facing some or the other problems… and then he made a guesstimate that about 5-6000 Indians are working inside the KAF in different companies… most of them uneducated and face many problems… time and again… I gasped… 6000 and I don’t have an inkling… yeah traveling in this place is a problem… nor they can come out of KAF and neither I can freely go out of my office… but 6000 is too large a number to be callous about.

Shiva also took me to the Asian canteen… which was the biggest dining facility I had seen in my life… could have seated almost 2000 people… serving Asian (mostly Indian) delicacies… life is not all that uncomfortable in Kandahar… I thought. Then he took me to one of the gymnasiums in KAF… amazing… state of the art machines… and people working out like mads… are they here to fight or to party, I thought again… and then to the Shopping Complex… which has Thank God Its Friday… Pizza Hut… Burger King… etc.

Then there is a Super Market… where one gets all kind of things… latest magazines, grocery, cosmetics, books, CDs… you ask and it is there… my head started spinning… this was a different world… it was like as if I had been transported from 12th century to 21st century… I bought ‘The Lost Symbol’ and a copy of ‘Gulistan’ (in English) from there.

KAF is an amazing place to visit… I have seen a lot in life… Reliance Jamnagar Refinery, Smart Village in Cairo, Enron Power Plant in Dabhol, Alang Ship breaking yard… but KAF is something else… and not to forget the advanced weaponry and military vehicles one gets to see in this place… simply out of the world.

While coming out of the KAF, I resolved to reach out to each and every Indian… I had tried this even before… but that was a piece meal approach… driving back I conjured up the idea of starting “Project Milap”, with a team… to register each and every Indian in KAF… and reach them through phones or emails… or even by personal visits…

Today, I registered 100th Indian. I am smiling.

Musings from Anatolia, Part One: On Arabic and Turkish scripts

Turkish is a language of Persian-Arabic family… it has borrowed a large number of sounds and grammar from the two great languages. However today, if you were to visit Turkey… you would find that Turkish written in Latin alphabets…

After the formation of new Turkey… the father of modern Turkey Kamal Ataturk introduced a new script for Turkish language… this script was different to the Persian script being used during the Ottoman period… Ataturk saw the Ottoman period as dark ages, and wanted to usher Turkey into the modern ages.

He met a few problems in the way of doing so… firstly the Turkish language is as different to Latin based languages… as chalk to cheese… therefore a mere transliteration wouldn’t have solved his problem. (Arabic speakers transliterate Arabic in English in a very different fashion… for instance Arabic has two “H” sounds… one deep and one soft… they represent the deep one with a 7 and the soft one with ‘h’... now unlike these transliteration methods, where numbers like 3 and 7 are used… Ataturk was looking at a method to write Turkish with the help of Latin alphabets only). Not only this, in Arabic there are 3 long vowels and 3 short vowels- a, aa, e, ee, u and uu; plus there are no vowels called sukoons… but the short vowels and sukoon are not written in Arabic… they are merely understood by a native speaker (for example if I say “I m gng fr dnnr”… those who are familiar with English and the context… would read it as “I am going for dinner”… despite lack of vowels… same is the case with Arabic script).

To bridge this problem, Ataturk modified the Latin script by introducing a few new alphabets… a ‘c’ with an appendage, an ‘s’ with an appendage, a ‘g’ with an appendage and an ‘i’ without a dot. These new alphabets were able to express all the Turkish sounds effectively…

The second big problem was spreading this script… Kamal Ataturk took this responsibility on to himself… he traveled far and wide inside Turkey to teach and convince people about the new script… he faced many problems… widespread illiteracy, people considering Arabic script as sacred, people not willing to learn… but Ataturk was able to face all these challenges and spread the new Turkish script in his lifetime.

His feat is sometimes considered second most stunning modern achievements in the area of linguistics… the first being revival of Hebrew language in modern Israel. The revival of Hebrew was no mean feat too… considering the Hebrew has always remained a language of Torah, and that’s it… it was not developed or added to for thousands of year… and suddenly it was required to match the demands of modern life… have a word for car, television, satellite etc.

Nevertheless, I consider Ataturk’s achievement bigger than the revival of Hebrew language. Ataturk was fighting many odds… people didn’t have any motive to learn new Turkish script, the new script was pitched against a tried and tested Persian-Arabic script- often considered sacred… in contrast, Hebrew was regenerating in a vacuum… Israelis were motivated enough to learn it… as it galvanized their claim for “Promised Land”.

However… Ataturk’s achievement is not without a sense of irony.

It is often said that the holy Quran was revealed in Mecca, recited in Cairo and written in Istanbul.

The Ottoman and Seljuk Turks promoted the art of Islamic calligraphy with such a vigour that it became an institution in itself… but for the Turks, Arabic wouldn’t have become a calligraphic language that it is now.

And Ataturk snatched the same script from the Turks.

Arabic script was very rudimentary when the holy Quran was revealed… the script during that time was written in Maliki font … most of early copies of Quran were written in Maliki script. Along the same time Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam was secretly writing all the verses of Quran, as and when it were revealed to the Prophet… in his own calligraphy, called Kufi calligraphy, having square, knotted and flowered way of calligraphy. (In fact, it is said that when the holy Quran was finally compiled in the form of one book, after corroboration and counter-corroboration among few dozen closest friends of the Prophet (PBUH)… it was finally taken to Hazrat Ali, and it was found that it matched his compilation… and thereafter, holy Quran was accepted as without having any human misinterpretation… divine and pure)…

Thereafter, the Arabic calligraphy remained static for another 500 years… while modifications were made to the Kufi and Maliki calligraphy. Ibn-e-Muql combined the Kufi and Maliki fonts to create Sulus and Nesih forms; Ibn-e-Bawwab created two more fonts called Rehani and Muhaqqeq… he also created rules and thus science of further developing Arabic Calligraphy.

It was left to Turks… the Seljuks… to give another dimension to the Arabic Calligraphy… a person called Yakut Amaysa created a huge number of innovative fonts for Arabic… the prominent being Tewki and Rikaa. In fact, it is often said that before Yakut, there were only six fonts… and after him more than 60… and he created most of them single handedly.

Sheikh Hamdullah picked up from where Yakut had left… armed with royal patronage… he started a revolution of sorts… when Islamic Calligraphy became a national passion… the calligraphy reached its zenith during his times… when he created a number of beautiful fonts… and set up workshops after workshops of pupils who created more and more fonts. Sheikh Hamdullah is often termed as Qiblet-ul-Kitab (the foremost writer) for his achievements.

I remember that one of my Arabic teacher Jean (a French priest) said that Arabs are mad about fonts… perhaps they inherited this madness from Turks.

And hadn’t I been a pondering vagabond… I wouldn’t have realized.

Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Five: Inside the Haga Sofia

While talking about Haga Sofia… Yusuf was numb… when you stand in the confines of the place… you are transported to a history of thousands of year… you could come to Turkey, just to see Haga Sofia… it is the history of Turkey… of religion.

Yusuf was not dramatic… I have always heard people speaking very fondly about Haga Sofia… when you start visiting the place, and see the foundations of a pagan temple… frescoes of Jesus and Mary… and then a mehrab of a mosque… and then read somewhere… that Kamaal Ataturk converted this mosque into a museum to showcase and underline Turkey’s secularism… you actually feel numb.

Haga Sofia has history, grandeur and poignancy… all rolled in one.

When I bid adieu to the Egyptian couple… and started walking towards Haga Sofia… I first came across a grand fountain… called the German fountain… and thereafter the Haga Sofia…

What pinched me at Haga Sofia, though, was the very steep entry fee… 20 Turkish Lira… almost 600 Rupees. I recalled my visit to the Tajmahal in Agra… and the entry fee being 5 Rupees for me… and for the foreigners, 500 Rupees… at that time I could not understand the gross injustice of such differential charges… but while paying for Haga Sofia… I felt that such high charges are unjust. But then… Haga Sofia was worth every penny, although some construction was going on inside and large parts of it were marred by scaffoldings.

Further ahead in Topkapi Palace… the retreat of Ottoman emperors… now a museum. Topkapi is an amazing place to visit… for it holds all the treasures of Ottomans. Remember that Ottomans were the last Caliphs and therefore most of the original relics related to Islam, Prophet and his very first followers- are lying among the treasures of Ottoman emperors…

Not only that Ottomans also represent the zenith of Islamic art… fusing the Seljuk, Ommayad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Persian and European art forms… they created something so extra-ordinary, which blinds you with its grandeur and beauty. And that treasure is housed in Topkapi… the cloak and bow-arrow of Prophet … the sword of Ali… so many beautiful things… that you are overwhelmed… every building inside the Palace is an architectural masterpiece… I remembered the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem… and how beautiful its external tile-work was … here every building had the same tile-work.

Topkapi is “Mecca” for anybody who is interested in the history of Islam… in a way… it represents the zenith of Islam, too… under the Ottomans, who ruled half the civilized world at one point of time… from Persia and Central Asia… to Morocco… and from Yemen to East Europe… Islam reached its pinnacle… in faith, in arts, in philosophy, in science… and after which it again started treading the path of dark ages… under the Wahabi ideology, which even the Prophet rejected.

In the confines of palace, somewhere… also lies the peacock throne… I was confused… I am led to believe that peacock throne is in England… but here it was displayed in the Topkapi… a curator explained… that peacock throne was not one of its kind… but a type of throne… which got its name from wonderful exposition of colour work… so one could be in England… and other could be in Teheran… and yet another in Istanbul.

Close to Topkapi is a wonderful archaeological museum… worth a quick visit… nearby there is a beautiful park… I saw a number of families hanging out there… I was reminded that Turkey is on a longish holiday season due to Eid.

I retraced my steps back towards the Hippodrome… which is the central spot in all of Sultanahmet… my next stop was the Basillica Cistern… it was used by the Greeks to collect potable water… Istanbul, at that point of time… didn’t have an independent water source… the water was brought from faraway places via aqueduct and collected in an underground cistern reservoir… moreover rainwater was also stored after being filtered by the land above… in fact there were a number of such underground cisterns all over the region… Basillica being the largest and the most important… due to its coordinates.

To see the cistern, one needs to go underground… where artificial wooden platforms and pathways have been created… for people to walk and look at different parts of the cistern… the lightening of the entire place is very dim, orange light… which provides an eerie ambience to the entire cistern… in the background a haunting music plays… giving the entire place a part-romantic, part-scary character.

At one corner of the Cistern are the statues of Medusa… a Greek mythological figure… it is said that Medusa was a very beautiful girl, with black eyes and long hairs… she loved the son of Zeus… but a Greek God Athene (on whom the name Athens come) also loved her… when Athene could not win Medusa’s heart… he cursed her and turned her into a witch with an evil eye… so evil that just by her glance on someone… she turned him into a stone. When the son Zeus heard that his beloved has become a witch… he killed her and used her head to win many wars… the enemy armies, who faced the head, were turned into stone… thereafter Medusa became the symbols of Byzantine swords.

A very tragic love story, indeed.

Istanbul is perhaps the only city in the world which extends in two different continents… I have seen Port Said and Port Suez, which are partly east and partly west of Suez Canal… it being the boundary between Asia and Africa… but Istanbul’s expanse is not artificial like them… it actually stretches between the two continents… history has imparted it this virtue…

It was time that I visit the other Istanbul… the Asian Istanbul… Sultanhahmet… is in Europe… I needed to walk towards a place called Eminonu and take a ferry to Uskudar… crossing the Bosphorus and go to Asia…

A boat from Asia to Europe.

A Day well spent

After so many days… it was a day well spent.

On January 1st, I was invited by few of my UN friends over for a lunch… well… dinner is not a possibility due to curfew in the evenings.

The UN guest house, a reasonably fortified place, is a few hundred meters away from my place of stay… and yet in a way its far away… we hardly see each other, the UN people and us… due to the fickle security conditions. One of my very good friends over there… always invites me for a football match or a cricket match (he is a British, and therefore either way, its fine for him)… and though I try my best… something or the other happens and I have to drop my plans to go there.

This time however, I was able to make it there… and met a number of wonderful people… the life in Kandahar does not give me a lot of chances to socialize… and yet my interactions in this place have been much more intense and meaningful… probably because of the fact that everyone, like me, starves for meaningful socialization and when it happens… its much more intense, much more frank and much more meaningful.

Anil Chandrika is an Indian national… a Tata Institute of Social Sciences pass out… he has extensive developmental experiences in Nepal and Afghanistan… he used to work for the Agha Khan Foundation (which has been doing great work in this place, albeit very quietly)… presently he works for the United Nations Development Program… as a consultant and regional head for governance in entire South-West Afghanistan… its always a pleasure talking to him… to share his dreams and exasperations… his ideas and confusions…

That day, we had some very serious discussions about the way sub-national governance is shaping up in Afghanistan… I was particularly impressed with the insights and analysis he provided… I commented… Anil, you are having experience of a life time… he smiled and quipped… but at what cost… imagine life without alcohol… I assured him… something is just around the corner.

I met Steve for the third time… an American… there is something within his demeanor that suggests that he had seen a lot in life… the last time when we met… we discussed a lot of ideas about the situation in this region… everything he told me provided me a key to open a lock in order to decipher the complex situation in this region… he speaks very mildly, very politely and very philosophically… it seems that he weighs each and every word… and therefore one must lend his full attention to what he says… lest he may miss something.

We were sharing our expectations viz. security in the year to come… and I said that it may go out of control… that the signals are ominous… the year has begun in the shadow of an IED attack on a Canadian convoy, killing 4 Canadian soldier and 1 Canadian journalist… he said… well my problem is that I am a incorrigible optimist… I hope things would actually get better… despite the fact that this year begins and ends with a Friday. I smiled back… Steve being an optimist is this human wasteland for 6 years… is no mean achievement.

Taffera is an Ethiopian national, who works for International Organization of Migrants… I met him many months ago at UN Terminal in Kabul Airport… when I expressed my dream to visit Ethiopia. Taffera recognized me as soon as he saw me… remembered each and every word that I had told him. We picked up from where we had left… same fondness, same vigour… probably reflecting the mutual admiration which we had for each others country…

We talked about Lalibela… and the Orthodox Christianity… and the great relations that the two countries share… and how Ethiopia and India are growing regional players… Taffera gave me some good insights into the African politics… he later taught me how to play “Pool”… he is the Guest House’s champion… we played 3 games… and with each game, I improved… forcing him to say that if you continue playing like this… you could be the next champion.

While I was having lunch I was joined by Rouieda… the Lebanese lady, whom I had met some months ago at Governor’s house. She is the UN Human Rights Officer. She also recognized me almost instantaneously… again with her, I started almost from where we had left last time… it never seemed that we were meeting for the second time. We discussed about the Middle East… our experiences of Syria and Egypt… about the Levant politics… about Lebanese food, about Koshri, the Egyptian delicacy.

I told her about how eager I am to go back to the region… Syria being my most favorite destination… she told me to come to Lebanon, too… and promised to take me to her village in north Lebanon, which, according to her, is the most beautiful place in the world. I said insha Allah… like the previous meeting, it was a pleasure meeting Rouieda.

I also met Michael and Christian… the two German guys… working with UN’s security department… apart from discussing the unfolding security scenario, and the usual precautions to be taken… Michael told me interesting things about the erstwhile Prussian empire… he took me back to the 18th century and told me how Prussian empire came into being… and how it shaped up in the 19th century… and how it shapes the modern world… in places like Kaliningrad… where people say that we are not Russians but Prussians… he gave some really wonderful inputs of knowledge…

So while departing from the place… I was smiling…it was really a day well spent…

While going back… I stopped my vehicle at a place… I saw many kids… surrounding a cotton-candy man, who was churning out cotton candies for the kids… forgetting where I am, for a few minutes, I approached the cotton candy man and bought some for me and some for those kids who didn’t have money…

A wonderful finale to a wonderful day.

The Art of Life... as told by a Bawarchi!

Somebody asked me… why I am not writing blog at regular interval these days… commenting that generally I am a voracious writer of travelogues… and that I have just been back from Turkey… so it is but expected that I write blogs.

Here is the answer...

Last few days had been tough… huge workload, colleagues on yearly leave, and petty office politics depressed me… I faced tough questions… what do I do over here… is it for higher salaries that I get for staying here… am I seeking compensation for staying away from my family… or I stay here for some larger mission, for larger human experience.

I had been trying to come out of depression, but to no avail… till I woke up one day and asked for help from Lord Shiva… my God. I know that he never refuses me… if at all he does… then soon he makes it apparent as to why he did it… he does it for larger good. It’s a personal bond between him and me.

I started that day on a depressed note, no help coming my way… it was another day of huge workload… and I was slogging alone… well almost, because one of my subordinates helped me… going beyond his official duties… I almost felt as if I was using him.

Help… sometimes… come from places, which are unusual.

In the evening, while cleaning my closet… I stumbled upon a DVD of an old Hindi Movie “Bawarchi”… a light comedy directed by prodigious Hrishikesh Mukherji… the film tells the story of a squabbling family… whose members suspect each other… and how the family changes with the arrival of a Bawarchi (a Cook). The film has strong philosophical connotations… value of family bonds…the need to search happiness in small day to day events… of loving selflessly.

While watching Bawarchi, I remembered that it has been ages since I have called my brothers… I called them up… talked with them for 10-15 minutes… it was a soothing experience. Family bonds are forever… they are always there for you… always… you just need to reach out to them… they extend their hands to you.

Something happened within me… it was time to bounce back… I walked down to the room of my subordinate, who had been helping me in these tough times… I asked if he can offer me a tea… sipping tea along with him… I told him… that I really appreciate what he had been doing for me… and that I may not do anything for him in return… but would always remember his gesture… he smiled and said… Sir, it’s my pleasure working with you, I have always seen you working very hard and you have always inspired me for doing that extra bit… I smiled back… beyond the office politics and game of one-upmanship… honesty pays.

While walking out of his room… I started whistling… I hadn’t whistled for last few months… the psychological stresses had made me forget the art of whistling. It was time to sit down with myself and talk with myself… I needed to understand that my detractors are essentially not bad people… but that they have their own ways of thinking and approach issues… the moment I accept those differences… managing my relations with them becomes easier.

Life is easier than we think it is… it is as simple or as difficult… as we assume it to be…. often problems to some solution are very simple. And Bawarchi told me that it really is…