Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Seven: At Ephesus!

“So that makes you a Muslim or a Christian”…

“Actually both- I am equally comfortable being in a Church and a Mosque… and believe me, I am unable to decide”… a pause… “Actually the two religions are so close to each other… if not the Catholic version, which is followed by my mother… then, of course, the Orthodox version… that you hardly seem to have any trouble following both of them at the same time”

“And how are they so close… of course both of them are from the books… have same lineage… but today they seem so apart”

“The values… perhaps”

“But values are same for most of the religion… I mean I am a born Hindu… but don’t have any problems in conforming to a lot of values of Islam and that of Christianity… for me they are so universal in nature… I can be a good Hindu… while following an Islamic principle”

Hoda, I noticed, was very pretty… she was a perfect mix of sharp Arab features and English elegance… while on the bus to Selcuk, we sat together. The bus passed by the Bosphrous Bridge… which by night was illuminated by blue lights… and it was definitely a beautiful sight.

Later, at around 12 the bus crossed the Mediterranean…atop a ferry… from Yeveza to Yalova. We went into the restaurant of the ferry and had a Turkish coffee together. She was rather unsure about her itinerary… Selcuk stay for 3 days… and didn’t have any hotel in her mind… she asked me- where do I plan to go… ANZ Guest House… I had written them an email some few days ago and had booked a bunk bed… she said that she would try the same place.

The journey was uneventful… I couldn’t help noticing though, the perfect roads all over the place… I told myself… Turkey is definitely a developed country… little did I know that within a week I would see another Turkey which is as impoverished as any other developing country. In the morning the bus stopped at out-skirts of Selcuk town… where we got down to have breakfasts or use lavatories… I was aghast to find that one needs to pay 1 Lira (around 30 Rupees) to use a urinal… it must have been the most expensive way of relieving myself by answering nature’s call…

We reached Selcuk town in the wee hours of morning… without much of help around… we had some difficulty in tracking down ANZ Guest House… but after half hour of looking around… we were able to track down this place… the owner, who was sitting with a few of his guest house… welcomed us and tried to give a double room… thinking that we were a couple… it was an embarrassing situation… but then soon he realized his folly…

While leading us to one of his dormitory, which had a separate room exclusively for girls, if they wanted it… he told us as to why he named this place ANZ… apparently, he had lived in Australia… and first few guests who arrived at his guest house were Australia and New Zealand.

While at the breakfast room, we met a British lady Andrea… a Spanish couple… and a Malaysian girl… Andrea, perhaps, was a Jew… she recounted her experience of living in a Kibbutz near Haifa… I whispered- are you a Jew… she just smiled back. The Spanish couple was funny… they broke into a dance at the drop of hat… and the Malaysian girl was having loads of attitude and was very attractive… we discussed on ways and means to get to Ephesus… the owner told me that he can offer a free ride to all of us… the Spanish couple, Hoda and I… agreed to hop in.

The ride to Ephesus is a short one… about 15 minutes… it passed through the beautiful country side… while we were leaving Selcuk town… I saw a board announcing the site of Artemis… one of the seven wonders of ancient world… now lying in rubble… but once used to evoke amazement. I promised that I would come to see it.

Ephesus is one of the most celebrated Greco-Roman sites in Turkey… in fact Ephesus Library has often been used as a poster for promoting Turkish tourism… Yusuf told me that apart from Istanbul and Cappadocia… Ephesus is the most often visited tourist site in entire Turkey… he said that the site was over-rated… but then if one had to pick just one Greco-Roman site in Anatolia… it has to be Ephesus.

Ephesus was one of the most prominent Roman cities in first century BC… in fact, many claim that it was the biggest Roman city after Rome itself… and had a population of about 3 lacs… it boasts of one of the largest amphitheatre of its times… which could house almost 25000 people… the Ephesus Library was one of the most celebrated libraries, next only to the Alexandrian counterpart.

Roaming among the rubbles of Ephesus… I couldn’t help pondering about the waxing and waning of civilizations… a huge city of Ephesus that was used by the Romans to control their Eastern subjects… and was their second most important city… lies in rubble… one day after a thousand year… we may see the same fate of New York, and San Francisco.

I was particularly by a engraving on stone… perhaps by one of its erstwhile emperors… which talked about taxing the more endowed subjects and areas and channeling the money to develop the less endowed areas and subjects… the earliest development economics…

All of us- Hoda, the Spanish couple and I separated our ways… I for one wanted to walk down to Selcuk city after seeing Ephesus… taking a detour to Grotto of Seven Sleepers and Artemis… others wanted a quick tour of Ephesus and take a free ride back to ANZ.

While walking towards Grotto of Seven Sleepers… I met my others fellow travelers towards their way to Selcuk… they didn’t know as to what they are going to miss… I also didn’t know that this 4-5 kilometer walk would be the most wonderful walk.

Musings from Anatolia, Part Two: Turkish world-view

Turkey is an interesting and peculiar vantage point for international politics.

It is a largely Islamic country, which allies with the US and NATO, which, for now, are deemed to be anti-Islam. It has relations with Israel (and particularly great relations… not just for namesake like Egypt and Jordan)… this is an anathema in Islamic world… it is close to Pakistan, which is a virulent enemy of Israel… it is also trying to mend its relations with Iran, again a virulent enemy of both the US and Israel… so Turkey makes an interesting political ideology.

I was interested in opinions of average person on the road… vis-à-vis India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel and most importantly the US…

I kept on asking seemingly innocent questions about people’s perception for all these countries… sometime posing as a Pakistani, sometimes Iranian (and yes, my wee bit of Farsi… passed me as a Iranian… probably from southern Iran… a dark complexioned Iranian)… and sometimes being an Indian…

What I realized… after the entire hullabaloo… is that there is no one opinion among the Turks… about any one country… in fact, more often than not; their opinions make interesting concoctions of disparate likings and dislikings… there is also, and obviously so, a sharp divide among public opinions between the ethnic Turks and the Kurds.

Islam, it seems, is a very sensitive issue for nearly all the Turks… the oft quoted secular Turks… are at best a minority, and at worse a myth- carefully crafted for the western audience. It doesn’t seem unbelievable to me… that Turks and Kurds alike wreaked worse kind of havocs on Christian minorities- the Surianis, Greeks and Armenians- less than 100 years ago… it seems that Kamal Ataturk… the most venerated Turk… pushed and pulled his country-men into a modern secular world… inspite and despite of popular will. Islam, therefore, is one of the big deciding factors, when it comes to the public perceptions about other countries…

Take for example Israel… I saw a near unanimous hatred towards Israel… everywhere I went… the Turkish parts, the Kurdish parts… Israel, is more or less, seen as a West’s lackey, who is promoting the “myth” of Armenian, Greek and Suriani genocide in Anatolia… strangely, the hatred does not come from Palestinian cause… for most of the Turks view Arabs as incompetents… who have usurped Turkey’s rightful place as Islam’s leader… the hatred comes, instead, due to the fact that Armenians found a sympathetic refuge in Israel… I… kind of expected it.

Iran makes a wonderful case study… some view it as a country with a lot of moral rectitude and the ability to stand against the West (and the common refrain is that Turkey is losing its edge… with respect to Islamic leadership… to Iran)… and on the other Iran is seen as a bumbling country, which cannot be friend to any other country… what is true for Iran… is true for Ahmedinejad… the man that has come to personify Iran these days… like Khomeinis in the past. Nevertheless, I could sense a growing fascination for Iran among the people… especially in the Turkish region, if not the Kurdish region (in fact Kurds believe that they are being mistreated in Iran too… though to a lesser degree… ranking Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey in that order... vis. Kurdish conditions in different countries… Iraq, the best and Turkey, the worst).

US, for one, attracts most amazing opinions… the Turks love to hate the US… even though they are the ruling class in Turkey and have for more than half a century… aligned with them… on the other hand Kurds have positive opinions about the US… strangely… Kurds are more devout Muslims- as compared to Turks- and have been “mistreated” by a regime, which is close to the US… nevertheless, they feel that the US was somehow instrumental in making a homeland for them in Iraq, and one day might extend this homeland inside the frontiers of Turkey.

It was very difficult for me to comprehend the anti-US feeling among the Turks… some attributed it to America’s anti-Islam positioning… some to its support to Israel… but largely because ordinary Turk saw US behind the “secular” forces in Turkey… the forces that don’t let them wear hijab inside university campuses… the forces that de-stabilize the popular soft Islamic Government.

India and Pakistan are one of the most interesting topic to explore around in Turkey… sadly, most of the people are not very much aware of India-Pakistan dynamics… for them India and Pakistan are distant lands and they have hardly anything to opine about… barring the oft-quoted media jingle. Turkish Army (and the establishment, which of late was pro-Army) has been traditionally very close to Pakistan… (Pakistani Army, if not the civilian set-up)… I argued that such long close cooperation would definitely load public opinion in favour of Pakistan… especially in the Turkish areas… I was wrong…

First and foremost, Turks don’t have any dogmatic opinion about India and Pakistan… Secondly, there information base on India is much wider that on Pakistan… thus they are able to identify more with India and less with Pakistan…. Ask them if they support Pakistan… they are non-committal… and if they support India… again non-committal… but their eyes lit up more when they hear about India… they have a broad smile when they meet me as an Indian… they are sure that India means progress… and Pakistan… well they are not sure!

But strangely… in the Kurdish region… the people who have been “butchered” by the Turkish Army, the Pakistani ally… there is much more information about Indo-Pak dynamics… they know about Kashmir… and largely it is the base on which they form a world view about India and Pakistan… they like both the countries… but are not able to turn a blind eye towards “Indian occupation of Kashmir”… they are more pro-Pakistani than pro-India.

Like I said… Turkish world view is strange… I found strange opinions… pro-India and pro-US feelings, where I least expected and anti-India and anti-US feeling, where I least expected.

Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Six: Meeting Ibn Batuta

Taking a boat from Europe to Asia- from Eminonu to Uskudar- evokes a grand and a common-place feeling, at the same time.

The ride is inexpensive… and a wonderful peep into the commoner’s life in Istanbul- quite like the felucca rides in Cairo. One can find- among his or her fellow travelers- a young couple, a lonely old man, some quarreling friends, a loving mother and her kids- and can identify with each one of them… like I did, with a mother, who was being pestered by his 4 year old kid for a Ben 10 watch.

Apart from relishing the feeling of criss-crossing Europe and Asia… Asia side is avoidable… especially if one was on a one-day visit of Istanbul- like me. The Byzantine and Ottoman empires were largely based in the European part of Istanbul… for some strange reason… it would have been far more practical for the Muslim rulers to have based themselves in Asian side, utilizing the natural defence that Bosphorous provided to them, against the invading Christian Armies… especially when their empire extended eastwards, and not so much, westwards.

After a quick trip to Uskudar on the Asian side, I sailed back to Eminonu to visit landmarks near the Eminonu Ferry Station… a grand mosque called New Mosque… passable… because it is a copy of much grander Blue Mosque… then the Spice Bazaar (which, sadly, was closed for the day) but nevertheless it was juxtaposed to a crowded courtyard, where a huge number of Istanbul locals come to picnic and shop and therefore, this place was a wonderful local experience… a couple of 100 meters away was the Grand Bazaar, and the Sulemaniye Mosque… but by the time I reached the place… it was deserted… somebody told me that due to the great Bairam festival… everything comes to a screeching halt in these areas.

I walked down to the Hippodrome… all along the walk; I kept on stumbling beautiful buildings… Istanbul’s beauty lies in these carefully preserved buildings… it makes your unintended walk appear like a treasure hunt… every other building is a gem… making you wonder about the history of the place…

Sitting on a bench at Hippodrome, I looked around… the dusk has started crawling all around me… in few hours; I had to leave this place to the next destination. I could not help relishing the fact that here I was sitting at a place which once used to hold more than 100000 people for public processions and gatherings. Today little remains of Hippodrome… and yet it is the single most evocative place in this part of the world. It represents the humanity.

I saw a young man beside me drinking a milk-colored drink… I asked- what’s it… Salep… I tried it… it tasted different… I was told that Salep is one of the traditional Turkish medicinal drinks… made from some root tuber… it helps in keeping away cold and cough… little did I know that I would need a lot of Salep in the days to come. (More on it, in one of the musings from the Anatolia)

I checked my wallet… the number of Turkish liras in my wallet was plummeting… Istanbul is expensive. I needed to convert some dollars into Liras, fast. I checked a few Currency stores nearby and realized that they were giving me ridiculously low rates… 1.43 for a dollar, this was steep… at airport, for instance, the banks were giving me 1.49 (of course with a commission cut, which made the rate 1.48)…

I refrained from converting money there… and walked back to Yusuf… my friend and guide in Istanbul… he said that often the Currency dealers in Sultanahmet give a very low rate, and have formed a cartel… and that the actual rate was indeed 1.49… he offered me to convert 100 dollars of mine at that rate… saying that he will get the 100 dollar bill converted somewhere near his house… where more honest currency dealers reside. He then told me to report to him at 8pm for the pick up to bus station… I thanked him again.

In the morning at Sindabad, I came across a dark complexioned man … we, then, had shared smile… in the evening while whiling away my time and waiting for 8 pm, we started chatting… he was from Morocco… and was delighted to know that, after so many days, he was meeting a person who knew a little bit of Arabic… (Moroccan Arabic, is quite different from the Standard Arabic… as in Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic has huge influence of French in it). We chatted for a while… he had been on the road for last 2 months… traveling Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and now Turkey… and plans to return in a few days to Morocco. I nicknamed him Ibn Batuta, and we laughed. He took me to a good and cheap kebab joint nearby, where we had a hearty dinner… while leaving I hugged him… and said insha Allah we will meet again one day… he also said the same… there was a kind of bond between us.

I packed my bag… waved a good bye to the Moroccan guy Hashim, the beautiful girl at reception (who, incidentally, was planning to go to Egypt with his boyfriend in few days, and took a lot of inputs about Egypt from me and Hashim).

I reached Yusuf’s place 15 minutes before reporting time… and we started chatting about inane things… his family, my family, his personal life, my personal life… when you start doing this, it means trust.

The pick up arrived at the exact time… Istanbul tourism industry is very well organized… no wonder, it is able to draw so many tourists… the professionalism is impeccable… and I, for one, was thoroughly satisfied with the services… the kind of deals I got… clean bunk beds, courteous staff, no racial feeling anywhere… and high degree of professionalism… but now I was leaving Istanbul for the Turkish hinterlands… as Yusuf had warned me… I should start picking up Turkish… and stop expecting same level of comforts.

When I entered the pick up (a Mercedes Station Wagon!!!)… I was greeted by a female voice… Hi!- I realized that I wasn’t alone…

She was Hoda, half British-half Iraqi… who was also visiting Turkey for about two weeks… but only coastal Turkey, before proceeding to Aleppo, where she plans to join a German NGO. We traveled together for next whole day… and I had some very interesting discussions on religion, Arab issues with her…

For starters- she was born of Muslim father and a Christian mother.

Ibn Batuta by SD Saxena.... A poetry revisited

इब्नबतूता पहन के जूता
निकल पड़े तूफान में
थोड़ी हवा नाक में घुस गई
घुस गई थोड़ी कान में


कभी नाक को, कभी कान को
मलते इब्नबतूता
इसी बीच में निकल पड़ा
उनके पैरों का जूता


उड़ते उड़ते जूता उनका
जा पहुँचा जापान में
इब्नबतूता खड़े रह गये
मोची की दुकान में।