Hello Punjab! compared to other parts of India that I saw, the highways and streets are clean. We arrived to the hotel and decided to rest a couple of hours before we go to Diljit’s house. Today there will be the Henna night. We were joined in the hotel by the rest of Team Tübingen namely, Boss, Sibylle, Justus and Heike, Daniel and Lena, and Filip. We are now 10 people and with two cars we started driving to where Alvi, the bride, and her family were staying.
The henna night is where mainly the bride and the ladies of the families have beautiful floral drawing on their arms and legs by expert henna artists. An abundance of music, food and good laughter makes it a lively event before the wedding. We gave in to the rhythms and joined our new local friends in dancing our asses till midnight. Here and there was a break for him or her. I love Punjabi people. They have good food, good music and a certain chilliness about them that makes you feel that all what you aim at in life can probably not bring you the same happiness they have, just by being Punjabis! Some cultures are just happy. In their eyes, you see dreams, of going to where you live and living in similar conditions. But do they see in our eyes that we have indeed more comfort, but less dreams? We live better but probably live less! I had to love them, envy them and copy their dance style.
While the ladies in our group had the most beautiful of henna drawings and decorations around their hands, the men decided to get tattoo-styled drawings. Justus, Daniel and I have convinced the artists to give us some designs. I was somehow unlucky and got an ugly drawing that seemed a bit like fishbone or a chewed piece of gum. I have to say this made me a bit sour 😀 imagining that this piece of …ehem.. will stay on my arm for sometime, made me at unease. Alvi and Ashley, here sister, convinced me to ask the 2nd artist to fix the situation and improvise a solution. In my opinion, he did a great job by drawing a badass Dragon that had a slightly long ears (donkey-dragon). It was much better than the previous thing that I had on my arm.
We were dead tired.. most not having slept enough which we discovered to be the theme of the trip: A lot of dancing and partying, lack of sleep, and .. waiting 🙂
Istanbul, we love you.. It was the last day and we had only one plan, to meet my old friends Fatma Zehra and Ali. We packed our luggages, checked out and went under the rain to visit the lovely couple in their apartment. Ali met us in Üsküdar and we went together to the the apartment. It was cozy and had a very peaceful energy. Meeting them both was a very emotional moment for me. Fatma Zehra was my classmate in the Master program in Italy and Ali, her husband, was with her in the city. We often met there for cooking, hanging out, and playing football (where I also broke my cruciate ligament). Some people stay always very close to your heart no matter how often you meet. They were definitely these people. We dove into various conversations about life and spirituality and I was happy to see that Christina and Merve got along with the new friends. The Brunch table was full of various sorts of delicacies and I remembered the joke often shared by Diljit about marrying Jessica vs. marrying Fatima (in this case literally)!
A few hours of lovely peaceful time. Including a short visit to a nice mosque in the neighbourhood and then a visit to a kind of Ottoman cafe where they try to revive ottoman traditions in drinks and pastries. They then bid us farewell and we aimed to the hotel and then to the airport.
Turkish airlines flew us from Istanbul to Delhi then we took another flight to Amritsar. We slept or tried to sleep most of the flights. At the customs and transfer, everything was smooth and without problems. Indians are verrrry friendly. They always greet you heartily and smile at you widely. In the airport, we met Gourpreet, our driver who obviously does not speak English. He knows a few words like “Sad” to describe a sad song pointing at his heart with the thumb.. well.. I guess that was it.. I don’t remember any other words he said in English. Sometimes we were not sure if is checking Christina and Merve in the inside mirror. So we had a secret deal to pretend that they are both my wives so that he does not hit on any of them. You know, I am Muslim, so it is ok ok.. In two hours we arrived to the hotel where we are to stay for the next few days.. Here will start our Indian Chapter (well, it already started since I write these words behind schedule.. and it is much fun so far.. and less sleep!).
Good morning Istanbul, I woke up to the noise of the two ladies discussing things that didn’t seem important to me. A quick breakfast as defined by Merve in a small restaurant lasts a bit more than one hour. It was a collection of cheese, meat, eggs, vegetables and so on. They called it “Very very breakfast” in Turkish on the menu. We started our day trip to discover and rediscover Istanbul. The weather is a bit cold and cloudy but still pleasant in a way. We started by Hagia Sophia which I didn’t visit in the previous two trips to Istanbul. Merve was not happy that we were not impressed by Hagia Sophia. She said that we were not intellectual enough to appreciate the beauty of the cultural mixture between a church and mosque. For me, it was a church that has Islamic writings. But it was yet another church.
Allah + Jesus + Mohammed in the same place
My mother’s family has its roots in Turkey. Therefore, we have a certain Turkuphilia in the famiglia. A few years ago we met in Istanbul for a week or so and we loved it. My mother’s favourite spot was the blue mosque, also called Sultan Ahmet Mosque. For this trip, mom asked me to kisse every mosque for her. We arrived to the blue mosque and I had my washing for the prayer in the space around the mosque. Christina and Merve went inside to visit the mosque and later I followed in. It is a special place where certain emotions stir inside of me. Can’t really describe them. When I think of Istanbul, there would be my spot. I won’t go into details describing the architecture or the beauty inside the mosque. You should go visit! google can give you a good idea on how the place looks like. But no technology yet will convey the feeling inside the mosque. Despite the noisy tourists at the back of the mosque, the front of the mosque is a different world. The silence, the humming of the dispersed worshippers, the feeling that everyone around you is probably trying to connect out of this world.
Photos are from Christina and Merve
We sat there for a while and then went out to visit the Basilica Cistern where the last scene of the movie Inferno took place. There, Christina had a photo-shooting session in an Ottoman costume that matched her beautiful blue eyes.
Turkey is a holy place for food. Merve decided that we will eat at Sultanahmet köfte, where she took us and already ordered for us the dishes in the quantities that she estimated without even consulting us! She has some sweet dictatorship about her that I often found very cute. She ordered two portions for me and one and a half portions for each of them. The köfte was a melody. Its tender, juicy and rich taste triggered a wow from Christina and me while Merve was romanticising on how she does not want to leave Turkey. We love you Diljit, but this Köfte!
A short walk later lead us to the grand bazaar, which was nice and full of nice goods that we are mainly not interested in 😀 We were joined by Ezgi, Merve’s cousin for a short time and bought a few souvenirs.
A small dessert and then Galata tower. We climbed the tower to see a higher view of Istanbul. It was already dark and the lights shone over the mosques in the horizon in different directions. The call to the prayer started while we were up which is often special for me. Christina has a lot of questions and a vast curiosity. Merve said “you spent enough time” and pressed us to leave.. it was cold.. We took a taxi and went to a nice cafe to rest from the day.. Sitting there, smoking shisha and reflecting on the day. As Christina says, “it feels like we had breakfast 3 days ago”. It was a full day that was perfectly organized by Merve. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to travel with the two ladies. I am always skeptic about traveling in groups, but this company was for me very entertaining and enriching.
We spent a few hours in the cafe, then had some “Wet burger” in a small street restaurant. We were tired and it was not long before we go back to the accommodation.
Merve: I want to tell you something. Me: Tell me. Merve: no, ask me to tell you. Me: Why would I ask you to tell me? Just tell me if you want. Merve: I want you to insist that I tell you. Me: It is hard for me to understand. This is Merve.. either she wants to tell me or not. If she wants to tell me, she will tell me. If she does not want to tell me, she won’t! Merve: no.. no.. this is Merve (represents herself with a small cosmetics item).. She either (written by Merve): 1- wants to tell you something but expecting you to insist! 2- does not want to tell you something but if you insist enough she will tell! 3- wants to tell you something no matter what! 4- will never ever tell you she swears to Allah. 5- is indecisive and does not have enough energy to reflect on her enriched mind.
Habibindia 01: In Istanbul, arrival and Merve’s loving family
Ladies and gentlemen, Diljit and Alvi are getting married! and we are going to India! 10 friends are going to attend the wedding. With two good/nice/beautiful colleagues of mine, Christina and Merve, the trip starts in Istanbul. Merve convinced us to stop in the lovely city for two days and we found that great and we decided to go. From Stuttgart we flew with Turkish airlines. The ladies are so interesting that I couldn’t sleep, watch a movie or read in 3 hours. Instead, we had philosophical discussions about if you have the choice to let a train hit and kill 5 people or divert it to hit one guy. What would you choose? Would you focus on the action or on the consequences?
We landed in Istanbul around 4:20, where Merve found her way to the citizens line while Christina and I stood in the international line of the customs. We met the American/Mexican Andy who is coming to visit Europe and is staying one night in Istanbul. Andy was very sociable and talkative or “Gregarious” which is a new word I learnt from him.
Well, I guess I will fast forward the subway, the traffic, the drive, etc.. to meeting Merve’s family. This was a highlight of the evening with a fantastic dinner with 2 of Merve’s aunts in Istanbul and their children, cousins etc.. I must tell you that her aunt is doing a PhD in gastronomy. This won’t even explain how delicious the food was. It was not just delicious, it was art! I enjoyed every spoon of it. The company of the family was enchanting. The warmth and the authentic, genuine hospitality is priceless. For me, these are the best moments in life. Sharing time with great warm-hearted people. We ate, talked and laughed a lot.
“Shukran”, which is “Thank you” in Arabic, was the name of Merve’s mother’s cousin. As you can imagine, I was confused when I introduced myself: “Adham”, and she replied “Shukran”. I missed the logic for a some time till they explained to me later that it was her name 😀
The evening was full of cultural exchange that included hand gestures in different cultures. We found it impressive how 19 years olds looked and talked so maturely and intellectually. respect..
Merve and her family discussed for an extended amount of time the plan for tomorrow. We are planning to discover the city and visit and eat as much as we can. I love this city. Istanbul is one of my most favourite cities. Why don’t I come here more often? Why don’t I go to Roma, Barcelona, Berlin or Munich more often? Well, we are here now!
