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!
I arrived to the hotel to find Alex the receptionist with a big friendly smile. Alex was obviously gay. As soon as he found out about me losing my luggage, he offered me everything I will need for the night. Toothbrush, shaving creams, etc… In the western world, being very friendly and welcoming towards other men seems to be exclusive for gays.
I planned to go shopping today for gifts. Plans cancelled since I won’t be able to get things in my carry on and since I had all my scarfs in the lost luggage. I satisfied myself with staying in the hotel watching a movie, writing and going to bed early. In the morning, Frontier airline sent me an email that the luggage has arrived. I called them and we arranged that they send it to Atlanta where I will have my layover. It worked! The friendly black fat woman in the checkin desk even gave me priority boarding and extra comfortable seats! Leg room so big that I needed to experiment on which position I will need to have to be able to touch the seat in front of me. I know I was not gifted with an exceptional height, but I would still be average in many countries. In this trip, I have developed a new affinity for fat black women. They are mostly friendly. At least towards me. Fat black men, on the other hand, do not share them this attitude. Think black men do 😀 I don’t know.. I have a bit of positive racism towards black people. I find them friendly in general.
I have to confess that I was not that sad when I lost my luggage. Only filled with socks, underwear and old cloths, there was nothing really valuable. It is easier to be chill when you don’t lose much.
This trip, I have managed to go through the whole week without using US dollars. I mean I didn’t use cash. I have only used my credit card. This seems to work very well in the states. You can use your card to pay a couple of dollars without getting strange look from the vendor.
Now I am in Atlanta. One hour before my flight to Stuttgart. Luggage shipped (hopefully it will arrive) and I am bidding my trip farewell. I have some resolutions for the post-journey era and I am looking forward to see all my friends again and to continue my research. I enjoyed this trip as if it is the last time in the USA (you never know). Just had a very nice steak at the airport that I wanted to go kiss Moniqwa, the waitress. A medium cooked rib eye steak is a synonym of “Happiness”, “Desire” and a whole lot of life quality vocabulary.
So, this is the end of the journey, thank you for following and reading this trip and being part of my story for a week 🙂 I wouldn’t probably write if nobody reads!
Yesterday and today was the conference in Sheraton Phoenix. A small meeting of American Clinical MEG Society. Once I entered the hall, it was obvious that I am the youngest! I felt a bit worried about my talk the next day and what if they all know more than I do! Since I didn’t actually prepare my talk yet, I used the first day to observe the amount of knowledge around so that I can adapt my talk. Probably this is one reason I always prepare my talk in the very last minute.
After the talks in the first day, I walked around a bit and went to the public library to think a bit about my talk. The library is an impressive modern building with a lot of students and homeless people inside! The US in general is full of homeless people. People who lost everything because of medical bills or losing their jobs.
Phoenix Public Library
This place is also full of hispanics. It is often that they speak to me in Spanish or simply nod in the street. Not really sure if this is simple kindness or if they think that I am one of their own! My host gave me a copy of his house key which would win the first prize for the best key I have ever seen! It has the style of “day of the dead” or “Dia de los Muertos” which is a traditional day in Mexico where they celebrate their lost loved ones. You remember the last James Bond movie?
It was a tough evening. I tried to stay awake and prepare my talk but my jetlag was stronger. I slept around 11 and woke up around 5 am since I had no other chance. I had to get this done! For some reason, I like to put a lot of animations in my powerpoint. Some people consider this unprofessional or not scientific enough. I think it is cool and I am visual anyway. I think it is better to have a cool talk with less info but with something that people can remember than having a presentation full of knowledge that people forget soon.
My talk seemed to be a success. In the break, many scientists came to meet me and offer me their business cards (who still uses these?) I immediately sent them emails to give my contacts. Ok! next conference I will prepare a business card as well. It will look like this:
You can then google me or so.
The talks went by and I felt relieved. Don’t have to prepare anything anymore. I just need to enjoy the dinner at the restaurant:
Was good food! Better than the food was the company on the dinner, 3 Japanese and one Indian. Professor Nakasato from Japan, a neurosurgeon, an energetic being and a joke-generating machine! He invited me to attend the biennial meeting of the International Society for the Advancement of Clinical Magnetoencephalography. I am considering to attend after the amount of knowledge and contacts I gathered here in Phoenix.
Tonight is my last night in Phoenix. I didn’t have time to see around but I also was not verrry interested this time. Every now and then you see strange things like “Weapons not allowed” on the library door for example! You don’t see this everywhere! That means that otherwise, weapons are allowed and are ok. Also, while walking, I saw a house, presumably a lawyer’s office (better call Saul), with the sign:
I woke up extra early. So it is still a jet lag. I was planning to go to Navy Pier and watch the sunrise since it is in the east. But it was raining heavily the whole morning. I love sunrise, it has many positive meanings, the beginning of the day, the light after the darkness and the arrival of the sun. Sunset, on the other hand, has the contrary. It is darkness, the end of the light and farewell. Optically, they probably look the similar. I don’t know. But women find sunset romantic.
My day was not full today. Till my flight, nothing special happened. I was working on organising my thoughts for the talk. So I still didn’t start preparing my talk which is on Thursday! It is my habit of being a last minute deliverer. Probably the highlight of the day was my conversation with Ron. A regular looking guy who sat beside me on the plane. On the other hand sat a beautiful chick I would have rather had a conversation with her. But Ron was getting all the attention telling me about how he believes that ,arijuana solves everything. He prescribes it to everyone of his friends and “it helps” he says! marijuana is legal in many states here for medicinal use and in some states for recreational use. He often mentions Colorado in a very thick accent “Coloraaadow”.
He makes cookies, bakes, and makes all kind of marijuana things! I found it funny when he told me that he is interested in marijuana honey 😀 where the bees are using the Marijuana flowers for the pollens and then you have cannahoney.. tadaaaaa… He quoted a french guy:
The bees that produce the cannahoney are not affected by cannabinoids because they do not have an endocannabinoid system,
Source somewhere on the internet
Not that I believe anything! But I found the story funny. I must admit that he had another idea that I found it genuinely interesting. To treat his own allergy, he has a theory to eat honey produced from the local community. Local bees fly around and use the pollens locally. Therefore, if he eats a spoon of honey everyday, he is introducing into his body a little bit of allergen which on the long run makes “desensitization” which is decreasing the body reaction to that substance. Again, regardless if the idea is scientifically valid or not. I find it a funny clever theory.
I landed in Phoenix and met another speaker on the train. I know him from Germany since he is one of the leading scientists in the field. He recognised my face from some conferences but didn’t remember who I was. We had some nice conversation and some how discussed what each of us will present since I will present directly after him. Not that we repeat each other!
I stay today in an Airbnb with Adrian. Just now finished a very long conversation with him about politics in the USA and the middle east. He is working in SolarCity which a solar energy company that was founded by Elon Musk’s cousines and recently acquired by Tesla (June 2016). I came to know interesting facts about the conflicts between solar energy companies and local governments and lobbies of regular power companies (utility companies). Topics I haven’t touched before.
I go to bed now to start my mini-conference tomorrow. Good night habibis!
It is Monday! I woke up in my hotel room in the 26th floor and saw that the sun is shining. This is not what I expected for Chicago. My program today will have a lot of walkin. But first, let’s have breakfast.
The breakfast in the hotel costed $20 dollars. An open-buffet. This is not much more than what I paid yesterday @ Kanela $18. But my human nature deals differently with an open-buffet. Since I was there around 8:00 am, I had time to eat slowly and fill my stomach with $20 worth of food. I think I exaggerated. I had 3 breakfasts which I don’t even do at home if I have a full fridge. Juan, the waiter kept pouring me Orange juice till I was radiating Vitamin C. I guess I had a liter or so! It took me a bit more than an hour and the Wall Street Journal newspaper. I picked up recently a new interest in newspapers specially in places where I travel.
After breakfast I was so full that I could barely walk! I started walking slowly in the city towards the Navy Pier, one of the top attractions in Chicago:
Photo from Wikipedia
Only a couple of tourists were there. A lot of fishermen though. They simply sat there with a hole in the ice that covered the lake. I noticed some fish that seemed frozen on the surface! I asked one of them if the fish froze because of the low temperature and he told me that people just didn’t throw these fish back into the hole!
I walked more around the city to the Millennium Park where there was a funny open stage and the famous “Bean”:
I was not walking with any aim. I didn’t have neither a map nor a phone and I just walked randomly and found myself in front of the Chicago public library. I have a certain affinity to visit public libraries and see how they look like inside so I entered to find a violin concert that is open for public. Although most of the people were old and half of them were sleeping in their seats, I was entertained by thinking about such opportunities in big cities. I soon left the hall (I have to admit I was bored very soon) and went back to the hotel.
Chicago Public Library
Walking in the city of Chicago, one can’t help but thinking about living here. Having a job in one of the huge and modern Northwestern hospitals in downtown chicago, having an apartment in a skyscraper, and probably overworking and ending up sad and lonely. LOL. Success can mean accomplishing your goals. Then you make other goals, you succeed etc. However, I look up to people who have manaegd to obtain and retain a sense of self-love, content and satisfaction regardless of their measurable achievements or materialistic posesssions.
It is a topic I discussed later in the day with my friend Joan. Another friend of mine in Catalonia that lives here since 5 years or so. We had a long walk after I picked him up from his work in the Hospital and discussed his experience in living in the state and filled each other in about what happened in our lives since we last met more than 7 years ago! Joan is a man of awareness and spirituality in my mind. I remember when I met him just coming back from India and staying there 6 months instead of his original 1 month plan. This story was somehow always in my memory when I considered travel flexibility.
Later this evening I met Imma again. She suggested that we have a drink and dinner in a nearby Jazz Club. We spent there a couple of hours exchanging more stories and ideas with a live Jazz band playing on the stage. The place had some poeple but was not full which made it a cozy place for nice conversations. Meeting Joan and Imma was the highlight of my Chicago time. There is nothing in the world like connecting with smart and good hearted people that you like. I felt fortunate.
Imma and me, I am trying to look sexy as Davide taught me how to do it. But you can see that I don’t have my glasses and I don’t see shit
Chicago is nice! One of the cities I could imagine living in. San Francisco, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona and London are my list of favorite cities. Rome is the closest city to my heart but I don’t know if I can live there.
Big cities offer an overwhelming amount of options. Want to eat out? You can go to different places and eat different dishes everyday till you die and still won’t cover all of Chicago for example. Chicago has more than 7000 restaurants. Would take you 20 years to try everyday a new restaurant. One must grow a certain inner peace with “missing out” and accepting that in this life, you don’t get everything. Probably this makes us different. The number of choices produce a huge number of possible combinations. This makes each of us has a unique story of different combinations.
I started by going out for breakfast in a really nice place. Kanela breakfast club. Accompanied by my current read “Zero to One” which is recommended to me by my friend Ahmed Hisham. The book is written by Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel and is directed to Startup founders, entrepreneurs if I spelled it correctly 😀
Today I stopped at one paragraph that described something I recognized in myself.
The highlight of my day was meeting Imma. A Catalan friend of mine we met in Istanbul in 2009. She also visited me in Cairo a year later and since then we are in touch. Imma and I agreed to watch the African Cup final together in Cairo Kebab! Egypt lost to Cameron but I won the company of Imma and catching up 7 years of life changes and personal developments. The two persons that met 7 years ago are very different ☺. I enjoy these encounters. They remind you of who you were through eyes of life witnesses and make you feel lucky to have a significant connection with good friends that does not shake with the years.
We planed to watch the superbowl together that afternoon. I lost my way at the beginning and then felt like going back to my accommodation. After resting a bit, I went to the cinema around the block to watch a nice movie “Lion”. Although I slept 10 min at the beginning (I guess I am still jet lagged. Jetlagged. Jellagd. :P), I found it very touching.
Tomorrow I have no plans. Probably some art museums and long walks. I really like this city!
