Turkey Part 1

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TURKEY - Part 1

The only things that I knew about the Turkish when I started off was that

they had towels named after them. Staying in India, one hardly gets to hear

or read anything worthwhile about this great nation. So it came as a great

surprise to me that we share at least 2000 common words.

For example, their word for book is 'Kitaap' (pronounced Kitaab, as the

Turkish say 'b' instead of 'p'). Sarap means wine and Saraf means jeweler.

Jawab means answer and heaven is called Cinnat (pronounced as Jannat). The

person who wrestles with oil on his body is called a Pehelvan. And despite

all these common words, you cannot understand head or tail of any Turkish

conversation.

As we descended down the Turkish Airways plane, a cold blast of air shook us

out of our jet lag, and the beautiful females scurrying around in mini

skirts and calf length leather boots woke up the remaining parts of my body.

My God! How can they have so many beauty queens all in one country? But the

worst part is that you cannot understand a single word of what they say. On

second thoughts, maybe that is the best part. How can they wear mini skirts

in this weather? Not that I was complaining, just perplexed. The males were

equally handsome, but naturally I was not interested in them.

In my childhood school days, I had duly noted in my Geography books that

Constantinople had changed its name to Istambul, and my teacher had given me

half a mark less for misspelling Istanbul. As we made our way through

Istanbul, we were proudly informed by our guide that we were in the only

city in the world which straddles both Europe and Asia. And surprise

surprise, it was NOT the capital of Turkey. The capital is Ankara. Who

cares? As long as the mini skirts are around, all this does not matter.

The currency of Turkey is Turkish Lira (1 TL = 30 Rupees), which in turn

consists of a 100 kurus. By the way, water is called 'Su' in Turkish. An

amazing thing was that while a bottle of water cost 50 kurus in the local

mall, a piss in the local toilet cost us a hefty 100 kurus. But as I

remarked to my wife, that is apt, since one 'Su' cost 50 kurus, Su-Su or two

'Su's were bound to cost double. We were there in the cold weather, so were

leaking liras like, well, water every hour or so. It really hurt to pay 30

rupees just to take a leak, and we pissed off a considerable fortune in

Turkey.

Istanbul is a modern city with ancient monuments. So we have the most modern

office complexes jostling for space with Greek and Roman Obelisks and

chariot racing tracks (Hippodrome) and old age mosques like the Blue Mosque.

The Blue mosque is especially worth mentioning, because the first thing you

notice about it is that it is not blue. It is only when you enter the huge

prayer hall, that you notice the beautiful blue dome and the blue tiles on

the walls.

Another famous building here is the Aya Sophia or the Hagia Sophia. This was

a giant church built when Christians ruled over Constantinople. When the

Muslims took over, they promptly, like all over the world, converted the

existing structure into a mosque. All paintings of and Jesus were

effaced with plaster and Allah's name was emblazoned in large plates on the

four corners. Later, modern day Turks took special efforts to restore the

Christian paintings and now we have Christian and Muslim artwork mixed here.

This is now a museum.

Taxim square is a central place frequented by tourists as well as locals.

The road there, Istikbal road, is so crowded that it seems that a river of

humanity is flowing down it. Many shops line both sides of this road and you

can enjoy the spectacle, eating charcoal grilled chestnuts (5 lira) or

Bagels (75 kurus) with flavoured syrup available at roadside carts.

But the best place that we visited in Istanbul was the underground cistern.

It has huge columns (336) supporting a large area of roads and buildings on

the surface level. Underneath is a huge stock of water, used for drinking in

the old days whenever the city was under siege. If you have seen the

Bond flick 'From Russia with Love', you will remember the climax fight

between Connery and the villain. This was filmed here in the

underground cistern, with its dimly lit columns and creepy water

reflections.

There are also various palaces of the ruler Osman, whose name was corrupted

to Ottoman. Hence we have many Ottoman period buildings. The most famous

amongst them is the Topkapi Palace, with its treasure trove of jeweled

daggers and carvings. There are also clothes of the Emperor, which unlike

the fairy tale, can be seen and are of giant size. Those who have seen Sawai

MadhoSingh's clothes in Jodhpur may not be so impressed, as MadhoSingh was

really stupendously huge. However, these clothes were also in the large

category. The famous Turkish Topi was worn during this period. It is a

cylindrical taper on the head with a tassle on top. No one wears it now.

No description if Istanbul would be complete without mentioning the Grand

Bazaar. Here everything is available, right from Souvenirs to Leather

jackets to amazing crystal pieces to even expensive carpets. One secret here

is that if you reach the bazaar early and are the first customer of the day

for a shop (among the more than 4000 shops), then you can drive a stupendous

bargain and get some things for a steal.

The people of Istanbul remember India as the land of Raj Kapoor (sorry

Amitabh and Sharukh fans). We even found one fan singing 'Awaara Hoon', with

rare gusto.

Our next stop was Ankara, the country's capital. We could take a flight.

However, all the flights left early in the morning at unearthly hours like 4

am and 2 am. Hence we followed our tour arranger, Mr. Sunil Deshpande's

advice, and caught the overnight sleeper train from Istanbul to Ankara. It

leaves at sensible hour of 10 pm and reaches Ankara at a convenient 6 am.

We could get off after a refreshing sleep, swayed by the lullaby of the

swaying train. For the first time in my life, I saw empty railway stations.

Absolutely no rush. Fantastic trains with soft comfy beds and even a well

appointed refrigerator and clean toilets.

That's all for now. I shall relate the next step of our travel in my next

mail. Off to Ankara.

Kishore Shah 1974