[spectre] Letter from Istanbul [x-posted from: Reader-list]

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: Sarang Shidore <sarang_shidore at yahoo.com>(by way of Monica Narula)
Subject: [Reader-list] Letter from Istanbul


"From Pakistan?" asked the storekeeper. No, I said, India. 
`Ahh....Hindistan!` he exclaimed.   I was relaxing at a roadside CD 
store in Sultanahmet, the heart of old Istanbul. It is a beautiful, 
breezy evening outside as I am writing this. and the street is 
bustling - but not overcrowded - with Turks and some tourists 
strolling by.   Earlier, I spent almost an hour at the music store, 
browsing through the latest Turkish music. Being a worldbeat fan, I 
was already familiar with the biggest stars here - Tarkan, Mustafa 
Sandal, Sezen Aksu. But the young, hip Turkish guy at the counter 
(who sported a cream-coloured beret) had been playing CD`s for me 
cheerfully from some really good artists I had never heard of before 
- Gokhan Ozen, Izel, Kaan Gokman - all sorts of latest Turkish 
techno-fusion and rock. His boss showed up halfway thru and offered 
me "chai". So there I was sitting back in a comfy chair watching the 
road pass by with feet tapping fusion music belting out from the 
store`s speakers, and sipping tea served Turkish style (without milk 
but with sugar, served in a small distinctively-shaped glass)   It is 
difficult for me to descibe my feelings at arriving in this 
magnificent city. All I can say is that I am simply overwhelmed by 
its beauty and dynamism. From 350 C.E. to the early 20th century 
Istanbul was one of the worlds largest and most international cities 
- every inch a London or New York of its time. 1100 years as the 
capital of Western civilization, and then 500 years the focal point 
of the Islamic world has an impact, and it hits you everywhere you go 
here.   If you want to really see where East meets West, come to 
Istanbul. Kipling probably would have had a heart attack in seeing 
how effortlessly - on the surface at least - do the two shimmy 
together, sometimes blending, otherwise apart, but always in harmony. 
Thoroughly Westernized as well as modern, Istanbul can be easily 
mistaken for any European city. The stores are arty, European-style, 
the fashions daring, the infrastructure (highways, 
telecommunications, public sanitation) excellent. But look closer and 
the East is always there, from the haunting call to prayer heard in 
almost any part of the city five times a day, to the multi-colored 
hijabs that some of the young women don to the inviting smells of 
Doner Kebap that fill the air from roadside kiosks. Men walking with 
arms around each others` shoulders mingle easily with grandmas in 
sunglasses. Minarets rub shoulders with multi-storeyed concrete, and 
tea-stalls and kiosks selling nuts and roasted corn cobs jostle with 
fast food joints. There is always plenty of time to do anything, and 
bargaining is always possible, as long as you know the ropes. The 
politics is a mess, inflation high, the people happy, families mostly 
intact. No guns, little crime, hardly any drugs, and the easy 
informality of the people here is a welcome change from the strictly 
rules-based, disinfectant culture of the USA.   Talking about hijabs 
(and no I don`t wish to fixate on them as the Western press routinely 
seems to) I have never seen women as Western and simultaneously as 
Islamic as I have here. An amazing diversity of attitudes to 
traditional islamic dress seem to co-exist here. A majority of the 
middle and upper classes are dressed in the latest Western (specially 
European) fashions, and Turkey has a large middle class. But a chunk 
of women - some of them apparently highly educated - choose to don 
the headscarf. It is a trend that has accelerated over the last 10 
years, I am told. I have seen couples holding hands and being quite 
lovy-dovy - the man in a Gap outfit and the woman in an elegant 
(ankle-length) skirt, jacket and hijab. Yesterday, I spotted a young 
woman smoking away to glory, but not a single strand of hair managed 
to show itself through her headscarf! Only in Turkey....   I have 
been here for only 48 hours, but I have seen a lot already. It helps 
that I have two good friends in Turkey. Serra teaches at Istanbul 
University, and my old friend from my UT days, Derek, recently moved 
with his Turkish wife to Ankara (they drove up to Istanbul over the 
weekend). So I am getting very much an insiders view of this country. 
So far, I have seen the Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, and the immense 
Topkapi Palace. I have been driven along the Bosphorus coast and 
watched the ships sail through its beautiful blue, blue waters. I 
have crossed the Bosphorus bridge between Europe and Asia and taken 
in a superb long walk along the Asian shore at at Kalamisi. I have 
eaten some excellent Turkish food and drunk countless cups - or 
rather glasses - of "chai".   The Aya Sofya or Sancta Sophia was 
Christendom"s greatest church till 1453, when Mehmet the conqueror 
captured Constantinopole and made it Istanbul. Its dome is an amazing 
achievement - thin like a gossamer and massive it just seems to float 
there with apparently no major support. The effect has to be seen to 
be believed. The Blue Mosque is a little less ambitious from the 
inside, but it has the same effect from the outside that the Aya 
Sofya manages to achieve from within.   The Topkapi palace was the 
seat of the Ottoman (the European corruption of the word Osman) 
sultans till the 1850s. It is so massive and has so many fascinating 
things to see that it took me most of today to go through it. The 
harem, the imperial treasury, the stunning Bosphorus views, and the 
pavilions are some of its highlights.   I want to write much much 
more, but thanks to the my frustrations with the Turkish keyboard I 
can`t type as effortlessly as I usually do. So I will leave many of 
the details to my next letter. My week has only just begun and much 
still lies ahead.   Sarang in Istanbul

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