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Friday, December 22, 2006
In Egypt, India is Big B! http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1876262,000500020008.htm
PK Balachandran
Colombo, December 22, 2006
Two things would strike Indians on a visit to Egypt - the warmth that the hoi polloi exude when they run into Indians and, the phenomenal popularity of "Big B" Amitabh Bachchan.
Egypt is one country in the world where Indians are actually liked, perhaps the only country in the world where they are.
No one reviles the "Ugly Indian" in the Land of the Nile. Shopkeepers don't shoo away window shopping Indians as in Hong Kong.
On the contrary, they are welcomed with open arms. Bazaar touts trail them saying: "India? Amitabh Bachchaaan! Come, I'll take you to the Souq."
The moment Egyptians, whether young or old, see an Indian, they would exclaim in a chorus: "Amitabh Bachchaaaan! We like India!"
In Egypt, Big B is synonymous with India. He is one of the three Indians who every Egyptian may know, the other two being Dharmendra and Mithun Chakraborty!
The trio headed by Big B have done what Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru could not - make India a lovable country.
And what do they like about Amitabh Bachchan? Is it his acting ability, his poise, sophistication, or the way he speaks his lines?
None of these.
"He strong man!" they would say, thumping their chests. The generally big-made Egyptians seem to go for brawn and action.
In a time warp
[Author (R) with his daughter in Cairo, Egypt]
Strangely enough, Egyptians are in a time warp in regard to Indian films. Fans here are hooked on to movies of the 70s and 80s, which run even now in the many ramshackle theatres in small towns.
DVDs of these old films sell like hot cakes. One couldn't figure out why they were clueless about the latest ones or why so few had even heard of Shahrukh Khan, for example.
Hindi film music is another attraction, but less than the movies. And here again, Old is Gold.
The ring tone in our driver's cell phone was Awara hoon, the theme song of the 1950s Raj Kapoor classic Awara.
The Bachchan phenomenon, and the role that Indian film songs are playing in making India acceptable abroad should make Indians shed their cavalier attitude to their film industry and start treating its problems with seriousness.
Bachchan himself said this in parliament long years ago when he was an elected MP. "We are treated as jokers," he had said in anger to a stunned Lok Sabha.
Sharp bargains the norm
The man in the street in Egypt seemed very eager to link up with India. Though this could be seen as a sales gimmick, shop keepers would point to their skin and yours, and proclaim: "We, brothers! See, skin same colour! Come, I will give good price."
Which, of course, will be ten times the actual price.
Bargaining is the norm, even when one takes a taxi. The shop keeper's price would go through the roof, but you should strike the rock bottom.
You should stand like a rock as he tries to cajole and flatter you into submission.
An oft repeated gimmick was to tell my son-in-law Ujjal: "Wow ! you've got a beautiful wife! How many camels did you give her? 2,000? I'll give you 3,000, will you give her to me?"
Then turning to me, an elderly gent, he would say: "Father? You've done a good job Sir!" I would be flattered but Ujjal and Kadambari, being hardened Abu Dhabians, would pay no heed.
In the beach resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, we were forced to negotiate the price of the meal at the restaurant we went to! It was my hawk-eyed son-in-law who discovered that the menu card did not mention the price. It only had numbers against the dishes. No sign of the currency!
An unwary traveller could have ended up paying 50 Euros for a dish which was meant to cost only 50 Egyptian Pounds!
When this was pointed out to the owner/manager, the gentleman started negotiating the price of the meal. We had no option but to walk out.
The other golden rule in Egypt is: never get into a taxi without fixing the price. You are sure to be taken for a ride if you don't.
Prices in Egypt seemed to be high. Nothing was less that 10 Egyptian pounds or "Dhen Bounds" as they say. Egyptians pronounce 't' and 'p". as "dh" and "b".
According to our tour guide Shayma (pronounced Shaymey) salaries are so low that people have to survive on sharp bargaining, tips and baksheesh to make both ends meet.
One has to be street smart here. If it was not for Ujjal, who kept a tight rein on our expenses and drove hard bargains untiringly, we would have returned penniless.
Cairo
Cairo is an amazing city of 15 million people, at once charming and maddening. The magnificent pyramids of Giza, in the outskirts of the city, give it a unique touch.
Coptic or Christian Cairo in the old part of the City is worth a whole day's visit. Its narrow and crooked streets and its biblical sites and relics are a historian's delight.
There is touch of the Colonial era here, with one shop selling 80 year old telephones and typewriters. The residents look different from the Arabs, reminding one of the Armenians of Calcutta, though their mother tongue is now Arabic.
The Copts in Egypt seem to have a shortage of names. One is either a George or a Michael!
Cairo is a concrete jungle, made up of endless blocks of dull brown flats, crying for a coat of fresh paint, much like Calcutta in the 1960s.
But there are many heritage sites (especially in the old quarter), including the hotel run by the Oberois, which was formerly the palace of King Farook, Egypt's last king who was a notorious playboy.
He was overthrown in a military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser in the early 1950s. Cairo has an impressive system of flyovers. But this has not solved the traffic problem.
Roads are chock-a-bloc with cars, mostly of the 1960s vintage sputtering and fuming but running all the same.
It is amazing that Egyptians should be driving these cars when even Indians are going for new cars.
Traffic is maddening with very few traffic lights and fewer traffic cops. Lanes can be changed at will and traffic snarls are common.
Mobile mania
Egyptians are an exceptionally talkative people. There are no snobs here it seems. People chit chat endlessly, often cutting across class divisions. The frequent use of the word "yaani" (like) suggests that ideas tend to get repeated in various forms making conversations longer.
The cell phone has come as a boon to the chatter boxes. Drivers merrily chat away on their mobiles while weaving through Cairo traffic with vehicles of every description overtaking them from the left and the right.
In case one doesn't have a phone, there is no need to worry. There are guys at the entrance of malls and on the streets who wave cells phone at passers by, shouting "mobile, mobile".
You can make a call (for Dhen Bounds minimum, I presume). No wonder then that Vodafone is a blue chip company in Egypt and has a whole township for itself en route to Alexandria.
Combining fashion and Islam
Though nowhere near being a shopping paradise like Dubai, Cairo has very smart shopping malls, the "Three Stars" being touted as the best in West Asia. Every international brand has an outlet here.
Egypt is an unabashedly Islamic country, where people take their religion very seriously.
But the people, especially in Cairo, are cued into the latest fashions. The men are immaculately turned out in suits. Elderly Egyptians, especially, look very distinguished.
Many women are covered, but not fully and in a dull and drab fashion as in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, where women are pushed under a brown or black cloak and made to wear a dull head scarf, giving them an unwashed look. The Islamic dress code is observed in Egypt in such a way that the woman does not lose her femininity. Here the head scarf is more like the colourful bandanas of Africa.
In fact the Islamic dress code has been turned into an amazing fashion statement in Egypt.
Both men and women spend a good part of their income on body and skin care and fashion accessories.
"The Egyptians are the Punjabis of the Arab world," said my daughter who is a resident of Abu Dhabi.
In the midst of the glitz and glamour of Cairo there are horrible Bombay type slums too.
One dusty slum, which no tourist will miss, is a former graveyard, housing 150,000 people.
However, for all the squalor, Cairo does not smell, the way Mumbai or Chennai does, which is amazing and worth an enquiry.
Perhaps, Egyptians do not relieve themselves on the roads and treat the sidewalks and canal banks as toilets as Indians do. The Nile is one of the cleanest rivers I have seen outside Europe.
Biblical vestiges
During a four-day cruise on the Nile in a luxury liner, we saw tiny villages with swaying palm trees and peasants in their long robes and huge turbans riding on donkeys.
It was exactly as it was in biblical times as portrayed in Hollywood films. And as in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP during winter, heavily robed and turbaned Egyptian farmers would sit in groups smoking hookahs.
The fellahs or farmers of Egypt look like being the racial brothers of our own Jats balwans of Rohtak.
The Egyptian cop, with his rugged features, certainly reminded one of the Bir Singhs and Chattar Singhs of the "Dilli police".
Excellent cooks
Egyptians are hearty eaters and excellent cooks, it appears. Food here would warm the cockles of the gourmet's heart, whether he is a non-vegetarian or a vegetarian.
Yes, meat is the favoured dish, but vegetables are a necessary part of the daily Egyptian diet.
Any Indian's heart would leap at the sight of the vegetables here. They are amazingly big and very tasty too.
Organic farming is the norm. Cauliflowers are the size of watermelons. One can't hold more than one tomato in one's hand.
To the delight of vegetarians like me, the restaurants in the remotest parts of Egypt were familiar with the term "vegetarian" and excellent vegetarian fare was available wherever one went.
The use of olive oil and ancient local spices give Egyptian food a quaint but very pleasant taste. The food is also kind to the stomach, thanks to the absence of chillies and the judicious use of oils and spices.
Proud of distinctiveness
Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC.
Such a pride in the past may prevent the country's rich traditional culture from being swamped or being destroyed by Saudi-inspired radical Wahabism, which also has a base in the country.
The Pharaonic monuments have pictures of animals and human beings. The Sphinx is but a figure of a half man-half animal.
The curios sold in the bazaars are mostly statuettes from the Pharaonic era. All this could come under the scrutiny of the Mullahs if Wahabism takes over, because it is supposedly "un-Islamic" to exhibit such figures and paintings.
But to our relief, Egyptians do not see this happening. There is no fear of a repeat of the Bamiyan Buddha case.
The monuments are preserved with affection and displayed with pride by the Egyptians.
"We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians," said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim.
The wall paintings in the tombs, especially in the smaller of the two temples in Abu Simbal, were very impressive. The colours were as bright and fresh as they were 3,500 years ago when they were painted.
The Karnak temple in Luxor, with its tall, massive and sculptured columns, was breathtaking.
The monuments came alive during the sound and light shows. One felt as if one was in a theatre watching a Hollywood movie on a biblical theme.
Alexandria
Alexandria is unique in as much as it is at once an oriental and an occidental city. Its population has strains from Greece, Rome, Turkey, West Asia and Africa.
The city is now famous for its Roman Amphitheatre and the Catacombs, both recently restored.
The catacombs or Roman burial chambers even have a dining hall for the dead with a lime stone dining table in the middle of the hall!
The old part of Alexandria showed how modernity and tradition could peacefully coexist.
In the crowded oriental bazaar, the road side shop keepers brazenly park their carts on the tram line.
But when the tram arrives, they will unhesitatingly remove their carts, and get back the moment the trams move out! All this is done so quickly that the trams move without any hindrance.
The ease with which this was done and accepted showed the tolerance and the spirit of accommodation in Asian societies.
Egypt has so much to offer that even a 15 day trip is not enough. It is certainly not a place for those in a hurry.
The mixture of the past and the present is heady, but it has to be savoured at leisure, slowly, steadily and quietly.
HT Media Ltd. 2006.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges