Reading newspapers from street walls - Orthodox Ethiopian Christians - Ethiopian Journey - Blog post no - 27

It was quite common to see people crowding in city square and reading newspapers and notices pasted on the wall. They were indulging in ‘reading from the wall in actual sense’ unlike virtual reading from the wall popularized by social media giants like Facebook. It was interesting to see many people crowd and read news. Once in a while somebody would read something aloud and all of them would burst out laughing out loud. It was social interaction at its best.

My father had told me that Indians too would do the same in the 50s and the 60s when people were hungry for news but could not afford to buy a newspaper. The major attraction was the wall outside the Kasturi building, Mount Road, Madras (now Chennai).

The iconic English newspaper ‘The Hindu’ was published from the Kasturi building. The Hindu would paste the next day’s news by the afternoon or the evening. People would crowd and read the news for free. They could also search for any typos or spelling mistakes.  Some lucky ones would infact find some.

Such lucky finders would be treated to a plate of hot idlis and a hot piping Chennai filter coffee, for free in The Hindu’s cafeteria.  That was the level of seriousness of The Hindu. As I saw what had unfolded in front of me, I wondered – ‘many get a chance to see the latest and peep into the future, but how many of us are lucky to go into the past and experience the life and times of our parents’. It was most surreal, to say the least.

It was a Sunday morning and the kids were still sleeping. Padma and me went out for a walk. A strange sight beckoned us. There are people standing on the road and facing an imposing building, Others were very close to the boundary wall of the building but were not touching it. Many had pressed their faces to the wall and some even kissing it. All the time I could hear muted murmurings and all of them looked serious and solemn. Overcome by curiosity, we crossed over and peeped inside the building. 

The sight stunned us, the building housed a huge church and there were many people inside the church premises, some I saw very close to the church steps and I assumed some were present inside.

I was puzzled “why where they standing outside the church and why were some of them standing outside the church building”. I could understand the inside of the church not having enough space but the space in the compound of the church could easily have accommodated all including the ones standing outside the main building, the faithful kissing the wall and the people on the road.

Later an Ethiopian friend explained “Ethiopians, especially the orthodox Christians are very pious and god fearing. They worship the god from a distance that is comfortable to them. Only the ones who believe that they are pious and pure enter the main church. The proximity or the remoteness from the god is decided by the self-belief of how pure or sinned one feels internally.” I found this thinking to be very deep, puzzling and unreal. But it had happened in front of me!

For many religious people, sinning is some thing that you leave to the mercy of the god. Huge donations, or penance is enough to wash away the sins. In-fact the proximity to the god is possible if one is materially rich! But being away from the god and that too voluntarily, touched my heart very deeply. 

Mango Park- The pelican man - Ethiopian journey - Blog Post no - 26

Bahirdar by the Evening

Evenings in Bahirdar were pleasant. The promenade from Ethiostar to the mango park was full of huge palm trees and had very moderate traffic. The air was definitely cold and bracing but evening walks were not very strenuous and sweating was one unheard of. We could walk many kilometres without breaking out in sweat.

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. Lake Tana is approximately 84 kilometres long and 66 kilometres wide, with a maximum depth of 15 meters, and is at an elevation of 1,788 meters. Lake Tana is fed by the Lesser Abay, Reb and Gumara rivers. Its surface area ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 km². 

Mango Park, Lake Tana, Bahirdar 

Mango park was a park that was created on the Lake Tana’s front. It was a park of decent size with a nice gallery facing the lake. Visitors could sit, relax, read a book, talk with friends or just nod off to sleep.  There was also a paved path that meandered around the lake for visitors’ who wanted to walk and admire the lake. There was a small cafeteria that served cool drinks, tea, coffee and some snacks.

Pelican in Full Flow 

Lake Tana Video 

A special attraction at the mango park was the pelican man. This Bahirdar resident popularly called the pelican man had been feeding the pelicans for many years and they had become incredibly tame and friendly. They would languidly swim close to the shore, their eyes always watchful to the arrival of their feeder – the pelican man. Woe betide a ignorant tourist who approach the pelicans at their feeding time to take their pictures. 

The pelicans would hungrily descent on the poor man and would rapidly put their very long and sharp beaks enquiringly in the pockets and then thrust their beaks wildly into the air.  They would all the time keep squeaking loudly and complaining about the indignity and injustice meted out to them. This would amuse the locals to a great extent. The pelican man was a very gentle soul and he would accept 5 or 10 birr as feeding donations with a disarming smile.

Lake Tana Islands 

Lake Tana has many mysterious islands that host old and unique monasteries. These lake monasteries have ancient churches and museums that have a treasure of ancient holy books, crosses and other religious artifacts. Interestingly entry to some islands is only for men and for some other entry is only for women. The lake Tana Island  monasteries could be visited by a boat and it would take a full day to cover all the islands.

Boating on Lake Tana 

We could see noisy speedboats, slow moving launches carrying many Ethiopians to Dek, the largest island on lake Tana. The one thing always caught the eye was the small and the precariously fragile looking papyrus boat. 

Papyrus Boat, lake Tana 

Papyrus boats are made of tankwa weed. They looked very fragile but it was common to see as many as five people on a single papyrus boat. A lone wiry boatman fishing in lake Tana in the background of soft lyrical traditional Ethiopian music in the receding sunlight makes for an unforgettable experience. 

Ethiopian Chapatis - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post - 25

Cheeky Chapatis

I am very much happy and humbled by the feedback that I have received. I receive calls, E-mails, SMSs, messages from my readers who are pretty annoyed that their daily dose or serial (as they refer to it) has not yet been published or got delayed. There are many who demand that I write my entire Ethiopian Experience all at once. My niece, Dr.M. Sandeepthi remarked “Mama who has time to read it once a day? Why don’t you write it as a novel” She was visibly annoyed.

Some of my readers have expressed  their doubts as to if the incidents have happened as recited or if they are figments of my imagination. For example ‘did Sahithi really say all that about seven year difference in age and also if the Telugu lady was really annoyed at her husband saying Chao, Chao to her’. This is my response to those specific queries.

Oh Yes, if I were to think logically, what the readers are feeling is logical and realistic.  I am chronicling things as they have happened. I write with creativity and panache but i am not very imaginative. If I had imagination like my mother (the quite well known Telugu writer M. Hemalatha), I would have become a professional writer. But alas it is not to be! I can be a biographer and a feature writer but not a novelist. Things really happened the way they are recited.

Days were slipping away and we were getting into a routine. But it was tough to live out of a suitcase, especially as we had four huge ones along with four equally bulky cabin luggage! It was really irksome to search and not get what you want!

The one issue that was really getting to us was the lack of proper Indian food. The Ethiopian food is quite bland with zero spice and very little salt and chilly. And compounding the problem was the quality of rice available and the way it was cooked. The rice was broken and had the same taste and texture of boiled rice .

The cooked rice was soggy and moreover was accompanied by a tomato curry that had no taste! We were too smart not to open our very precious pickles that we had so lovingly carried all the way from India. They had to last for a good two years!

The women in our group took the matters into their own hands (literally). They raided the Ethiostar's kitchen. Tagging along were the friendly yet curious hotel staff. The Indian ladies found the kitchen quite passe, and discovered that the cooks were not trained to prepare Indian dishes. The lady brigade was desperate. They were at their wits-end. But they found that the hotel had wheat flour.

So a sight unfolded that made everyone gape. The Indian ladies cooking army was marching on. They plonked themselves in front of a huge table and made dough. They wanted to roll the chapatis. 

Chapatis being rolled with bottles 

There were no rolling pins available. We had bought rolling pins from India but had misplaced them. In desperation Padma, Vasavi and Tasneem rolled Chapatis from glass water bottles. The local chefs were fascinated by the entire process. They could not believe their eyes. That night we had nice proper Indian chapatis .

Very quickly we realized  that for the Ethiopian chefs, who have not rolled chapattis in their life, found rolling chapatis a huge chore and the results were frustrating. The chapatis would not be of any uniform size or taste and would be thick and quite bulky. But they were eaten!

Pranav at that age was quite a solemn boy. He found the entire eating experience to be very painful, but was philosophical about it. One night he brightened visibly. Seeing his excitement, I asked him “Pranav, what is the matter, you seem to be happy?” all the time trying to push the not so edible and burnt Ethiopian chapati into my mouth. It had just occurred to me that a country that prides itself as a land of sun burnt people is serving us burnt chapatis!

“Look, Nanna, look!” Pranav exclaimed “This chapati looks like Ethiopia”. Pranav was quite a geography buff and could easily identify many countries. The not so experienced Ethiopian cooks managed to make chapatis, one of which uncannily resembled their own country! At that time we did not have mobile phones. If we had, we could have captured the infamous Ethiopian Chapati in its full glory before it was consumed!

This hugely interested my two year old daughter Sai Sahithi. She would hopefully examine her own chapati and whisper into Padma’s ears “Amma, what does my chapati look like?” The chapati looking like something meant so much to Sahithi!  Not to disappoint her, Padma would tell her name of a state or a country!

Any name was okay for Sahithi; she just wanted to be one up on her smart alerky brother, Pranav Pratheek!  If Pranav had Ethiopia for lunch she wanted to have United States for her dinner! Oh, those were the days, when innocence reigned! 

Marathon Running – Drama within Drama – Close finishes, Heroes and Villains – Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post – 24

Anderson - Schiess, the never say die swiss marathon Runner 

In the 1984 Olympics, the 39-year-old Anderson-Schiess, the Swiss marathon runner enters the stadium. Unfortunately for her, she missed the fifth and the last water serving station and had become dehydrated.  She is 400 metres from the finish line. She is totally done. She moves, hobbles, her torso horribly twisted, Her left arm limp, her right leg which had lost of its mobility. The volunteers are helpless. If they help, she would be disqualified. 

In front of thousands of spectators who are awed and shocked to their core, the spectacle unfolds. She takes many minutes and the race is forgotten. All the spectators are involved.  As she struggles, her struggle becomes their own. They cheer her on vociferously, the whole way. After many agonizing minutes she still gamely continues and holds her head in her hands. She is in agony but does not give up. She is still at it. It is mind over matter. Her entrance to the Olympic stadium and the struggle to cross the last 400 metres takes her five minutes and 45 seconds. 

Finally, she crosses the line accompanied with deafening roar. The winner too did not get that type of reception! She faints and is taken to a hospital and luckily recovers. There are many runners who have died running or trying to run the marathon. 

Time is such a big issue in sports that it can be a barrier in itself. The 100 (hundred) metres dash is over in ten seconds flat. That is as much time as we take in reading a string of 50 words!  Ask P. T. Usha. She came 4^th in the 400 metres dash in 1984 Olympics. She clocked a heart breaking 55.55 seconds and the bronze medal was won in 55.54 seconds. P. T. Usha was slower by 1/100^th of a second.

Motivating Video, Never give up 

That night it was very difficult for me to sleep. India never won a medal in Track and field. A medal in the track and field was ours for the taking and we missed it by a proverbial whisker! I am sure P.T. Usha does not spend a day without thinking “what if, what if, what if I had just lunged at the finish line” ‘what if, what if’ will linger on for a life time. Too much of a mile-stone to be carried on the slim shoulders of P.T. Usha. Hats off Usha, we are always indebted to you for the lovely memories.

Most inspiring Marathon runner ever 

India beat Pakistan in the inaugural T20 International Cricket World Cup in 2007. In a heart stopping last over, Joginder Singh bowls Misba-Ul-Haque a fairly decent delivery. Misba had a brain freeze and had a real swing at the ball. It is all in the mind. Misba was overcome by the situation. He wanted to be done with it. Sreesanth circles down the ball and takes a well-judged catch and that was that! India wins the world cup.

Spare a thought for all four players in this real life drama.  Misbah-Ul-Haq the batsman, becomes the villain number one in Pakistan. It is easily forgotten that he brought his country so close to winning. He brought them very close – just a stroke away from winning the world cup. Yet so near and yet so far.

On the other side the Indian captain, Ice cold Dhoni who had the guts to bowl Joginder Singh in the last over.  It could have gone horribly wrong and Dhoni would have been left holding both the baby and the bath water! He would have carried the blame for a life time. Just like Chetan Sharma, who even today is blamed for bowling that full toss to Javed Miandad, who swung it to six and win the Australasia cup for Pakistan in 1986.

And what went on in the minds of Sreesanth and Joginder is worth a million dollars! As Sreesanth waited with baited breath, did he get the thought of failing? I don’t know. I think the adrenaline rush takes over and the sports people live in the present! Very easily it could have been the other way round! Pakistan winners and India being the runners up.   So let us be sympathetic to sports persons and understand their problems and try to look at sports with the needed compassion. Let us remember that the players whom we are watching are playing as we can’t or can’t play better than them! 

Sports; makes you die and die for – Ethiopian Journey – Blog post -23

Most of us don’t understand things as they are. We get to see them as depicted by the popular media or by rabble rousers or opinion makers like Arnab (Arnab Goswami is a news Anchor for a Television channel in India). Arnab has made news very watchable but it is more like a rough and tumble, wild west boxing match. Everything is okay as long as many punches are thrown and there is blood and gore.

We are an armchair-sitting generation, that takes most things for granted. Especially more so when it comes to sports. We are critical to the point that we are smug and very self-opinionated. Everything is taken for granted. Allow me to enlighten.

Javier Sotomayor, clearing 2.45 metres, a world record

The world record for high jump for men is 2.45 metres or 8 feet and ¼ inch. You read it right! I can imagine some readers gasping in disbelief! YES 8 feet. You need to take a fast run to the pit, bend backwards and arch your back and sail over the bar. Pressure is building and an inch here and there could be a gold, silver or a bronze medal. Or being called an also run or a failure.  What is heart stopping is that many athletes are between 6 feet to 6.5 feet tall and are expected to jump much more than their height and that too without any support.

That is why I would suggest to my readers to watch the sports live in a stadium. Nothing more exciting than seeing a world class athlete soaring over a high jump bar just like a bird. Or gape like mad as you watch an athlete literally fly as they clear 6 metres to achieve glory in pole vault. 

Sergi Bubka, the legendary pole vaulter from USSR had a mind boggling 28 world records (17 outdoor and 11 indoor) to his credit. 

Bubka set his final world record of 6.15 (20.17 feet) in February 1993 in Donetsk which stood for almost 21 years. He had once said “Every new world record attempt is a nerve shattering experience. It is a height that no one has ever cleared. So unless it is cleared the butterflies in my stomach would never settle down”.

Coming to Ethiopia, we all seem to think that running comes naturally to them. Yes, running is fun and only, if it is for a kilometre or two. But we are talking about pounding kilometres monotonously for days, months or even years. The world record for a marathon is 2 hours 6 minutes to cover 42 Kilometres and 195 metres. Covering 42 kilometres in two hours!  That is covering one kilometre in 3 minutes. At that speed the athletes are literally flying. Their feet are off the ground, bodies are heaving, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and their entire being drenched in sweat.  They are in a zone of their own. It is fascinating to see people run. For the present generation, even walking to the lift or changing channels of a TV is a chore or a boring exercise!  I urge you all, to atleast try running a kilometre at your own pace to understand our athletes before being critical about them.

The marathon is a killer sport. It entails running 42.195 kilometres at one go and without stopping. A fascinating sport. The only sport that can’t be practised in its totality. One can’t run a marathon every day! Most athletes run the marathon only on the marathon day! Every marathon is a life changing event. It is said that first 10 Kms are fun, second 10 Kms are by practice, penultimate 10 Kms are out of endurance and last 10 Kms are full of pain where every muscle, bone and blood cell is crying out of pain and frustration. There are thousands of reasons to stop and only one reason to continue. The reason is self-belief, to prove a point to yourself and finally the pride of running for the country.  The last 2 Kms are pure torture, the lungs are sobbing, breath is forced, the legs are wobbly and the blood starts accumulating in the eyes.