Hope, Love and Ayurveda

There is a dwindling, yet thriving (in their falling numbers) sikh-hindu community in Afghanistan.  Up until the early 90s, there were over 50,000 Sikhs in the country. The Civil war and rise of the Taliban forced most of the Sikhs (who ran the businesses in Kabul city) out of the country. They immigrated in large numbers to Iran, Pakistan and India.

Today, approximately 3000 sikhs live in the country, under a 1000 of which are in Kabul city. Ever so often I drive past the area they live and every single time my driver will point out "look look this is where the sikhs live, they are from your country".

The Sikhs are often asked by fellow Afghans "when are you returning to india". They are not returning to India. Afghanistan is their home and its been their home for centuries.

It traces back to 1834 AD, when Sardar Hari Singh Nalua (a Sikh) was appointed the first non-muslim governer of Peshawar by Maharaja Hari Singh. Dost Mohammad, the Afghan ruler of Kabul attempted to regain his supremacy over Peshawar that he had lost and dispatched his son Akbar in 1837 AD to recover it. He did, after a bloody battle ensued and Sardar Hari Singh Nalua lost his life.  Thus the great Sardar with the terror of whose name Afghan mothers used to quieten their fretful children attained his martyrdom.

One prominent Sikh and his brother run an Ayurvedic clinic in their neighbourhood in Kabul.  A fresh stock of medicines are imported from Pakistan each month.

The ayurvedic healers

As soon as I heard about them, curiosity got the better of me and I was on my merry way to meet them.
We chatted for an hour or so. Talked about India, Punjab and the famous Sikh/Punjabi hospitality.

Ayurvedic Medicines imported from Pakistan

One of the brothers climbed a ladder, scanned a number of bottles with different colored liquids on a shelf, made a quick mental assessment and pulled one out. Handed it over to me and instructed that I take one teaspoon 3 times a day after meals. "It will keep your blood clean, make your face glow and no man will be able to resist you". Suddenly I felt electric, my eyes lit up and I found myself clutching my bottle of magic portion rather tightly.





The four walls of the clinic not only holds a 1000 bottles of Ayurvedic medicine in odd shapes and sizes but has witnessed endless sessions in counseling, therapy, astrology and marriage advice. Patients come in for medicine and leave with a smile on their face, not from the medication but from receiving a 5 star love astrology report.

The faith healer

People want to know their future, the unknown always spikes curiosity in us.  Given the grim conditions in Afghanistan where it looms over us like a cloud of darkness, people don't want to be reminded of the present, they only want to know the happy positive and good things about their future. The little hope they can hold on to. 

"Even in the midst of war and despair, people want to know that they will find true love and marry" they said to me. "It is love that keeps us alive".

Freedom is Beauty, and sometimes, Beauty is Freedom...

Beauty is part of every culture. The power in feeling beautiful is immeasurable.   There are some great stories in Kabul that nurture the beauty of a person inside and out thereby building self esteem and making them feel good. That feeling is liberating, something that cannot be quantified but has a deep impact in the moment and beyond...

I recently met a woman who is running for the Parliamentary Elections in September. During the Taleban Regime, she saved her money and bought one treadmill which she planted in her house. She spent hours each day motivating her women friends to come over and exercise on the treadmill, they lost weight, felt beautiful and it shook off the depression that inflicts so many in warzones. She said she was able to save a few lives. Suicidal rate is high among women suffering from violence in Afghanistan (domestic violence and effects of the war).

Seattle Times Article :Two Afghan women work on mannequins in the docu-mentary "The Beauty Academy of Kabul."

In 2001, a group of American hairdressers came to post taliban kabul to set up the first beauty school. http://www.beautyacademyofkabul.com/  The idea that the pusuit of beauty is an element of democracy and nation building made the school an attractive prospect for beauty industry philanthropists.

Charity Fashion Show -Kabul

Last friday, I participated in a charity fashion show. The founder of a girls school designs clothes that she sells and the proceeds go back to the school. My friends  (English, Korean, American, Kenyan) , an Afghan girl and I participated in the fashion show. The Afghan girl only agreed if she were allowed to keep the hijab on. I admired her courage in stepping out of her comfort zone to participate, yet holding the respect for her culture and traditions instead of defying and rejecting her legacy. It showed her sensibility, maturity and pragmatism.

Charity fashion show

 

The evening was spectacular. In minutes we felt like supermodels,  feeling beautiful as we were watched strutting around like peacocks. The show stopper in my eyes was the Afghan girl. She danced on the ramp, connected with the audience with her eyes and expressed her feminity with reckless abandon, her spirit bursting through the seams of her veil.

Thank you Afghanistan for these moments. This day made me feel beautiful, it made me feel free, empowered, feminine and liberated in the midst of the war. It made me realise it can be done by respecting, not defying local tradition. It was a reminder of the things that make us human. Things that don't matter much, in the larger scheme of things, but empower us beyond measure and loom large when taken away. Things we all have in common...

Charity Fashion Show: Afghan dress with headscarves

Art is Courage

The Strength of a Woman (Work of the Artists )

Last summer I arrived in time for the annual art exhibition organized by Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF), an NGO set up in 2006, backed by two patrons, HRH Prince of Wales and HE Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan. http://www.turquoisemountain.org  Coincidentally, I arrived this summer just in time for the 3rd annual exhibit.

TMF has an institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture under which it runs several schools. One of which is the School of Calligraphy and painting. Through this program they train and mentor painters on posture, movement and materials. At the end of the year they organize an exhibition of their students best work. 

The two faces of Islam (Work of the Artists)

(Work of the Artists)

We express facets of ourselves through our work,interaction and creativity. The works of these afghan painters for me reflected the turmoil and struggles of the war. It reflected fear, anger, hurt, pain, yet glimpses of hope, faith and courage. It was heartening to meet the artists and talk to them. Some of them had never known they had such talent in their hands until TMF helped them discover it. Others knew but had no avenue to express or be valued for it. 

(Work of the Artists))

Seeing these artists exhibit their talent and win recognition in the form of prize money was such an inspiring and empowering, yet humbling experience. This was a dream come true for all of them. Art requires courage, a lot of courage. Courage to believe in yourself, courage to stay grounded, firm and sincere to the art form and pursue it diligently, drawing strength from the outside world that applauds or recognizes it's worth.

Bagh-e-Babur Gardens (built by Agakahan foundation) hosted the Art Exhibition

I bow down to my brother and to all my friends who are artists, from painters to sculptors to musicians to designers to singers to actors to writers. I have seen many of you struggle, yet persevere through thick and thin and find your own place in the sun. Charles Horton Cooley, an american sociologist, once said, an artist cannot fail, it is in fact a success to be one.

Hamida, Shirin and me at the TMF art exhibit at the Bagh-e-Babur, July 2010

My free spirit

I arrived in Kabul three weeks ago. Even though I've lived here before, I have returned with a new employer and had to undergo standard security procedures and protocol. One such procedure was receiving my BlackBerry and learning how to use the GPS secure locator. This application tracks your movements at all times.

While I was undergoing my training in the office to test how the GPS locator works, I was shown a large computer screen with a map of the area I live and work in Kabul and with one click we narrowed down to our office that displayed all my office mates in the office as it should. However, I was not on the screen. After several attempts to scroll up and down the enlarged digital map of the office to find me, my security head clicked on my name. Seconds later, we followed the navigator outside the office, 300 miles away on a mountain top... thats where the GPS secure application picked up my Blackberry signal. Confused and bewildered, my security folks suggested they keep my Blackberry for 24 hours to make sense of this confusion. Never had it happened before. I laughed and thought to myself "this BlackBerry has my name on it. My free spirited soul cannot be contained... welcome to Afghanistan, Rima ! "