A for Afghanistan, A for adventure, A for awesome...

2011-12-26T23:37:00.000+05:30

Afghanistan– The Experience & Excitement Relived

The nature Never is Partial. It gives its beauty to everyone equally.

This time the visit was postponeddue to certain reasons, gave me a feeling that this visit will be cancelledonce again. I felt like a software engineer who waits for his onsite postingbut the organization is often able to fool him and keep the hope alive. Lastyear also, the visit was cancelled because of security reasons (Not oursecurity, the security of “Experts” was more important). And this year too, theVisa would have remained without an immigration stamp and two more passportpages would have gone wasted.

But the program was made suddenlyand was supposed to last momentarily too. The five day journey included onlyfew hours on site. No one knew that it wouldn’t be even that long. The Visas,tickets, advance dollars, insurance, preparations, packing, good byes, andshopping wish lists were all done in a single day. Everyone was running hereand there to do their bit. Packages were handed over to be delivered and wewere thinking how this much luggage will be handled.

All the warm clothes packed, we(We: Myself, my friend Taj, Three Consultants) were all ready to go. Blame itto my addiction to FB and twitter; I updated my location to Kabul, Afghanistaneven before leaving Delhi. And if I go by the likes and comments, people lovedthat I left India.

AT T3:

At T3

And now we were at Indira GandhiInternational Airport, Terminal 3. And a question popped into our mind. We usedT1 and now we use T3, what about T2? For cargo? Military purpose? Hajj purpose?No one knew; we were just guessing. Such a huge and marvelous terminal; withall facilities one can think of. From the security outside to the beautyinside, everything is very gripping. The advertisements seen earlier about T3were not exaggerating at all. Wanted to tweet everything live from there but mydiscomfort level with mobile tweeting did not allow me to. After all thechecking and other formalities and eating at the food court (Still not clearwhy the prices were almost double there; quality or just airport taxes) we wereready to board.

The plane:

Whether it is a bus, train or aplane, everyone fights, argues or secretly wishes for a window seat. No oneamongst us argued but the ones who got the window seat were very happy. The TVscreens on the seats, the warm atmosphere inside the plane, the kids crying inthe plane; everything is an excitement in itself. The only thing you miss whilegoing to a country like Afghanistan is the lovely faces. And of course no onewould like to know about the air hostesses in great Air India.

The journey gets exciting as youimagine flying over different cities in India and then Pakistan. A saying is“Jinne Lahore ni dekhya, ohne kuch ni dekhya” which means one who has not seenLahore has not seen anything. At least we saw it from the top. The Indus Riveramongst the clouds; the Kabul River; the natural border between Pakistan andAfghanistan demarked by start of hilly area; the snow covered Hind Kush ranges;the matchbox like structures of Afghanistan villages; so much to see in just acouple of hours.

Kabul: The cool breeze welcomes you.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have landed at Kabul Internationalairport. The temperature outside is 7 degree Celsius and wind is blowing at 50km/hr.”


Kambez Tahirzadi

As soon as we landed out of the plane, the cool breeze welcomed us. Whata feeling it is to breathe in such a clean and pure air, no pollution, no dust;the air enters and every inch of the wind pipe feels the chill. Nothing likethe Delhi airport, but still the Kabul airport has improved a lot since Ilanded here three years ago. “Tashakkur, (thank you), Khuda Hafiz”, the flightattendants said to every passenger. The immigration counters, the checkingstaff all have improved a lot. A person was already waiting for us to welcome usquite inside the airport (Not too difficult to enter prohibited areas if youcan show your importance by your hold on the local language). In the taxistand, Kambez, our interpreter, was waiting for us. Kambez is 21 year old boywhose brother works with Ismail Khan, the minister for irrigation and watersupplies. He is studying civil engineering in Kardan University in Kabul. Hetold that the professors are from Pakistan, Iran and India and few are fromAfghanistan too. He showed the university to us on our way back to the guesthouse at Akbar Khan road, Kabul. The guest house is adjacent to UK and Germanembassies, and is considered a very posh and safe area. But nowhere is safehere. The minor explosions having 1-2 causalities are treated with total indifference.The guards are with AK47 in a ready to shoot mode. In our prior visit, we werehanded the guns and instructions were given about how to shoot. We were toldthat in case of attack, it is very much possible that the police or securityforce which will always accompany us will run away and these guns for yoursecurity might be used against you. So it is better that you learn to operatethese so that at least you can scare off minor attackers.

Fencing in Houses

Our Security Guard

Indians have been favorites forattack lately. The locals are of no use; US are too difficult to kidnap;Pakistanis are considered enemies but they are not expected to be ransomgenerating people. Indians are heavily insured; both the governments are verymuch conscious about the mutual relations; the media is very active which makesthe ransom business very fruitful and of course killing anyone is no big dealhere.

afhgani Currency

The best thing which one can get abroad is someone who can converse inyour language, Bollywood music and the Indian food. The first two things are noproblem here. Hindi is understood by surprisingly a good percentage of peoplewe meet in Kabul. The FM channels broadcast Hindi songs, Indian channels arebroadcasted on TV; old Bollywood movies are aired in the theaters; the Indiancurrency or the dollars can be exchanged into Afghani notes and vice versa atalmost every shop. Dollars are accepted everywhere along with the Afghanis.Just for sake of information One dollar = 49 Afghanis (Yes, it is stronger than`, I don’t know how). Thecars are left hand driven here, so for Indians like me, traffic appears bonkershere.

We reached the guest house ataround 3 and were welcomed by pakodas and tea cooked by an Indian cook,Surajpal from our office only. Our stay in the guest house was going to be verydelicious for sure. The snacks, the most delicious dinner, the breakfast nextday gave a home away from home experience.

The airport rough handling caused my suitcase to give up its handlegiving me an excuse to take our interpreter to market and show us Kabul. “Boro(lets go)”, I said to Kambez. (Yes, I remembered a few words from my earliervisit). From the small shops and hawkers to the big general stores and Mallswith all international brands, Kabul has everything. “But no photography please.It is not safe, they will break your camera” Kambez requested when I took outmy camera. I humbly agreed. I took it out as soon as we were out from highsecurity area. With help of Kambez and his translations and his recommendationsabout the quality, we bought some dry fruits, for which Afghanistan is famous.(PS: Nothing is produced here apart from dry fruits and saffron. Everythingelse is either imported from Pakistan or Iran. Medicines from India andPakistan. Not to mention China and all the Chinese products available cheaplyhere. China looks the entire world as a local market really). There is anIndira Gandhi multi-specialty hospital in Kabul and people are really thankfulfor that. On our way back we witnessedthe traffic jam, American tanks and convoys violating traffic lanes showingthat no one can stop them, listened to Hindi songs on radio, big imported cars,mainly Toyota. Greedy and corrupt policemen. I could not help myself and justsighed on the condition I was witnessing.

They say, when there is no natural calamity there is awar in Afghanistan. And thenpeople are left to themselves to fight the aftermaths and try to stand upagain.

Herat

The night in Kabul was very cold. Aheater running on low voltage, multiple blankets, thermal wears, two pair ofsocks, woolen caps were not helping at all to fight the cold. But we sleptanyhow to get physically ready for the journey to Herat. Mentally we were not onlyready, we were thrilled.

(Whenever I type Herat in MS word, it autocorrects it to heart). This isreally annoying. The block of airport for domestic use is just like an ISBT ofa medium sized city in India. Our flight was delayed. There were noannouncements, no display boards, no one to ask who knew Hindi or wascomfortable in English as such, but we knew it because there was no plane. Wewere not left with any options but to wait. The flight was late by couple ofhours and the waiting hall was full of people who were waiting. With no railnetwork and very poor and unsafe road network, air network is the only way totransit between the capital and a very important city near Iran border. Thegood thing was they were showing a Hindi movie in the hall, Rocky- the HimeshReshammiya music flick.

The flight was like a bus transit. A Three by two seat arrangement like aroadways bus; People having their luggage in form of hand bags, kids crying dueto suffocation; oversized passengers or probably undersized seats; everythinghad a charm of its own for rare flyers like us and a headache for frequent flyers.In between those, I found a kid smiling for me to take his pictures (with hisfather’s permission).

Snow Covered peaks

If Kabul Domestic airport is likeDelhi ISBT, Herat airport is nothing more than a local bus stand of a smalltown in Punjab. You land at the airport and have to go out of the airportboundary which is nothing but a metal fencing. Small kids with single tiretrolleys are ready to surround you to hire them. “Karachi, Karachi...” theyshout running in circles around you. The luggage handing over to passengers ismost funny in Herat. A trolley van is put under the cargo gate of the plane andluggage is dropped in it, whether it is bag having clothes or boxes withlaptops. Everything is given a similar treatment. In my last visit, were-entered from the same metal fencing to “recognize and collect” our luggagefrom the trolley van. This time we had to go to an open ground at somedistance.

The Local Tea

The hotels everywhere in Afghanistan are like mini forts. The securitychecks, concrete blocks at parking areas, guards with AK47s and bullet belts,the gates so huge and strong as if we are going to enter a jail. The hotel(Hotel Nazary) in Herat gave us a relaxed feeling. However cold it might beoutside (-10 during night to be precise) it was quite warm inside. A four starhotel with all the facilities, unlimited snacks and tea/coffee on demand, asmall library in just 70 dollars per day was really surprising. We tasted thelocal tea here and it was really yuck as per Indian standard. Then we were toldabout the procedure to drink tea. You have to put a toffee in your mouth andthen drink that tea, and it really worked. Not bad at all.

The first thing which a Punjabibothers is the food. And being a vegetarian, one cannot expect a spectaculartreat anywhere outside India. So was here. The dinner had a lot of variety butall cooked in local style. A lot of vinegar and tomato is used in cookingvegetables and are over boiled. And the non-veg dishes whether its chicken ormutton is a lot drier than people are used to eat in India. The fruits, saladsare imported from Iran or Pakistan and are very expensive. One banana is worthone dollar; one and a half for an orange. The scarcity of food increases withsnowfall. The dependency on imports increases as only root crops like potatocan survive in this weather.

Jehadi Museum

We had a longer stay in Herat, thuswe had a lot of time to explore the area. On day one, we went to Jehadi Museum,which was built to commemorate the deaths of local soldiers who died whilefighting with Soviets to free their province in the era 1989-92. On the way wesaw the Herat University, spread over a very large space. The university offersall courses from English honors to honors in Farsi/Arabic, from medicine toengineering, from commerce to business management in various fields.Engineering is considered favorite amongst locals as it accounts for majordevelopment and construction business. The professors here, like Kabul, comefrom Iran or Pakistan and locals. The Education amongst girls is still a taboobut the situation is getting better day by day.

A very positive thing which I sawthere was a banner which showed in one frame a mine being dug out of the landand a plant being sown in another frame. That gave a message that the countryis fed up and wants to come out of the war era. Infrastructure development inevery area is increasing but is still insufficient. The role of UNICEF was verymuch visible in health care by the banners showing the importance of mother’shealth and importance of doctors in delivery of a child. On the way we also sawthe American Consulate, formed in a luxurious hotel.

Before the museum we went to see a tube-well which was constructed by ourcompany and was funded by Indian government. Seeing the board which reads “Agift to people of Afghanistan by the people of India” gives a different type ofa feeling. I don’t know it’s a good one or not to have that feeling.

The museum, from outside to inside, is full of weapons and memorials ofthe war. A statue of an Afghan soldier welcomes us. The weapons, tanks and gunswhich were seized from soviets and then used against them are displayed outsidethe museum. Names of the soldiers who died or got “Shaheed” in the war areimprinted on the exterior walls in local language. The inside of the museum isdivided in three sections.

The first one stores the weapons and artillery usedin the war. The second section, a gallery, shows the portraits of the leaderswho sacrificed their lives in the war. There were people like father of thePresident Hamid Karzai, son of the Minister of water resources Ismail Khan.There are statues of a group of people gathered with their guns discussing thestrategy to protect their families from the Soviets. The third section is a 3Dmodel consisting of mannequins and paintings showing the story of theproceedings of the war in circular form showing various stages. The story iswritten on the pillars near every section in both English and the local Darilanguage.

The story goes like this, “Thesoviets, when came to Herat, they came as businessmen. But they wanted tocapture the area. For that they needed to get rid of important and influentialpeople of the province which could be a danger to their motive.

They started masskilling them by first bringing them to a park and then killing them and buryingthem there. When the news spread, people got angry and demanded an explanationfrom the government/ rulers. But they were already sold out on the hands of theSoviets.

People in Herat decided to protect their families by themselves.Soviets realized this and they started mobilizing their tanks around theboundaries of the cities. The Herat city was surrounded completely and all thenecessary item supplies were blocked for more than 80 days.

The small warsstarted in various areas of the province. The soldiers who came from ordinarycitizens started the gorilla fights with soviets, seized their weapons and usedthose against them only. They travelled to Herat city and attacked the sovietsfrom back.

The soviets also started bombarding the city and killing theinnocent people. The fight which lasted many days caused killing of manyinnocent citizens of the city.

The people fighting from the roof tops withanything they could gather, guns, stones or cling shots. The battle finallyended with Soviets finally departing the province and the country and theincoming of Taliban.” The list of fighters who survived the war includes fewprominent ministers in the current government.

Local market

Our day two after returning fromthe dam site was dedicated to shopping in the local market. Afghanistan hasbeen famous for two things – opium and dry fruits. Opium cultivation wasstopped for good reasons by Taliban. Earlier dry fruits were earlier availableonly in local market because of lack of export business. But now with increaseof foreign involvement and growth here, the good quality dry fruits areexported and slightly lower quality products are sold in the local markets. Butthese lower quality dry fruits are still better than those available in Delhi.The prices are almost similar. We got almonds, walnuts, pistachios and raisinsfor 350 Afghanis per kg. But another thing to mention here is the variety andtypes of dry fruits. There were around 25 types of dry fruits most of which Ihave never seen or heard in India. But before going to local market forshopping, make sure you have a trustable local person with you or else beprepared to get charged double price. As compared to Kabul, fewer peopleunderstand English here.

Dam site visit

On my previous visit, the remainingdistance between Herat and Chisht-e-Sharif of about 170 km was covered by roadtravel. But due to security reasons and very bad condition of the road made itimpossible later on. Now the distance is covered by helicopter which isprovided by afghan government to facilitate the work of the dam construction.The helicopter visits site twice a month. We were supposed to go to dam site onMonday, 19^th December.

Routine Decreases the Thrill

But on Sunday night we were informed that therehas been a blast nearby and there have been few causalities and all thehelicopters have been diverted there. Thus we were told to wait for one day.The next day we were supposed to travel early morning. But again we wereinformed that there has been a technical fault in one of the helicopter and thevisit might be postponed by another day. But by eleven we were told that twohelicopters have been called from Iran and we will be going today itself. Afterstaying in the warm hotel, we were going to the chilly open air field. On theway Khalil, our Liaison officer, told us that if the wind is blowing theaverage temperature during night is about -10, but in between when the windstops, the temperature suddenly drops down to -20. On spotting the dead grass andbare trees all around, we asked him the reason. He told us that the wind driesup and sucks out all the water in the tree.

He mentioned, that a tree whichnormally takes around an year for drying after being cut, can be dried in onenight if we keep it in such weather.

As expected, the high wind speedand the cold temperature shivered us when we got out of the car at airport. Allthe woolens, inners suddenly failed; the jackets got frozen, the feet got numbeven wearing double layer of woolen socks. After waiting for a couple of hoursin the car, we were told to progress towards the helipads. It was an open fieldwith multiple layers of concrete bags and a couple of check-posts which wereprotecting the open helipads. We were accompanied by consulate general of Indiaand the Director of Irrigation, Afghanistan and their allied. After few minutestwo helicopters approached. I used to see this thing in movies, but for thefirst time I experienced the air blown by the wings of the machine. Thepressure of the air pressure was so high that the caps, jackets were beingblown away by it. We boarded and the helicopter started flying; not like we seein movies, rising in the air without travelling horizontally, but like a normalairplane, running on the run way and taking off eventually.

On our way, we saw the mountainsclosely. They are rich in marble and iron ore. Now the contracts are beinggiven for mining of the various minerals here. The journey lasts around fortyminutes, but is very difficult to bear because of the noise. We landed inChisht-e-Sharif (Did I tell you that Chisht-e-Sharif, Mazar-e-Sharif inAfghanistan and Ajmer Sharif in India are brothers?)

We were rushed in the cars and aconvoy of twelve SUV cars progressed towards the dam site. It was a show forthe locals who were witnessing something very important happening. The convoywas split in two parts, one team went towards the dam site and one part ofwhich I was a part of went towards the power house. The visit lasted onlytwenty minutes. Believe me, seeing the components being constructed which youdesigned and drew on paper is a thrilling experience. The reinforcement barswhich are just lines in a drawing or a number in design are standing in frontof you showing their strength; the double lines of pipes are lying of groundlike speed breakers, the simple tunnel section on the drawing appears too bigin real; a small dimension written in a small font is a wide passage in real;small leakage causes a pool formation in real. And when someone asks you adoubt, you realize that answering in drawing is much easier than to explain inreal. Such feelings were just flowing in my mind and suddenly someone shoutedthat the helicopter is about to leave. “So Soon? We have not seen anythingyet.” But it was overheard and the convoy of cars started moving back. I triedto ignore them but the people around me suggested me to leave. Everyone on sitewas requesting us to stay and come here on posting for few months. I expressedmy inability to be posted there but promised them that I will come for a longerperiod after the weather improves a bit.

And like this, our visit to dam wasover and we bid good bye to all. Few people joined us back who were going homefor holidays and there was one Mr. Kuldeep Singh, who was relieved from hisduties at site after staying there for more than five years. He had received awarm farewell a couple of days ago and I could clearly see the emotionalcondition in his eyes. Amongst the excitement and emotions, welcomes and goodbyes, shaking hands and hugging each other, wishing each other the best, ourhelicopters left the ground and were back on its tour.

After some time we were back to thehotel. Everyone was slightly disappointed with the short duration of visit anda wish to see more, spend more time there. But everyone was too tired to stayup for long. Next day was spent in writing the report about the visit and goingfor some shopping later on. I bought a jacket, a woolen suit for my mother andsome Ittr (perfume) from the mall near to our hotel.

The next day was the travellingday. Early morning we were at the airport for our flight to Kabul. The flightwas two hours late and for those two hours we were standing outside in openfield. Feeling the chilly weather for one last time; breathing the fresh andclean air for last time; complaining about the airport for one last time. Wereached Kabul at one in afternoon and rushed towards the international wing ofthe airport. There was no time to meet the cook, interpreter and thank them forthe wonderful treatment they gave us. Fortunately Air India flight was alsolate by two hours and we were checked in in time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are goingto land in Delhi very shortly. Please make sure, your seat belts are tightenproperly, seats are straight. The temperature outside is 17 degrees” And thuswe were back in our country. Phones were switched on; calls were made of oursafe arrival. Coming out of airport, once again I realized the importance ofsomeone receiving you and thinking how good it feels to see someone waiting foryou.

Our Team

Magic Of Poems....

2010-11-18T02:29:00.004+05:30

poems create magic,
poems create smiles,
they create happiness,
without them, the life is just futile,

a poem spreads light,
when the world is dark,
it breaks the gloomy silence,
with its soulfull spark,

sometimes words so soft,
like a whisper in a beloved's ears,
and sometimes so relaxing,
removing all our fears,

reminding something from a historical epic,
and then taking us to a fairy tale ride,
giving you words to explain yourself,
and then giving you enough space to hide,

giving you courage to rule the world,
pushing you on the success road,
and then giving you reasons to love,
and a warm welcome to the sweet abode,

filling us with a positive aura,
these poems can brighted up our lives,
these can teach you to be a winner,
for in the end, only a winner survives,

my poems are my prayer of love,
to ask for god's compassionate grace,
and then i set my words free,
to find themselves their rightful place (in someone's embrace)

:)aapkamitrgss
Gurnam Singh Sodhi
17th November, 2010

I just need you to remember me

2009-07-14T10:05:00.000+05:30

In my life you came like a gentle breeze,
colours of friendship, time at a freeze,
just your thought makes my sorrows flee,
i just need you to remember me,

how much we chatted n talked, i might not say,
but i remember every word, even on today,
your cute smiley faces will always adore me,
i just need you to remember me,

while sharing keyboards, many secrets we share,
we know that for each other, we are always there,
your unselfish care, touched deep inside of me,
i just need you to remember me,

some times you are down, some times you gotta cheer me up,
we don't suffer the same, still understand when we speak up,
sharing our emotions is a treasure for me,
i just need you to remember me,

sometime we disagree, we argue and we fight,
may be i am wrong, one can't be always right,
what i did wrong this time, my memory just fails me,
but i really need you to remember me,

the breeze gently blows, but i don't feel you there,
then you say, don't worry, am always here,
staying connected might not be always possible,
and you assured that you'll always remember me,

you want to be alone, and i pop up on your screen,
bothering you just to have a laugh? hey i am not so mean,
i don't know what fear is keeping you away from me,
i just need you to remember me,

something is in your mind, that i am sure,
you are afraid of something and you want to ignore,
what could be that thought, this question is hurting me,
i really need you to remember me,

you may stop talking, if you like or you don't have time,
i mean it, am not just making it rhyme,
i don't need an answer, no need to explain it to me,
i just need you to always remember me,

if you want to talk, i am 'always here',
with full affection and total care,
if any problem, just whisper it to me,
i just need you to always remember me,

ALWAYS REMEMBER ME.

:) aapkamitrgss
Gurnam Singh Sodhi
13th July, 2009

Something From My pen too...

A for Afghanistan, A for adventure, A for awesome...

Magic Of Poems....

I just need you to remember me