It was a long day. In the morning we filmed Herat fort that has three thousand years old history. A princess by the name of shameer built it. Alexander of Macedonia destroyed and rebuilt it and the the story goes on. It has been renovated recently and is quite beautiful. Our film crew is very cool. The director a guy in his twenties is always singing Hindi and Urdu songs. And he knows all the lyrics but doesnt what they mean. For lunch we ate the exclusive dish of Herat curiously known as kichree bacha malanga. Its is rice khichree with dried lamb meat. We met the fat chef bacha malang at his famous restaurant. He is the innovator of this traditional dish and the khichree now has taken his name and has popular countrywide. True to his name he is a cool malang guy. After lunch we headed for the famous Herat towers that are the historic landmark of Herat. There are five towers left in the middle of old Herat city. The towers are about fifty meters high and quite grand but years of war and neglect have taken their toll and the towers are in a bad shape. Punctured with bullets and ravaged by bomb shrapnels. And they are in a very dirty and decrepit part of the town with rubbish strewn all about. It was sad to see such neglect. Close by is the tomb of the famous timurid queen Gohar Shad begum who built these towers in the fifteenth century when Herat was at the zenith if its civilisation. She was a patron and builder of beautiful and aesthetically sound grand buildings. Her tomb is fabulous with its mosaics, calligraphy and colorful patterns. I the evening we visited the shrine of the Sufi poet and saint khan aka Abdullah ansari who is the patron saint of Herat. There in the beautiful tomb a mentally deranged boy was kicking the visitors and begging money. He was the entertainer of the shrine. The sun was setting a cool breeze was blowing and the sparrows chirping in the trees above when I sat amongst the graves under the pine trees and meditated on the olden times of an amazing civilisation of the bygone times of glorious khurasan. Peace and love on this note.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:56:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015