A never ending journey through history

THE first impression I have of this book is that it is simply marvelous in its execution, language and content. Normally we expect travel books to be a chronology of events in the writer's process of travel, but "Right to Passage"is not simply a travel book. It is a treatise on the places he has visited specially highlighting the culture, history and social conditioning  of the people. I have decided to keep it as a reference book because Zeeshan has researched in detail the history of every city, every shrine as well as the genealogical history of the places mentioned in the book. I feel that the most difficult part of the research must have been the linguistic history of the people that he met in the different regions he visited.

In India, in Bodh Gaya amidst the chanting in the temples he imagines Buddha himself meditating under the Bodhi tree 2,500 years ago and he is humbled by how he could transcend the fear of suffering, poverty and death and found one of the most important religions in the world today. 

It is in picturesque Rajgir that the Jain prophet Sri Mahavira delivered his last sermon and Ashoka breathed his last. Including the legends associated with Rajgir he shows us how it is a place of great historical importance. The hot springs of Rajgir are said to have been formed when Sufi Makhdoom Saheb threw pebbles at a rock face to scare off a tiger. In as late as 1034 a court order forbade Muslims from entering the water lest they pollute it! Zeeshan wisely comments that prejudice rarely needs a law to give it licence. Jainism and Buddhism may have been confrontational, but both played vital roles in the history of India. From the ruins of Rajgir he proceeds to Nalanda where he describes the architectural grandeur of the Buddhist temples and centres of learning. In Delhi I personally love his observation and research on the Sufis, Yogis, Bauls and Boishnovis.

In Delhi he is appalled by the condition of the slums which is as bad as the ones in Dhaka, but he does notice that the middle class is speeding ahead to be at par with the developed world. His hosts in Delhi, Faiz and Disha, have had long conversations with him about the Muslims in India. He wants to be an Indian, not just a Muslim. Much of what they discuss is along the lines of aspirations and philosophies of Syed Amir Ali, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq, Husain Suhrawardy and Md. Ali Jinnah. He feels India is ready for take-off despite fractures along caste, class, race, language and religious differences.

I loved Zeeshan's commentary on Lord Thomas Burlington Macaulay's  policy when he spoke of creating, in those they governed, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, opinions, morals and intellect. Zeeshan's hilarious response: "that is how mutts like me were created'!

In Amritsar the culture of eating at the 'langar- khana' confuses him initially when he is reluctant to be a 'freeloader' there. He soon realizes that it is the sense of community and kindness along with charity is what it is about. He sees the spot of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919 where unarmed villagers, unaware of the curfew that was in place were killed by the thousands, but the real horror is where, by Winston Churchill's own admission, the act of terrorism was applauded by many members of the British society both in India and in U.K. They opined that Brig. General Dyer had the right to be firm with the native servants. (When ten million people perished in the Bengal Famine of 1770, Churchill actually said "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits"!) The famous Golden Temple is described in detail and he finds Sikh doctrines are similar to those of Islam and Hinduism.

The Wagah border has a carnival-like atmosphere and there is a great energy about the place. He did find that recitations of 'Surah Yasin' and 'Vande Mahtaram' were pitted against each other, but that was an expression of each side's identity, each side's nationalism.

In Lahore he looks at the Badshahi mosque on one side and Heera Mandi or 'courtesan street' on the other from Cooco's Den and café- testaments to man's varied and contrasting choices.

In Pakistan trains can be late by an entire day, so he prefers to travel by bus. In Lahore he is very honoured to meet Maham, a lawyer who is a woman of Asma Jahangir's stature. She is not daunted by the 'new' Pakistan which curbs the rights of women significantly. He feels that Pakistan is embroiled in America's and Al-Qaeda's Great Game in Central Asia. Violent Taliban attacks are regular, yet life goes on.

He travels to Taxila, the most visited archaeological site in Pakistan, and remembers that it is there that the Mahabharata was recited for the first time. Zeeshan gives us wise insights into the Mahabharata, the greatest epic ever to exist. It is in Taxila that Alexander's famous horse Bucephalus was killed in the Battle of Jhelum. In Taxila the Taxishala University has in the past boasted the likes of the following students: Panina the grammarian, Kautilya or Chanakya the political scientist, Vishnu Sharma the professor of ethics, Charaka the health scientist whose medical knowledge led to the Ayuvreda system of medicine.

In Lahore I loved his visit to the tomb of Baba Ganj Baksh, the first sufi in South Asia from Afghanistan. The atmosphere of the qawwali music, the 'langar-khana' and the frauds who try to extract donations from you for the 'mazar' is aptly described.

He describes Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, as a beautiful city, but lacking in character. After all, a city in our part of the world must have its chaos to give it a soul. He captures the natural beauty of Quetta, Peshawar and Multan in his descriptions of the landscape, but what impressed me equally was the research he has done on the history of their languages and dialects.

Zeeshan's descriptive skills are in high gear when he describes the scenes at the train stations of India-the vendors, bookstalls, noise and commotion.

The chapters on Iran are Zeeshan's greatest triumph. The historical research is thorough and he has savoured every moment he spent in the cities he visited and with the interesting people he met. He was full of admiration for a 'zoorkhaneh', a fitness centre where the fitness of the mind and body are developed, a combination of yoga and martial arts. These combined with kindness and virtue will produce a 'bastanikar'. The highest form of bastanikar is a 'pahlewan'.

The two aspects of Iranian architecture that the world can learn and benefit  from are the 'yakchal' or ice house which can keep large quantities of ice frozen in the middle of summer in a desert, and the 'qanat' which is used to channel groundwater.

He visited the shrines of Imam Gazali and Iran's great poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam. Imam Gazali was a sufi and theologian who wrote on 'fiqh' or jurisprudence. At every shrine and tomb he visited he reflected on the philosophies, wisdom and art of the revered sages. Fariduddin Attar of Neyshabpur uses allegory to describe the search for divinity by which he actually means 'the enlightened self'. The 19th century mystic poet Mansur al Hallaj talked about the essence of existence, the truth. He along with Rumi and Attar were following the footsteps of Bayazid Bastami, who coined the term 'fana' to describe the state of being dissolved, through complete union, in Allah.

 In Tus he visited the tomb of Ferdousi, Iran's most respected poet. He wrote the 'Shahnameh', a poem on Iran's historical and mythological dynasties, a historiography, an encyclopedia, a dictionary and more.

Since Zeeshan is a young eligible bachelor, I paid attention to his opinion of Iranian women. Yes, he does find them very beautiful despite the chador they wear. He is more observant than the average individual- many women had bandages on their noses and he found out that this was because they had nose jobs done! He came to know that not only was it was fashionable for women to get nose jobs, it was also an evidence of their being able to afford one! In most cases he found them very intelligent and modern in their way of thinking.

In Yazd he gives us his comprehensive reflections on Zoroastrianism and of-course his explanations of Zoroastrian funerals will be of interest to every reader. They leave bodies of the dead for vultures and other birds of prey to pick apart and eat as they consider earth burial and cremation an abomination, a poisoning of the earth.

We have often wondered why anyone would want a 'muta' wedding. It is a marriage for a fixed term for a certain sum of money. The sole purpose is temporary companionship as you are stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage.

Zeeshan also comments on the regimes of the Shah of Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini. He thinks like many of us do, that the Ayatollah's regime at least freed Iran from America's manipulative grasp and from its stronghold over Iranian oil.

In Hafez's tomb a TV crew was present when he visited it. There are beautiful descriptions of Hafez's column-ringed grave, covered in elegant marble and calligraphy. He is the poet who said he would happily trade the cities of Samarkand and Bokhara for a mole on a beautiful Shirazi's cheek! (Was this the pinnacle of romantic expression?!) At Hafez's tomb readers of the 'Diwan', his famous book of poems, sit under trees and recite his poems. The author is reminded of students who sit at Bokultala, at Art College in Dhaka and listen to Baul music.

His journey would not have been complete without a visit to the Jewellery museum in Tehran. There are many interesting details about the crown jewels. The 'Dariya-e-noor' is the cousin of the famous 'kohinoor'. Yes, they are related! Other important pieces of jewellery are the Pehlavi Crown and the Imperial Sword, each encrusted with thousands of diamonds, and hundreds of pearls, emeralds, sapphires and rubies. The history of each piece is given in detail. The jewels are displayed only three days a week for two hours a day.

He ends the narration of his journey by saying 'ashi', which means 'I'll be back'. I hope this extremely talented writer keeps his word.

The reviewer is a member of The Reading Circle and a senior English teacher at Sunbeams.