Hundred Shades of New York by Mustansar Hussain Tarar

Hundred Shades of New York

by

Mustansar Hussain Tarar

I had to re-write all of this. This has never happened to me before. Google does not save a copy of what you draft. I spend all the time in writing this peace and inadvertently pressed the delete button one more time than I should have. And I lost the whole draft. 

So, here I go again, and hopefully I do not make the same mistake again. Perhaps I wrote something Providence didn't like and hence suffered this fate. 

So, last December, I was in Lahore airport waiting to come back to NY. It was the foggiest day and the six a.m. PIA flight ultimately took off after thirteen hours. I had a lot of time to kill in the International lobby. On my umpteenth visit to the lone book store, I finally picked up the book. It had an attractive cover, Mustansar Hussain Tarar ( it seems that one has to say his full name otherwise something is left out) sporting an unworn jersey around his neck with Lady Liberty and NY Skyline in the background. My journey was long and the book would make good company. Why not. It was a recent book, about his trip in 2005 and so not that much about the distant past.

I had never read his travelogues, which are I presume his main claim to fame; in his writings, I mean.  I have read his two novels, Raakh and Des Howay Perdes and really enjoyed Raakh. It is a very powerful story. And obviously everybody knows Tarrar as a tv person, as an actor and an anchor.

It is a long book, more than 650 pages, and although it is named for NY, has more than 150 pages about Florida; Orlando and its environs to be specific.

He claims he never felt a desire to visit USA as he thought there was nothing much to see here. He had traveled the world extensively which is obvious looking at his list of books. He thought of America as a land of gaudy and belligerent people, who have nothing to impress him; so not worth his time and money.

He visits USA in 2005, that is where the book is set in, to see his first grandson for the first time and to attend his first birthday. His daughter, a physician had married a Pakistani American and moved to Orlando. Now Mr Nofal, named after Warqa b Nofal is to celebrate his first birthday. In addition to that, his son, a CSS officer in Foreign Service, is in NY on a World Bank scholarship to study International Relations in Columbia and is living in a Broadway apartment. 

He lands at JFK and anticipates 'special treatment' being a Pakistani. To his astonishment he has a rather pleasant and positive experience. he somehow feels deprived of what he expected.

Tarar has the amazing skill to explain the things in a vivid way. He takes you along with him and no matter how much he wanders into the details he does not let you drift far away. The readers believes he has been wherever Tarar takes him. He has quite strong opinions on almost everything, but when his observations and experiences let him feel differently than what he thinks he should, he is not shy to admit and change his opinion. That is a rather unique characteristic different from our other writers. Many would bend over backwards and come up with convoluted explanations to stick to their initial position in the face of obvious on the contrary; not him. Tarar has the courage to admit and change.

He starts his book with reference to Maxim Gorky's 'City of the Yellow Devil'. Written at the turn of last century, it is a scathing account of NY and the superficial and shallow life of its inhabitants. He predicts it as a doomed city which corrupts those who live in it. This was the mindset Tarar came in with. Before he left, New York had changed him and his opinion. He admits falling in love with the city.

He spends considerable amount of time and pages of his books on visiting various museums and centers of arts. From Metropolitan Museum of Art to Museum of Natural History to Guggenheim Museum to Museum of Modern Art to Lincoln Center to Broadway Theaters to The Public Library and the Greenwich Village. He shows the excitement of a child and does not feel shy at all expressing it when talking about the artifacts he had known and read about all these years. 

Being an artist and raised in the 40's and 50's he mentions time and again names he had felt a connection all his life. From Allen Poe to Whitman, Mark Twain to Hemingway, Charles Ray to Louis Armstrong, Rock Hudson to Al Pacino, Elizabeth Taylor to Whitney Houston and of course Marilyn Monroe.

He does not like country music and loves Jazz.

A tendency seen in many but perfected by him is the way he connects what is in front of us with what is in our collective past. He finds similarities in strange ways, hidden from many eyes. Looking at the staircase of Guggenheim he recalls the Minar of Samarra Mosque in Iraq and the Giraldo in Seville. Jazz reminds him of a painful voice of the oppressed people around the world. 

On his visit to New York Public Library, he searches for Urdu books and to his dismay finds a very limited collection. He offers his books to be there and three of his books are now part of the collection. That includes Bahao, Raakh and Qurbat e Marg main Muhabat, a sort of trilogy.

He enjoys the strolls in the Central Park and is in Times Square the first night in New York. He visits many other neighborhoods like Harlem's 125th Street and Chinatown. He has an interesting conversation with a Jewish Rabbi.

Writing about the Village, he recalls the gayness of the area and the Stone-well Inn. He reminds the West and his readers that certain areas in Pakistan are far ahead in the creed of brotherly love. He could not help admit how he had felt a heartbeat dropped while watching a performance of a Lakhtai dancing boy from Bannu.

He runs into a Pakistani in Greenwich Village; in fact an Uzbek from Peshawar. His attempts at hospitality looks suspicious to Tarar as feigned. In his excitement to show Tarar a Cafe owned by a Pakistani and frequented by Al Pacino, he asks Tarar whether he has ever heard of Al Pacino. Tarar, feeling offended, writes and I translate. "Not all but many Pakistanis living in New York, have this problem; coming straight from Mandi Bahuddin, having never been to Lahore or Peshawar, landing directly in New York, ask you, 'Do you know what is a Pizza?Have you heard of Statue of Liberty?, Do you know Marilyn Monroe?"

While talking about the superficiality of a nova rich Pakistani, he exposes, in my opinion, the problem of the educated intelligentsia elite. Why he picked up Mandi? Perhaps there is a close personal connection; the Wikipedia mentions his birthplace as Mandi and Lahore on the same page.

The Uzbeb takes him to Cafe Vivladi, which has Woody Allen and Al Pacino connections; the Pakistani owner is not present. He talks to him on the phone and offers him a return visit when he could entertain Tarrar appropriately. Tarrar takes it as a shallow gesture and does not even remember his name. Ishrat Ansari is a gem of a person and has patronized art of various sorts through his Cafe which has regular live performances. Tarar, I feel, is rough with him.

Another common style of our writers and Tarrar is no exception here, is to express quite freely while elaborating upon the physical attributes of women of color; whether they are from African or Asian origin. Moreover he is amazed why Americans go crazy about the less endowed Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.

He has no good words for US Presidents expect one. Strangely that is Richard Nixon. Like a believer in conspiracy theories, he almost absolves Nixon of his actions and puts the blame of his exit on the 'secret hand' and says that Nixon was made to leave by the powers to be.

He makes a comment that during his various visits to the Met, he hardly saw any Asian, or South Asian to be specific. That must be his sampling error, as they are there all the times.

Although he mentions a few Pakistani friends and artists whom he meets, he does not spend any time on the social and literary life of Pakistanis in New York. Shaukhat Fehmi and Hammad Khan are amongst the lucky ones mentioned. 

Thanks to Tarar, I came to know the full name and age of Mamoon Aimen who was his class mate in elementary school; and so is Dr Khalid Butt, the famous transplant surgeon.

Errors, minor but noteworthy

While commenting on the food, he expressed his dislike of American Pizza. He mentions that Pizza are better in Europe and that Americans did not make this Italian dish right. I did not know before coming to NY that Pizza was 'invented' in USA by Italian Americans, particularly in New York.

While talking about Julia Roberts he called her movie American Beauty. I think he meant Pretty Women

He mentions Captain James Yee, The first Muslim Chaplain in the military.  He called him a doctor which he is not. I am glad that he mentioned Yee as he was the first one to expose the treatment of Gitmo prisoners and had to pay a heavy price for that. 

While talking of Orlando, he mentions Disney World as Disneyland. Disney Land is in California. 

Overall I enjoyed reading the book although it took me a lot longer than I thought to complete it. It was interesting to read about a place you live in for major part of your life, explained by someone who shares your background and is visiting it as a tourist. 

The Remains of Seville's Almohad Mosque

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/sets/72157631735443202

Also known as

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See

Catedral de Santa María de la Sede

Imagine yourself in a mosque with a huge expansive space: a three acres big hall, a nave with 16 aisles and 13 bays, with its transept having domes ceiling, a large mehrab facing south, and a minbar on the left of it. Outside the hall is a courtyard, sehn, with many citron trees, cypresses, palms, lemon and orange trees and a central fountain uses for ablution. At the North wall there is a door,with its typical Andalusian arch. On the East side outside the wall is the tallest Minar in the whole Almohad territory, encompassing Al Andalus and Morocco. 

The Minar is so big that instead of stairs it has ramps around it, 35 of them, gently inclined, so that the Muezzin could ride up on the horse five times a day to call the faithful to prayers. 

Abu Yaqub Yusuf must have felt thrilled in having this marvelous building among his earthly achievements. Every Friday prayers his name would be mentioned by the Imam. A captured image of Virgin Mary was somewhere in the mosque as a trophy of a war with the Catholics. 

It served as the Aljamia Mosque of Seville for less than a century as Seville was conquered in 1248. It was then, like all other mosques was consecrated as a church. 

The Mehrab, aka Antigua Chapel:
The conquerors must have viewed the Mehrab as the most coveted place and put a fresco of Virgin Mary, holding Baby Christ in her left hand and a rose in her right hand. The Baby Christ is holding a bird in his hand. This was considered a real blessed spot for the sailors later who went to voyages around the world from Seville. It came to be known as the Antigua Chapel. Columbus got the inspiration form this icon to name the island in the Caribbean after it.

The Minar was such a point of pride for the Muslims that they wanted to raze it to ground before leaving the city rather than giving it away to the Christians. Alfonso X, son of Ferdinand III, threatened to kill all the Moorish population of the city if they did that. Minar was thus retained and made taller as with bells and now serves as the signature landmark for the city of Seville. It served as an inspiration for the Tower of Madison Square Garden II, in New York City, which was later demolished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madison-square2.jpg

After using the mosque as a church for a century and a half, someone decided to raze it to the ground and built the largest cathedral of the country in its place. It took them a century to build it, the present day Cathedral of Virgin Mary. A few things they did not touch. The mehrab now known as the Antigua Chapel with the Virgin Mary ensconced in it, was left in its place. The Minar, now known as Giraldo was left and so was the courtyard with its outer walls and the door. 

Later on, right next to the old mehrab, the elevated tomb of Columbus carried by four statues representing four areas of Spain, was installed where perhaps once the Mimbar stood and the Imam gave Friday sermons. 

Next to the Minar is the Royal Chapel where you have the open view body of Saint Ferdinand, the king who conquered Cordoba and Seville. You also see the statue of him on the horse taking the city keys from the subdued Muslim King.

Some how I could appreciate this building and the former mosque better than the Cordoba Mosque, which I cover in a different post. Here I could visualize the mosque as a whole in my mind, as to where the dar-o-deewar and the minbar-o-mehrab could be. I could imagine hearing the call of Azaan, the faithful responding and entering through the door, and performing ablutions in the central courtyard; the Caliph walking from the Alcazar right outside the Minar and entering it from the eastern side. 

And then I can fully appreciate the cathedral in its grander as it is build on a large space with the tallest nave in Spain. Its choir, treasury (carrying supposedly Jesus's body parts) and all the different alters. I could see the mosque as a whole and the cathedral as a whole, something one cannot do while in Cordoba Mosque.

I assume it is the least known piece of Muslim architecture in Spain; it houses the largest cathedral in Spain and is the final resting place of two most important individuals in Spanish history, The King/Saint Ferdinand III who conquered Cordoba and Seville, and Cristobal Colon' also known as Christopher Columbus.

Much of what I state here is my imagination and conjecture as there is quite incomplete information available, or at least I was unable to get it so far.

When Almovids took over Al Andalus after the Ummayads and Almovarids, Seville was their regional capital. Their seat of government was in Morocco, same as of Almovarids. Somewhere in early 12th century the rules must have thought of having their own signature mosque. I do not know when the mosque was commissioned and how did it look. Some say in 1172 it was started and  Ahmed bin Basso was the architect There is an inscription which says that the Minar, the Giraldo was completed at the time of the incarnation of  Abu Yaqub Yusuf.  There is one artistic rendition of the mosque in the works of Professor Piechotta.  (on Page 11).  The size of the mosque was about half of the Qurtuba Masjid .

It was eventually destroyed in 1401. Seville was conquered in 1248. Cathedral was built over 100 years 1402 -1506 but as the cathedral was built on the whole rectangular base, it is much larger, it is the largest in the country.

The door which is where you would have entered when it was a mosque; now that is the last point of the visit and one walks out of this, sometimes without noticing the original door. I noticed the door and the artwork on it later at night when Zoha and I were having a cup of coffee on the Calle Alemanes ie the street lining the North wall.

اللھما انی اسالک من فضلک وا رحمتک 

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Reference:
1.Travels of a fifteen century German traveler to Spain.
http://munzerama.blogspot.com/2011/06/munzer-in-seville-hispalis-nov-4-1494.html
2. http://www.depts.ttu.edu/mcnair/PDF/Jessica.M.Gomez.pdf