Travels with Selkit - 1

Let me begin this extended and many-part rumination by invoking the blessings of Hathor, the Divine Bovine and offering thanks to Selkit, the Protectress for having made it all possible.

SEPTEMBER 28th 2024:

The day begins very early. After a couple of hours worth of loitering at Kochi airport (highlights - the vast 'Parayipetta Panthirukulam' mural, a rich-looking 'prayer room' specially furnished by Yusuf Ali and an empty 'meditation room', whatever it is used for) and zero sleep, I get on an Etihad flight at 4 am. A meal of sorts and a bit of tired dozing and one wakes to a very iridiscent sunrise somewhere over the Persian Gulf. We touch down at Abu Dhabi around 7 local time.

The airport has a very cool and futuristic design with lots of wavy curves and seems to function very well in directing and redirecting passengers (it even has the odd 'smoking cabin'). I have about 4 hours here and look around the shopping area. The only shop that seems to sell tea/coffee is Starbucks, a brand I have always avoided in Kochi. Here, I venture in; an east Asian looking assitant welcomes we warmly, promises to make me the best possible flavor of tea, serves up something with a name somewhat like 'melon spice' and leaves me poorer by a cool 650 Indian rupees.

I am airborne again at 11 local time. The plane sweeps diagonally across the Arabian peninsula - a two hour show of cloudless, rugged barrenness. Even from the safe height of 12 km, the desert is a scary sight. The only unusual feature one sees is what looks like clusters of huge black circles drawn on the sand at several places. We eventually get across and fly over the Sinai peninsula and some more baking desert until a vast swathe of built up area suddenly reveals itself - clusters and clusters of huge housing blocks, all painted in shades of brown and looking like having somehow gotten built from the desert sand. A few more minutes and we land in Cairo. For the first-ever time, I am in a foreign country, alone. I have no Arabic, the local language, except basic greetings, and I can't even count in it.

We are welcomed to Egypt by this presence - 'Selkit, goddess of protection, safety and welcoming'. I haven't ever heard the name. Apart from the physical allure, emphasized by the attire, what catches my eye is something like a dolphin perched on her head. More would be discovered about her later.

And on a wall nearby is a reproduction of a vaguely familiar ancient Egyptian painting of a group of three female musicians, two wearing very fashionable-looking gowns and the third in basically nothing!

I hurriedly get some dollars changed to Egyptian pounds, step out into the midday heat and flag down a Uber. The around 40 km ride cuts right across the city - we pass the Moqattam hills, the citadel, old-looking mosques, and then, I find we are in Giza (I had failed to spot my first ever crossing of the Nile!) - building after brown building displaying huge posters of ancient Egyptian icons - Rameses, Khafre, Nefertiti, Sphinx,...

Two pyramids loom in the distance, readily recognizable as Khufu and Khafre. At 2.30 pm, I am at the hotel. About an hour's rest and I step out, impatiently. From where I am, the pyramids are only 2 km away. The idea is to walk around the pyramids, leaving detailed exploration to some other day. Disappointment. The entire Giza plateau is out of bounds after 4 pm so all I can do is to admire only those two pyramids from afar. Thinking on my feet, I decide to go to Khan-al-Khalili, the heart of old Muslim Cairo. Uber says a scooter ride costs less than half a car; I take the bait and within minutes, a muscular young fellow named Aamir fetches up on a very minimal looking motorbike.

The ride behind Aamir is an absolute heart-in-the-mouth affair - around 80 kmph speed on an expressway, helmetless, with cars zooming past us on both sides... Once I tried to ask Aamir to slow down a bit. He says "Not possible, my friend!". I don't remember anything more of the ride except a couple of near misses and all those horrible thoughts that began "What if...?!" . Half an hour of the stunt and I am put down in one piece in a crowded, busy and very traditionally Muslim area. Relief is immense and finds expression as a 20 percent tip; Aamir seems stunned.

For the next couple of hours (until total exhaustion drives me to catch a Uber back to Giza), I drift aimlessly up and down the narrow gallies of Khan-al-Khalili videographing the crowds and the immensely varied trading and the crowds and the old and elegant mosques and madrasas that rise up here and there from among the colorful chaos of commerce. Thousands of mannequins dressed in all sorts of fancy clothing including swimwear and belly-dancing costumes are being presented to a crowd where 90 percent of the women wear the hijab and look quite conservative.

And somewhere, I am pulled aside by a souvenir trader. He manages to dump a cheap sphinx and nefertiti on me - shooting down my resolve not to buy anything from anyone with "my friend, you need to help me, my friend from India..." (A couple of days later, when I revisit the galli, he would spot and greet me with "you back again my friend! have a nice day!").

Approaching one end of the bazaar, I am transfixed by what must be some muslim devotional singing played from a big mosque. The intricate notes sung with deep fervor rise like a mountain range of calm above the chaotic churn of traffic. The mosque I later figure out is Al Azhar but I still have no idea of the kind of music I got to hear.

SEPTEMBER 29th
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I am up early and have a leisurely breaker at the rooftop restaurant that gives out a very nice view of those two pyramids basking in the morning sunshine and changing hue by the minute. Today, I am headed elsewhere.

By 9 it's time to catch a uber to the historic Tahrir square - of the Arab Spring fame. The Egyptian museum is right across. The next four plus hours, I tramp the often cluttered and often poorly lit interior of this century (and counting) old museum which houses some of the very best of Egyptian heritage from 4000 BC to the time of Christ. Let me get to the pictures straight and put up a personal random dozen (not the **top 12** by any means, for I will forced to leave out the entire King Tut collection and the hitherto unknown (to me) pharaoh Psusennes I burial treasures!):
Arguably the second-most famous exhibit here, the Narmer palette, dating back to an incredible 3100 BC!

The symbolism of Narmer presented as a virile bull battering down the cities of his enemies brings to mind the (probably) one and a half millennium later Rigvedic myth of Indra as Purandara (the destroyer of Puras, cities).

And right next is one of the most thoughtful exhibits I ever noticed in any museum - a close replica of the palette that can be touched by visitors - and indeed, is meant to be touched - with an accompanying Braille description.

And here is the magnificent Khafre from around 2500 BC. Let me list only some of the staggering facts about this piece: it is larger than life (the pharaoh would stand 7 plus feet tall if he stood up), carved out of a single block of extremely hard anorthosite rock brought from a quarry at Aswan (700 km away) and shows the ruler in idealized muscularity; but just see his time-transcending gaze! A smartly carved Horus falcon hovers protectively (unpardonably, I failed to pay enough attention to the divine bird- the symbolism it embodies and how it has been incorporated in such a neat and compact way into the composition!).

The minimal chair has its legs modelled into lion's paws - so what one has is a a true Simhasana (literally Lion Seat - Sanskrit word for Throne). And I have to say this: any comparison of Khafre with the contemporaneous 'Priest King' of Mohendjodaro will reveal how way, way ahead the Egyps of those days were of anybody else!

Pharaoh Khasekhem from the 27th century BC more than a century before Khafre), half of his head, sadly missing. He wears a proper tunic unlike most other seated pharaoh statues I can think of.

Half of the body of this colossal Akhenaton is a spooky whoosh of concrete:

A touch of sadness on the face of this strangely realistic 'reserve head' from the times of Khafre:

Even in its mutilated state, this face of queen Hatshepsut transfixes me with its gaze:

High priest Kaaper (2400 BC) in silent conversation with a 21st century visitor:

What is believed to be the oldest known (around 3500 BC) Egyptian mask. Most details about its function are unknown but the stamp of clever mischief is unmistakeable:

For a description of the following pic, just click and zoom - curiously, ancient Egyptians identified bearded faces as Asiatic (Egyptians themselves and their Gods lack any facial hair; possible exception: a Menkaure statue that shows the hint of a mooch):

Alexander the great, the Ptolemies who followed him and the Romans who supplanted them, all worshipped Egyptian Gods and adopted many of the traditions of Egypt (to such an extent that the one instance of a greek named Heliodorus erecting a pillar to Vishnu near Sanchi feels rather ...normal). Here is a colossal statue of emperor Augustus as pharaoh - clad in the shendit kilt and striding confidently in the classic 'stretcher-bearer' pose:

A massive granite sarcophagus, shown 'semi-exploded':

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Around 2 pm, I stagger out of the museum into the glare of the Cairo midday and stalk from shade to shade searching for a cafe. A couple of drinks downstream, I start off again, ask around and walk down to the nearby Anwar Sadat station. It is a very short metro ride from here to Mar Girgis station, the entry point to the ancient Christian (Coptic) quarter of Cairo. I explore, very superficially, the Coptic Museum (absolutely deserted) and the nearby 'Hanging Church' (a few tourists about).
A very byzantine looking Virgin and child icon:

An unusual icon - it is indeed part of some Christian tradition that Mary knew her infant son's fate and I can recall at least one painting by Bellini which shows the pensive mother almost grieving over a fast-asleep Christ child. Here things are more explicitly shown:

12 year old Jesus meets with the priests and scholars at the temple - and impresses them profoundly:

The 'hanging church':

Very north-Indian looking 'jharokas' on a nearby building:

Stepping out of the Christian quarter, I walk through leafy lanes in the pleasant twilight sun towards an experience I have been craving for - the Nile
A common enough sight on Cairo sidewalks. Hookah smokers:

This very affable guy is frying what look like 'Arab dosas', They came big and perfectly round - he weilds a simple contraption that looks like a compass to achieve the neat circularity. I seek and obtain his permission to shoot a video - without buying his fare. A passerby remarks: "India, Amta Bachaan, Shaarook Han!"

Finally, the River. A leisurely walk over the Nile:

On entering Giza, I call Uber and get texted: "Gamila will reach you in a minute". Soon appears a hefty apparition in a hijab with the voice of a 15-year old boy. The ride back to hotel is very long due to the utterly conjested state of the Giza express highway. Gamila is talkative and asks about India and wants to know how Cairo compares with Delhi. Suddenly she fishes out a coin and offers it to me as a souvenir "it shows our king Tutenkhamun, a very special coin!" she claims(over the next week, petty purchases have made me the possessor of nearly a dozen of them). Finally, I realize it is close to the hotel and say: "you can put me down here, I will walk the rest of the way. Too bad, this traffic!" and pay her the amount Uber asked for plus a 20 pound tip when Gamila says: "Look, I missed at least one more ride due to the jam. Give me another 40 pounds!" I pay up and walk off.