Travels in time and space

Irfan Husain

DREAM HOME: One reason why I am delving deep into history is that my immediate present is such a mess. Although we are back on the beach in Tangalle, on Sri Lanka’s stunning coast, things are far from well at our half-finished dream house.

It must be around forty years ago that I read Herodotus’s classic The Histories. Written over 2,500 years ago, this is the first serious examination of different cultures and races. Herodotus ventured to the edges of the known world during his travels, and wrote about Persia, India and Africa.

Born in explorer Halicarnassus around 485 BC, he travelled ceaselessly for much of his life. Little is known about him, except that he spent some time in Athens. His birthplace is now known as Bodrum on the Aegean coast in modern Turkey.

I visited the little town as it was then in the early Seventies, and admired the Templar castle it was famous for, apart from being the supposed birthplace of Hercules. Now it is an overcrowded tourist attraction where tens of thousands of Europeans descend every year.

I am sure Herodotus would have fled the place even earlier than he did had he been alive today. Probably he had no greater admirer than Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish journalist and author.

He carried a dog-eared Polish translation of The Histories on his trips to distant lands, and in his last book published after his death early this year, he quotes frequently from his Greek predecessor. Appropriately titled Travels with Herodotus, this is an account of Kapuscinski’s earliest trips. The Histories opens with these explanatory words:

“Here are presented the results of the enquiry carried out by Herodotus of Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; among the matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks.”

This last is a reference to the long, titanic struggle for supremacy between the Greeks and the Persians for the domination of the known world. One of the major conclusions Herodotus draws from his travels and his study of history is that all empires rise and fall.

Another is that everything is transient; and there are no permanent friends or enemies. If only Bush had read The Histories, he might have reconsidered his Iraq policy.

While I had suspected building a house while we were a long distance away might not be easy, I had not anticipated all the hurdles in the way.

Apart from our old contractor having let us down badly in terms of meeting his schedule, apparently he has also been crooked in terms of quality. So here we are, trying desperately to get the project back on track. We have appointed a new contractor, and have raised hell with everybody responsible for supervision.

But the bottom line is that ultimately, there is no substitute for our presence. But the lady wife has to return to England, and I will have to make more frequent trips. However, despite our current woes, the beach is as lovely as ever, and we have no regrets about having launched this ambitious project.

We normally stay at Manuela’s simple but comfortable cabanas close to our house, and she has been feeling the economic pain of the sharp drop in the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka.

Clearly, the upsurge in the fighting between the Tigers and the army has put thousands of foreigners off. As Pakistan has learned to its cost, people travelling on vacation expect security. Having said this, Tangalle is very far from the frontline, and there are no signs of the war here.

Last night we threw a party for fifteen, and luckily, Winnie was around to cook for us. Some loyal readers might recall this eccentric figure from previous columns. He is wonderful with seafood, and insists that his ‘secret spices’ are the key to his cooking. A slight figure with permanently bloodshot eyes, Winnie is drunk more often than not.

Yesterday, I made him promise he would not touch a drop until he had finished cooking. Luckily, he was true to his word, and made some wonderful stir-fried prawns for our starter, and then barbecued a six-kilo surmai to perfection.

His ‘secret spices’ were a subject of much speculation around the table. Alcoholism is a big problem here. The local arrack is very cheap, and fishermen hit the bottle hard when they have little else to do, which is much of the time they are not at sea.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Daily Times, Pakistan