Love to visit Iraq and Turkey again

There are many places that I would like to visit and explore the local sites but then the IndiSpire topic was about #TimetoRevisit and two countries fall under this category one being Iraq and other being Turkey. Brief recount of my earlier visit and why I would like to go back to those countries is under

Iraq was the first foreign destination at the age of 25 when I took up a job there and I was in this beautiful country for over 2 years. Within this country you had the historical place called Mesopotamia a region between the two biblical rivers Tigris and Euphrates that was also known as the Cradle of Civilization for it was here that mankind started to read, write, create laws and live in cities under an organized government. In addition to Mesopotamia, Babylon with hanging gardens of Babylon one of the seven wonders of ancient world, Mythical Garden of Eden are also there. With so much overdose of medieval history linked with this country I was quite thrilled to be there for I could explore the place to my hearts fill.

Artistic Depiction of Hanging Gardens Courtesy Google

During these two years I have traveled the length and breadth of the country to see the marvels of the ancient country and I have seen remains of Babylon city that had paved roads, mud houses exposed by excavations in those areas, the reconstructed blue tiled Ishtar Gate that was on the northern entrance to Babylon city but then unfortunately we have no photographic records of these as those days we did not have a camera with us; On weekends I have traveled to Mosul, Erbil, Habbaniya, Hillah, Samarra, Karbala and lot more places but then due to the ongoing war between Iraq and Iran there were quite a few restrictions to travel and take photos so in my two years of stay in Iraq I have not documented those beautiful places and this is the reason I would revisit Iraq and explore the country and also take images of the glorious ancient places. #TimetoRevisit (This again is not a possibility now with so much violence happening in that country).

Hagah Sofia Istanbul . Image taken by me

The second country I would like to revisit is Turkey, which like Iraq has so many ancient cultures and places to see and enjoy. In the year 2011 I had to visit Istanbul, Turkey on a official trip and after having 5 days of continuous meeting our host had arranged for half a day sightseeing tour of Istanbul (European side) and in that short span of 4-5 hours we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagah Sofia and Topkafi palace, Basilica Cistern and the Grand Bazaar. You can read my earlier blog about Turkey here. #TimetoRevisit Turkey for the country has lot more places to explored and enjoyed.

This blog is written for IndiSpire idea of the week posted by fellow blogger Anita 

Experiences at Baghdad in 1980's

Baghdad was one of the most modern cities in the Middle East late 70”s and 80’s with lot of infrastructure projects taking place with the advent of increase in petrol price in the world as Iraq was the largest exporter of oil then. It is in one of the infrastructure project for Amanat Al Asima (Municipality of Baghdad) which was building of 2000 housing units and service buildings that was awarded to an Indian company called Makers Development Services Pvt Ltd.  I had joined the company as a Junior Engineer Electrical and was among the first few engineers who had left India in first week of April 1981 to set up the mobilization works on the ground. Those days on account of the war with Iran there were no direct flights hence had to land at Kuwait city and then proceed by land and you can read about it in my earlier post Carnivores-brahmin.

First few months we were busy with setting up of the camp, setting up prefab factory and other support building for the project and were getting ourselves ready to start the construction phase and  during the second month beginning we had an Israeli Air raid on Baghdad and you can read that in another post  Reminiscing of times at Baghdad. We used to venture out to local market at Al Baaya or go to a theatre there to watch Hindi movies at time (Hindi movies were quite popular among Iraqis) or to the Mall at Al Mansur in the evenings after working hours. Weekends 7-10 of us would pile on to a vehicle and drive down the country side or go to a lake called Razaza and you can read about it in my post Old Memories of Times in Iraq.

Till about 8 months into stay at Baghdad we had never ventured out in the night seeking the fabled nightlife of the city but arrival of a new engineer whose father was in Indian High Commission Baghdad changed it for he was aware of the hot spots of the city . We started going to night clubs and used to have fun with scores of dancers on the floor and female companions to give you company on your table…. What more did we young guys need then :P .One nightclub stood out those day and it was known as Moulin Rouge… yes the same name as the one in Paris but not a franchise and here they used to have similar can-can dance on the stage. This club used to charge us Iraqi Dinar 2 for entry and on table would give us a roasted chicken and a can of beer free. Scores of beautiful girls (Various nationalities..Ceylonese, Egyptians, Lebanese) would line up along the bar or on the sides and you could call them to your table for a drink. A drink that costs you 1dinar would be charged 10 dinar for the girls drink and she would not stay long on the table when she finishes her drink. This was first time we had been there and we never knew the cost of having those girls on the table and we all 7 freaked out there and finally we had to pay a hefty bill in the process. Next time onwards we were pretty judicious with our calling out for these bar girls.

Tried to get to know more about this nightclub on Google but no hits regarding various nightclubs of Baghdad of 1980’s at all except for passing statements that the city was renowned for the nightlife until 1994 when Saddam Hussein shut down all bars and nightclubs. There were few other nightclubs but their names have faded in my memories and am unable to recall them. I believe the nightclubs have opened up once again in Iraq but not much action in Baghdad because of moral policing however up north at Erbil the bars are flourishing without any fear of ISIS or moral policing.

PS: Most of what has been written are my personal experiences during my stay in the country from 1981 to 1983 and at that point of time the rule was we needed to spend 30% of our salary within Iraq and being flush with money during the war times was great. We have had great times as a group there and i always tell my relatives that my assignment there was just like my stay at engineering college... a carefree life it was. Hope you all enjoyed my recount. Thanks for passing by.

Old memories of times in Iraq

Recently while browsing the net I came across an article about the water quality of Lake Razaza, Iraq becoming more saline due to restricted inflow of water and immediately the floodgates of my memories opened up to the times i was working in Iraq.

After my engineering degree in 1979 I was working in one of the reputable companies in Bombay / Madras (now Mumbai /Chennai) involved in Mechanical projects. My discipline being Electrical engineering I was desperate to go back into that field and when I was offered a job as Junior Engineer Electrical with an Indian Company called Makers Development Services Private Limited(Builder and developers of Makers Chambers at Nariman Point ,Mumbai) who were contracted to build a township in Baghdad, Iraq. The lure of Petro dollars and the adventures to come by I grabbed the offer in spite of objections from my mother because of ongoing war between Iraq and Iran.

Reached Baghdad on 7^th April 1981 with a group of 10 persons after traveling on road for over 20 hours from Kuwait since all international flights terminated there or at Amman in Jordan due to the war. I have written a incident which took place on our road journey in an another note called Carnivorous Brahmin about our dinner on the road side where I got to taste camel meat…an experience. Since I was part of the mobilization team we went direct to the camp area which is within the site premises and to my utter disbelief I found myself staring at few cabins which served as our accommodation and a huge barren tract of land with no buildings in sight and few kilometers away in the line of sight was the Baghdad International airport which was being used by the Iraqi air force at that point of time. The persons with whom I traveled from India were of my same age group and we became good friends during our stay there and we have gone around most of Iraq on sightseeing and fun trips.

Most weekends in summer we take local beer in ice box and travel to Razaza Lake for having a refreshing swim and beer on the shore. This was the second largest fresh water lake in those times and we used to drive 90 to 100 kms  all the way from Baghdad to Razaza lake through the holy city of Karbala and our normal mode of transport was a 3 ton single cabin dyna pickup with mattress at the back where 6 to seven of us would be seated or sleeping. One of such trip is etched on my mind because of the gruesome incident that took place that day. We were coming back from the lake and the roads had little or no illumination except for the headlight of the vehicle and at a distance we saw another vehicle parked on the side of the road with hazard lights blinking and a little ahead of this vehicle there was a dark shape on the road. My friend who was driving the vehicle stated that it is an animal hit by the vehicle and he would take this between the wheel base of the vehicle since we were traveling too fast to avoid it…he did that and we bounced a bit when we crossed over the thing but then we gave no thoughts of it till such time the vehicle started losing power and started stalling and making noise in the crankshaft. 

We then parked the vehicle on the side of the country road in twilight and started checking the crankshaft and to our horror we saw black clothe wound in the shaft..it was a piece of abaya normally worn by women in gulf countries and the underside of the vehicle splattered with blood, bone fragments and white substance which we later knew as brain. We were shit scared because the realization had just set in that we had driven over a women who was initially hit by the earlier vehicle and we were in a place where war time military rule was prevailing and if caught in the check post prior to entering Baghdad , we sure could kiss our ass goodbye forever. Well we pulled out the bits of the clothe tangled in the crankshaft and drove the vehicle in the muddy area beside the road to hide the traces of blood and flesh and then drove towards our camp in utter silence. Cursory check of our papers and we were through the check post with a sigh of relief and immediately on reaching the camp took the vehicle direct to the washing bay and washed the vehicle clean to avoid any unwanted question the next day.

We never dared to go back to Razaza lake for next three months due to the fear of being recognized by someone or the other. Thinking back I feel bad that I had to experience this incident for we never knew if the woman was already dead or was she grievously injured in the first place . Even today this incident sends a shiver down my spine !!!!