B is for ...Brit ...Bet ...n ...Bah

 

Hello and welcome! to another A-Z series on M-i-V...

All through April I'll be posting on the broad theme of Museums & Monuments Across the World - mostly those I've been to and a few on my bucket list that I haven't been able to visit yet. Museums are one of my favourite ways to get to know a culture, they sum up what those peoples want to preserve and pass onto their grandchildren, the facets they want to show their foreign visitors, how they present and preserve their own storyline and that of their interactions with the world. Come museum hopping with me!

Kinship

Flamingoes off the Sitra Causeway in Tubli Bay, Nabih Saleh, Bahrain

The winters pass looking for flamingo pink;

at the pulsing lights on the skin of the bay;

the runners on track, their devices gleaming,

the weekend traffic clogs the six-lane causeway.

Many will come to spot the flamingos

and watch for the shimmer of sodium lights

the peak traffic’s slow, but it comes and goes

and birds are still lost in protected sites.

From Tubli and Arad to the Bay of Bengal

in circles and loops of strange radii

again and again to the sounds of birdcalls,

to the flamingo pink, with a pink rimmed eye.

The kinship of migrants, a kinship of pink,

the kinship of all transient, fragile things.

Unstarry night over Arad Bay. Actually, it was a full moon y'day. 

The artwork on the panel and on target with the title heavy teeny tiny

Peace starts with an absence of hate and prejudice


Peace is not simply an absence of war,

an absence of violence. It’s something more.

Not just arms down but arms open in love

for the stranger and the neighbour next door.

Peace breaks out when love labours to be blind

to our differences, and tries to be kind

even when angered it does not give up.

And it starts with an open heart and mind.

Confluence in the Arabic Press - here in Al Ayam, 
one of the largest circulating local newspapers.

Well, Confluence is over, the photos have been clicked and the reviews are in and it was all a great success. Footfall exceeding expectations, wide coverage in the local press and much feel-good vibes. The variety and breadth of artworks were mind boggling - watercolours, acrylics, photos, pen-n-ink, mixed media, even a couple of installations, one of them an interactive one, and words, words, words in long poems and short. There were artists and poets there from Australia, Bahrain, Britain, Canada, Germany, India and Pakistan. And the age range varied from 12 years to 70+ - we at the Bahrain Writers' Circle are a diverse crowd.

Confluence in the Gulf Daily News - the oldest English language 

paper in Bahrain.

I was there with my Bahraini art-partner, Herz Al Banki, an award winning photographer-artist. We had four artworks up for this exhibition, his photographs used as prompts and then combined with my poems.  Thank you, Herz!  Here is our collaborative art on display at Harbour Gate.

Photographs : Herz al Banki Poetry: moi

Viewers at Confluence

I was quite sure initially that people would only look at the images and ignore the poetry - I mean, who reads poetry at an exhibition, right? But I stand corrected. And pleasantly surprised. Both the Chief Guest and the CEO of the Bahrain Financial Harbour read my 'art' too and commented on the poems. I saw other viewers take time to read as well. I got some positive reviews on the verses, so came away feeling chuffed. Herz and I were told, more than once, that we make a good artistic team - not exactly the most terrible thing to get inside my ears this entire year. 

Visitors at the exhibition.

Visitor reading the artworks. 

One of the writers, who volunteers with a local school for children with special needs, brought in the poems from a school-group to the exhibition and the children had their own panel where they depicted their take on 'Peace' for the International Peace Day on the 21st. They inspired my rubais up there for this post. 

Peace panel. Artists and poets - children of RIA Institute.

The exhibition included an interactive piece - an oil colour of a girl in pink ballet shoes and an invitation to visitors to add a line or two to take forward a poem about the artwork. Here's the installation at the beginning of the exhibition.

Interactive poetry panel for visitors. Artist :Sarah Madan.

The organisers are already planning a bigger event next year based on the success of this one. And guess who's going to go jump back in there? Yup, that's me. 

~~~

'Go someplace new and/or try something new' has been my unchanging, rolling New Year resolution for decades now. However difficult 2018 turns out to be, I can safely say I'm on target with the res. Phew! Also bang on target with the title-heavy teeny-tiny too. And you know what? Tomorrow is the 7th birthday of this 'ere blog - didn't see even a glimmer of all this happening seven years ago.  The level of relieved/smug/jubilant/grateful here is probably illegal, but I'm running with it anyways :)  

Malfuf wa Malik: Authors, for example...

Ali Bahar (1960-2011) was a Bahraini musician who rose to fame in the 90's with his band Al Ekhwa (The Brothers), arguably the most famous Bahrain has produced. He was called the Bob Marley of the Gulf and also the ambassador of Bahraini music. He died at a tragically young age, but his music lives on here. Listen to one of his pieces while you read -

Arrival. Adjustments. Attraction.


When we look back on anything - any relationship, the current state of it feels perpetual, but that's often incorrect, we are experts at cherry picking stuff to suit us. At least I am, shouldn't really be speaking for anyone else. Looking back at 20 years in the MENA, I can't seem to remember a time I was not interested in Arab culture.  But of course that's rubbish. It takes time to fall under a spell, whether a person, a land or a culture, barring a few rare cases of love at first sight...

The first couple of years in Bahrain were spent being somewhat clingy – rereading old books and working out how to keep cultural headspaces intact in this avalanche of new experiences. Of a totally different language being added to my environment. Adjusting to traffic on the right, to a sky that hardly ever rained, to being a trailing spouse - which was the biggest lifestyle change of all. My childhood shot at being a trailing daughter stood me in good stead. No panic attacks, lots of cable TV, coffee, piles of books and long letters home - telephone calls were way too expensive if I converted the currency.

B is for... But of course! Beiti Beitak!

is for

Beiti beitak!  

"My home is yours" the Arabs say to their guests. We use the exact same expression in India too, incidentally. The same way an English speaker might say 'make yourself at home.' 

Boshret Khair, a lively feel-good number by Emirati musician Hussain Jassmi -

Bahrain

Bahrain - the name means ‘two seas’ – comes from the presence of sweet water springs and the saltwater sea. It’s a tiny nation, with a population of roughly 1.4 million people, of which nearly 50% are foreigners. Made up of islands (think great seafood! and super-gorgeous aquamarine seas!) hot desert summers, and mild winters. 


Bahrain is where I live now, back after almost a break of ten years in the UAE and Egypt. Bahrain was my first encounter with Arablands, and well, you know what they say about first impressions! It's a remarkable country which debunks the vague (and wrong!) stereotypes  about Arabs. 

There is no legal requirement for veils for women, they are allowed to drive around freely, most Bahraini women do so in fact, and roughly 40% work outside the home. Alcohol is available for non-Muslims, you don’t need a permit to drink it, though it’d be wise not to swig it huge quantities in public places. Pork is sold through special sections in supermarkets.

Religious freedom is a word, rather a phrase! There are churches, of various denominations, I’m a bit foggy on the details, but certainly RC and Anglican. Places of worship for the Hindu and Sikh communities exist, no Bar on idol worship, which the Hindus do once a year publicly with great gusto for their annual festivals. 

However, no form of proselytising is permitted. I’m cool with that, because I’m not all that keen on proselytising anyways, you know?   Live and let live is my thing, and Bahrain and me are on the same wavelength on this completely.  

There are restaurants serving cuisines from all over the world, good hospitals, good schools, the Formula One, marine sports, golf courses, great telephony, and pretty passable shopping. 

And it’s heavy on history – Bahrain has a history going back 5000 years, it’s been ruled/influenced by Babylonians and Assyrians, ancient Persia and Greece, and has traded with Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and ancient Egypt. What’s not to like?!

View of modern Bahrain from the Karbabad Fort. 

Seef District skyline. 

Hawar Island, a short boat ride away from Manama, the capital.

Bahrain used to be a major pearling centre till the 1920’s.  Downstream petro-products, aluminium processing, light metal and chemical industries, and services are what constitute the economy today.

Causeway connecting Manama and Muharraq islands. 

And it's easy to indulge your wanderlust here - three continents pretty accessible…hop over to Cyprus or East Africa or Europe...

Muharraq. And the Manama skyline.  

Bab-al-Bahrain. The Gateway to Bahrain. This was the 
point where trading vessels docked in the past.  

So, that's Bahrain. Is island living your idea of paradise, or would you get Bored, suffer serious attacks of cabin fever?


And B is for Baghdad of course, much more famous than Bahrain, but less said about it right now the Better. Just awful how the heritage of the very first human civilisations has been laid to waste there. The loss of lives Beyond words.

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2017 

Remembering Galali in the small hours

Thinner than a needle’s eye, sharper than

its point, the blade of moonlight cuts the lane
without white markings, no signs, nothing urban
just the growing sound of an aeroplane
overhead, preparing to touch down
its lights winking, the sea is a black pane
of glass, nothing else for miles around
one huddled island, some huddled humans
melding into the vastness of earth and oceans.





Galali, and more generally, Bahrain has been on my mind recently, along with friends I made there.  All of us have moved on, Galali is no longer the same, I left Bahrain almost a decade ago, and my friends too, now settled elsewhere, many continents away from the nights spent plane spotting.