2. Snapshot Libya – A. J. Thomas

Writers Connect is proud to introduce a regular series called ‘Snapshots’ – ‘flash faction’ from around the globe. We are happy to consider contributions of 500 words with a personal viewpoint from anywhere on the planet. Please submit with your own photos.

Room with a View…

As great expanses of white clouds float in an otherwise blue western sky, their shadows fall on the golden sands afar, like maps of lost continents.

I am writing this piece, sitting in my room with a 60’ x 20’ terrace in front — ‘my house in the sky’ — on the fifth floor of this apartment building facing north, but with a 180 degree vision span.  The sedate little city of Ajdabiya sprawls before me…in the near horizon, seen above the building-tops, minarets and water-tanks, are the aforesaid sand-knolls that also obstruct the view of the Mediterranean hardly three kilometres away. Nearly 600 kilometres due north is Athens; Crete, just about 300 kilometres to the north-east and Rome, about 1000 kilometres to the north-west.
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Five hundred metres away, right in front, is the site of the ruins of the Fatimid Fortress and the Mosque dating back to 912 AD. Ajdabiya is listed as one of the prominent Fatimid cities; this is also the ancient Roman settlement Corniclanum, more than 2000 years old. Recently, when excavation was being done for the foundation of a building, its remains were discovered about 30 metres below ground level.

The ancient route that Ibn-Batuta took from Morocco passed through what is modern-day Tunis, (near the ancient Carthage), Tripoli, and Ajdabiya before going on to Tobruk, Alexandria and Cairo. The Via Balbia, which Mussolini inaugurated in 1937 (named after Italo Balbao who put together the territory of modern Libya), Tripoli-Ajdabiya Road which proceeds as Ajdabiya-Benghazi Road — all these are one and the same here. The route to Awjila Oasis, Jallou, and Kufra in the deep Sahara, cross this road.  Ajdabiya got its importance from Roman times not only because it is at a most ancient caravan crossroads, but also because fresh water was available here at very shallow levels…I am now looking out on to this historic road, beyond the ruins of the fortress.

During the Italian occupation, Ajdabiya was one of their main garrisons; the fortress now seen at the city-centre was the headquarters, when Ajdabiya was declared by the Italians (though they repudiated it later) as the Capital of the Autonomous Region of Cyrenaeca in October 1919, under the Senussi Sheik Idris (who would later be the King of Libya). The many Italian villas that dot the old city-centre bear witness to their presence.

The Ajdabiyans are made up mainly of 17 Bedouin and Berber (Imazigen) tribes, with tall, fair, sharp-featured bodies. (Remember Zinedine Zidane? He’s one of them, with St. Augustine of Hippo and Pharao Ramses II for company.) Apart from the few immigrants from Chaad, Sudan, Egypt, some Palestinian refugees, there are Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Taiwanese, Chinese, Iraqis and Egyptians on work contracts. Conservative women go around wrapped from head to toe in one great cloth. They also have the tattoo of a two-leaved plant (upright and reverse), on their chins and eye-brow centre — ancient Berber insignia, I have been told.  Men dressed in white cassocks and women with black robes and veil look like priests and nuns.  Some in coloured costumes resemble Joseph, Mary and the Child Jesus!  Their main food is meat (usually roast) and leafy vegetables (herbs).  Obviously, dress and food haven’t changed in the Middle East and the Maghreb over the last couple of thousands of years.

We enjoy Mediterranean climate here; short winters, a languid spring and long summers. To me accustomed to the extremes of Delhi’s climate, the 10-degree Celsius winters and maximum 40-degree summers are a welcome change.

Last December, the first one of a series of sirocco winds of more than 100 kilometres per hour, blowing up fiercely from the Sahara, blinding the entire region with golden sand-dust, I had stood in the sandy plain just in front of the ruins, clutching on to a lamp-post so as not to be literally blown away.

Weddings are the biggest celebrations here with fireworks, and an almost North Indian barat. The songs remind me of those of the Syrian Christian liturgy heard in my childhood. Also, one realizes that many Bollywood film songs have the original source of their tunes here!

To my left, in the western horizon, now the sun hangs low…the millions of tiny leaves, on the tree on a level with my vision – ruffled by the customary northerly blowing in steadily from the Mediterranean – shimmer  in the slanting golden rays.  The immense quarter-sphere of the sky is really a huge faint-blue-white tent just at the entrance of which I find myself. As the sun slips further down, a deluge of molten gold pour from the west…The sky has changed into burnished gold…now into amber…auburn…tawny….deep-brown…The maghreb azaan is called presently…

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A.J. Thomas is an Indian-English poet and fiction writer who has also translated extensively from Malayalam poetry, fiction and drama over the last two decades, with several books to his credit. He regularly publishes poetry, short fiction, translations, book reviews and features on literary and cultural matters in journals, magazines and websites in India and abroad. A.J. Thomas is also Editor (on lien) of Indian Literature , the 200-page English bi-monthly of Sahitya Akademi (The National Academy of Letters, Ministry of Culture, Government of India; the journal carries, in English translation,  poetry, fiction, drama, literary criticism, etc., from the 24 National Languages and numerous minor languages of India. He is a  Senior Fellow of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India; Member, National Committee of Grant-in-Aid (Books), Government of India; Permanent Member, Panel of Literary Translators, Sahitya Akademi.  A recipient of Katha Award, AKMG Prize and lately, the prestigious Vodafone Crossword Award for translating M.Mukundan’s novel, Kesavante Vilaapangal (Kesavan’s Lamentations, 2007) he has undertaken extensive literary tours around the world. Thomas was an invited delegate representing India, in the International Writers’ Meet (May 2008) at Pohang, and Indo-Korean Poets’ Meet, Seoul, both in South Korea.

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