Hardev Singh Virk

Just after the Chamoli earthquake in India, I received an invitation from Professor Abdullabekov, Director Institute of Seismology in Tashkent to participate in Jubilee Science Conference to be held on April 27-28, 1999 in honor of Professor A.N. Sultankhodjaev to celebrate his 70th birth anniversary. I was the only scientist from India to present our data related to Chamoli earthquake and other quakes in the N-W Himalayas which we recorded using geochemical and geophysical techniques.

Professor Sultankhodjaev is the father of geochemical precursor method for prediction of earthquakes. I had the occasion to meet and discuss with him the use of radon/helium gases as earthquake precursors first in Tokyo during 1996 and now in Tashkent. I booked my flight for Tashkent on April 24 but till the last minute the Uzbekistan Embassy in New Delhi kept me on tenterhooks by refusing me a visa. I was frustrated but my perseverance and pleadings with the Consular clinched the issue and I decided to fly by Uzbek airlines from Delhi to Tashkent.

Delhi – Tashkent flight during a sunny day is a novel experience. You fly over snow-covered peaks of Hindukush, valleys of Fergana and Kirgyzstan and land in Tashkent after two and half hours. The temperature in Delhi was over 40 degree celsius but it was pleasantly cool at 15 degrees in Tashkent. Professor Bykovtsev, my friend and host, was waiting for me and took me to Tashkent-hotel in the center of the city. It was built by the Russians in 1956 with a room capacity of 600 or so and it was the official lodge for diplomats. The official delegations led by President Ayub Khan and our Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri were also accommodated here. I was happy to find myself in the same hotel once again, but on a friendly mission as a seismologist from India.

April 25th being a Sunday, Professor Bykovtsev arranged for a tour of the city in his private car. Our first halt was at the monument dedicated to the Tashkent earthquake which occurred in the city center near the Tashkent hotel in 1966. Its magnitude was 5.6 on the Richter scale and only four people got killed with partial damage to some buildings in the old town. Tashkent city is sitting on a fault line and can be devastated by an impending earthquake in future. There are many parks with fountains in the city center, and the roads are wide like Paris boulevards but without traffic jams. The local transport is very cheap costing 1 soum (10 paisa) per trip in a tram or bus, all run by electric power. Tashkent city is pollution free, laid out in a square grid of 20 km x 20 km, with its airport near the centre of the town. It now boasts of a metro.

Taimur Museum in Tashkent

The museums are generally open on Sundays and we spent a few hours visitng museums of art, history and archaeology. We took lunch on a roadside ‘dhaba’ where rice ‘palao’ and ‘seekh kabab’ was being served as delicacies. Being a vegetarian, I enjoyed my bowl of palao with a glass of sweet ‘lassi’ in the Punjabi style. Generally, Uzbeks drink green or black tea with all meals. Majority of the population is Muslim but almost all men and women drink Uzbek wine called ‘Arak’ or Russian vodka at the receptions or marriage parties. Uzbek women folk are more liberated than their Indian counterparts and have no taboos about drinking and smoking. The Russian rule had liberated them from the yoke of the Muslim clergy.

After the liberation of Uzbekistan, madrasas and mosques are being renovated in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and other cities of tourist interest. Uzbeks are not as fanatic as Iranians or Pakistanis and the revivalist movement for Islamisation is going on at a slow pace. In the rural areas, women wear long robes with a headgear but in the cities Uzbeki belles prefer to wear mini skirts or jeans. In beauty, they match the French or Roman girls.

On Monday, April 26, I visited the Institute of Seismology and saw a film on destruction caused by Tashkent, Gazli, and Armenian earthquakes, which killed two hundred thousand people during the last decade. The havoc caused by big earthquakes is really mind-boggling. We had lunch on a riverside restaurant and continued our tour of old Tashkent with its narrow lanes like old Delhi. We visited some of the old madrasas and mosques built during the reign of Amir Temur who was born in Tashkent. He conquered whole of central Asia and subdued Delhi and parts of Europe. Amir Temur was an able administrator, military strategist, and promoter of science and culture despite his physical handicap. His statues adorn the squares in Tashkent and Samarkand and he is worshipped as an Uzbek hero. The statues of Karl Marx and Lenin are removed from their pedestals in Tashkent and replaced by those of Amir Temur riding on a horse.

The international conference started on 27th April where I presented my paper with the help of an interpreter. In Uzbekistan, English is not understood and the medium of instruction is Russian and Uzbek language, which is being promoted at all levels. There was a gala dinner the next day where Uzbek music and dances were presented. I was also called to join and performed a few steps of Punjabi bhangra to regale the audience. The Uzbeks start dinner with dry fruits, a variety of salads and a soup called shorba and continue with kabab and other meat dishes. Food is very cheap, even cheaper than Punjab, with milk selling at Rs. 7 per litre, coke at Rs. 4 per bottle and dry fruits at a throw away price. Fruits and vegetables are grown in abundance and Samarkand is famous for its dry fruits and silk. Punjabi traders set up a caravan serai in Bukhara and trade of wool, silk and dry fruits flourished during the Mughal period between Punjab and Uzbekistan.

After the conference, I visited Samarkand and Bukhara, the two ancient cities of Uzbekistan situated on the old and famous silk route between Asia and Europe. Mirza Ulugbek, the grandson of Amir Temur, was the most famous ruler of Samarkand. He was a great astronomer, scientist and a builder of madrasas. He built an astrological observatory in Samarkand and prepared tables of planetary motions before European scholars ventured into this field. I visited the remnants of his observatory, registan with three old madrassas, the Gur-Emir mausoleum with burial place for Timur and his family, Bibi-khanim mosque, a grand structure in honour of Timur’s wife, built to celebrate his victory over India. We rounded up our tour of Samarkand after paying a visit to the market place in the evening where Uzbeki women attired in their national dress were selling fruits, vegetables and naan. They were all smiles to see a Sikh gentleman in Samarkand.

On the last leg of my journey, I paid a visit to the holy city of Bukhara. I was always dreaming to see Bukhara, a city which finds a mention in Punjabi folklore. Bukhara, like Samarkand, enjoys a great past in antiquity with a history of 2500 years. It is adopted by UNESCO as a world heritage city. I visited the old madrassas built by Ulugbek, Indian caravan serai, the remnants of old fortress wall around the city and mausoleum of Said Bahauddin Nakshbandi, a great sufi mystic and teacher of Timur who has a large following in India even today.

What impressed me in Bukhara is its historical connection with Punjab which extends over a millennium. It is alleged that 33,000 dervishes (holy men) are buried in this city. Bukhara produced a galaxy of historians, philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, poets and sufi saints during the middle ages, viz. al-Bukhari, Ibn-Sina, al-Khorezami, al-Bairuni, Abu-Nasar Farabi, to name a few among the stalwarts. What surprised me most during my sojourn in Uzbekistan is the discovery of common cultural heritage between Punjab and Uzbekistan.

The Punjabi dress ‘salwar and kameez’ has its origin in central Asia. Punjabi language has borrowed and assimilated dozens of words and phrases from Uzbek/Arabic/Persian languages. I made list of some words of common origin, e.g., shahar (city), kitab dukani (book shop), bazaar (bazaar), madrassa (religious seminary), darvoza (door), bagh (garden), garan (village), chaikhana (tea shop), naqad (cash), registan (desert) and many more we use daily in our speech. Who can forget the Punjabi proverb “There is no comfort in Balkh and Bukhara which can match the comfort one finds at home, i.e; in Chhajju’s chubara “. After my return to Amritsar, I fully realized the truth of this old proverb.

Professor Virk with senior scientists of Uzbekistan

Professor Virk with women delegates

Copyright©2005 Hardev Singh Virk. About the author