Thank you for sharing your return to your ancestral homeland with us, Shabnam. This riveting piece I've read twice now, and I will return to it again. It was the first thing I read this morning on my phone, and wanted to reply then, but life... life happened. Now it's evening and I've just reread on my laptop. This beautiful journey to a place I have always been fascinated with, and wondered exactly where it was, and you have given name and place - the where and the how to get there - right here. Beyond that, you have articulated so well the angst of the exile, how even seven generations later a place can feel like home. Do you think you'd ever go back to live there for a while? Is that even possible? I love that the language was familar and you could understanding. The sheer power of people refusing to give up on what is intrinsically theirs - their own language. I have read of the Sogdians when I read about Tang dynasty China - the trade, and the horses. It felt mysterious. I knew it was in modern day Uzbekistan - but you have made this extraordinary place come alive, Shabnam. Thankyou!🙏🏽 Please write more about your ancestral homeland.
We all carry our personal home within, from where our journey from formless to form begun. When we reach to that centre we are called as ‘Entered the kingdom of God’ by Jesus.
This is beautiful, Shabnam. How wonderful that you were able to meet your uncle in Fonduk and discover the connection to Samarkand. (I would love to be able to visit Samarkand some day--such an ancient city of learning, mystery and culture and beauty.) I am a little confused, however. Is your family Tajik, then? Did you grow up speaking Tajik instead of Dari?
Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki are the same language — they are simply different dialects, much like the variations between American English, British English, and Australian English. I speak the Persian language in the Dari dialect. The Tajiki dialect is fundamentally the same, though it has evolved slightly over time due to the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet and broader Central Asian influences.
And in Afghanistan, as you know we have Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks etc. I come from a predominantly Tajik ethnicity.
Thank you for the explanation, Shabnam. I knew that Farsi and Dari were dialects of each other, but I did not know that Tajik was, too. Nor did I know that the Tajik alphabet uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but considering its recent history, that makes sense.
As a result of reading your article today, I spent most of the afternoon researching trips to Samarkand and Bukhara! Visiting there would be the closest I could come to re-experiencing the cultures of Afghanistan. But it still wouldn't be the same.
Love this - wrote you a comment on the last piece you wrote. Dying to go to Samarkand and I wish I'd done it earlier in life when my knees wouldn't have protested! . My brother is going next year.
Shabnam, I feel blessed by starting my day reading this post. It is so rich in all ways. As I sit here now listening to the birds, I am thinking about your uncle who "listened intently to the sounds outside--as if the valley itself was speaking to him."
Osho says that whenever a person has enough of everything that is needed then begins the quest to know ‘Who am I?’. Europeans were good at maintaining history so they maintained historic records of their family too. Through that they come to know the answer of most prominent and existential question in every human mind. When hunger is still there then this very quest limits them to manage bread and butter for at least once a day. Because if they will survive then only they can embark upon that journey.
This is why Osho called spirituality as ultimate luxury.
In East and especially the area under influence of Sufism and Mysticism of all types Zen, Tao, Hindu etc the answer was searched inside because we carry all our ancestors as well as our own personal journey too. Osho says that before a person is born in a family of a spiritual person they have lived in all the continents and all types of regions too in their early lives. Every person is on two journeys simultaneously. One is outward and one is inward. When we suffer in outer world we gain wisdom needed for further journey in inner world. So we are never at loss anytime!
So I too searched for my roots as there is a system of keeping records by few people called ‘Bhat’ or ‘Rao’. But when I came to know the answer of ‘Who am I?’, from within, then only I realised that it was another type of thirst and I was looking at wrong place!
This is why our people have not maintained records like Europeans.
So your personal inner lineage is different from your father! In inner journey we embark upon reaching to that centre within from where the journey from formless to form begun.
What Sufi call as ‘jikra’ is termed by Osho as ‘awareness meditation’. Osho says remembering Allah every moment directly is very difficult in today’s life, so one must begin with remembering self during any one act of routine. What to say about remembering self we keep thinking about many things while performing acts robotically or mechanically. So first we need to remain present in any one act of routine. Then slowly slowly jikra begins on its own one day and never stops!
Thank you for sharing your return to your ancestral homeland with us, Shabnam. This riveting piece I've read twice now, and I will return to it again. It was the first thing I read this morning on my phone, and wanted to reply then, but life... life happened. Now it's evening and I've just reread on my laptop. This beautiful journey to a place I have always been fascinated with, and wondered exactly where it was, and you have given name and place - the where and the how to get there - right here. Beyond that, you have articulated so well the angst of the exile, how even seven generations later a place can feel like home. Do you think you'd ever go back to live there for a while? Is that even possible? I love that the language was familar and you could understanding. The sheer power of people refusing to give up on what is intrinsically theirs - their own language. I have read of the Sogdians when I read about Tang dynasty China - the trade, and the horses. It felt mysterious. I knew it was in modern day Uzbekistan - but you have made this extraordinary place come alive, Shabnam. Thankyou!🙏🏽 Please write more about your ancestral homeland.
We all carry our personal home within, from where our journey from formless to form begun. When we reach to that centre we are called as ‘Entered the kingdom of God’ by Jesus.
Nothing to say except thanks for writing this down
This is beautiful, Shabnam. How wonderful that you were able to meet your uncle in Fonduk and discover the connection to Samarkand. (I would love to be able to visit Samarkand some day--such an ancient city of learning, mystery and culture and beauty.) I am a little confused, however. Is your family Tajik, then? Did you grow up speaking Tajik instead of Dari?
Thank you, Clarice.
Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki are the same language — they are simply different dialects, much like the variations between American English, British English, and Australian English. I speak the Persian language in the Dari dialect. The Tajiki dialect is fundamentally the same, though it has evolved slightly over time due to the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet and broader Central Asian influences.
And in Afghanistan, as you know we have Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks etc. I come from a predominantly Tajik ethnicity.
Thank you for the explanation, Shabnam. I knew that Farsi and Dari were dialects of each other, but I did not know that Tajik was, too. Nor did I know that the Tajik alphabet uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but considering its recent history, that makes sense.
As a result of reading your article today, I spent most of the afternoon researching trips to Samarkand and Bukhara! Visiting there would be the closest I could come to re-experiencing the cultures of Afghanistan. But it still wouldn't be the same.
Love this - wrote you a comment on the last piece you wrote. Dying to go to Samarkand and I wish I'd done it earlier in life when my knees wouldn't have protested! . My brother is going next year.
Wonderful, evocative post. And gorgeous photos... thank you!
I’d love to go to Samarkand one day!
Love it! 🔥
Shabnam, I feel blessed by starting my day reading this post. It is so rich in all ways. As I sit here now listening to the birds, I am thinking about your uncle who "listened intently to the sounds outside--as if the valley itself was speaking to him."
It is the art of listening that is very rare.
Osho says that whenever a person has enough of everything that is needed then begins the quest to know ‘Who am I?’. Europeans were good at maintaining history so they maintained historic records of their family too. Through that they come to know the answer of most prominent and existential question in every human mind. When hunger is still there then this very quest limits them to manage bread and butter for at least once a day. Because if they will survive then only they can embark upon that journey.
This is why Osho called spirituality as ultimate luxury.
In East and especially the area under influence of Sufism and Mysticism of all types Zen, Tao, Hindu etc the answer was searched inside because we carry all our ancestors as well as our own personal journey too. Osho says that before a person is born in a family of a spiritual person they have lived in all the continents and all types of regions too in their early lives. Every person is on two journeys simultaneously. One is outward and one is inward. When we suffer in outer world we gain wisdom needed for further journey in inner world. So we are never at loss anytime!
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshuto/p/how-grief-could-make-our-4d-body-part-strong-so-that-it-does-not-leave-a-scar-ea5180c24706?r=1gxdhi&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
So I too searched for my roots as there is a system of keeping records by few people called ‘Bhat’ or ‘Rao’. But when I came to know the answer of ‘Who am I?’, from within, then only I realised that it was another type of thirst and I was looking at wrong place!
This is why our people have not maintained records like Europeans.
So your personal inner lineage is different from your father! In inner journey we embark upon reaching to that centre within from where the journey from formless to form begun.
What Sufi call as ‘jikra’ is termed by Osho as ‘awareness meditation’. Osho says remembering Allah every moment directly is very difficult in today’s life, so one must begin with remembering self during any one act of routine. What to say about remembering self we keep thinking about many things while performing acts robotically or mechanically. So first we need to remain present in any one act of routine. Then slowly slowly jikra begins on its own one day and never stops!