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Every year on the day of Ashura and the day after, I join my Shia friends in the procession. We walk along, some of them join the chorus matam, others just gently pat their chests, and then we go back home.
This year for some reason, my friends asked me to join them inside the premises of their Imambara as well, and I agreed.
Because I have always wanted to know more of what has always for me been a very private and dignified mourning by my friends. Up until now they had never asked me, and for some reason (being a Parsi and having our own hangups about people coming into our places of worship, death, rituals, etc.) I had never pressed.
So Saturday night my friends came to pick me up at 10, and we went to the Imambara, parked our bikes outside, and went in on foot. Freshly bathed and wearing jeans and a black kurta, the winter chill quite strong now in Pune. All over the city at important chowks you have huge banners across the width of the road proclaiming "SALUTATIONS TO THE MARTYRS OF KARBALA!"
There is a famous Puneri Irani at the entrance with a polic laathi directing people and traffic much to everyone's amusement. The police are sitting around smiling benevolently as other Iranis talk to them in Irani-fied Marathi! LOL
The first thing that you notice is a banner at the entrance that asks ladies to be properly covered in a hijab within the premises. But its not the common black tent that we see and associate for the most part. On the young ones in fact its pretty graceful. The older aunties have it more all-covering, but the faces are open and men and women are together in the same compound, openly talking to each other and mingling.
The compound itself is almost a ditto copy of our big Agyari compounds cum community centers. Big open compound with trees and houses on the sides. The Imambara is at the center (much as our Agyari) and behind are the homes of those who live there for the upkeep, priests, etc.
There is a stall on one side selling CDs of the lament in different languages. Unfortunately most of them are in Arbi or Hindia/Urdu, and the Farsi ones are over. The Farsi one really sounds nice. It is so melancholy and just sounds very good. I am hoping some of our Iranian friends can helpout with a link to it.
There are a few mobile vans making green/black tea. It is being served in thermocol cups to people on huge trays. The tea has chopped badams in it. Very nice and refreshing. My friends and I have a few cups. Most are checking out the crowd, and warning me not to get my "Persian" genes activated for fear of getting chopped up into small pieces! LOL (50% of the crowd are Irani, maybe 20-25% are Indian, and the remaining are from mainly Jordan and other countries like Bahrain etc.)
There is a small shamiana which has biryani and some gravy being cooked and served to the mourners. I have had my dinner, and the rest of the guys want to got to Chinese Room later, so could not try what was looking really nice and steaming as preople were walking around with the plates and finding places to sit down and eat.
What strikes one first is how civilized and clean and nice smelling the whole place is. And how smartly dressed the crowd is. The dress code is standard black tops. Most of the guys are in black shirts or T-shirts, and the women in the black hijabs. The beards are also very different to what we normally associate with Muslim beards. They are mostly on the older men, and well trimmed and full (unlike the normal "Muslim" cut).
There are small kids running all around, and some of the slightly bigger ones even join in the matam (they are really enthusiastic and look really cute doing it - with one eye on what the big boys are doing, and trying to outdo them).
There is a big charriot looking thing in the center with a big pole/staff with feathers and stuff, and a white cloth with what looked like dried blood drops (my friends told me it was actually only color).
The procession started with the heftiest guys carrying tall poles with a lot of stuff on top in the front center. Behind them were groups of guys doing the matam and chants in proper synchronicity and rhythm. Then there was this HUGE thing with hundreds of ghaslet lanterns arranged like a big chandelier carried by ONE man! (this they twirl round and round - amazing!).
Behind are jeeps with loudspeakers with tape recorded laments/chants and the women walking alongside. Everywhere you see the women gently tapping their chest with their right hands. Apparently they get pretty violent and vigorous with the hand chest hitting too, but in a private ceremony, for obvious reasons.
I am always amazed at the sound they make. I know how easy it is to crack a rib die to blunt trauma, and some of the guys are really thin man (their chest would be as deep as my one thigh). But they seem to go into a trance, are sweating profusely, and some of them are even crying.
But its all very dignified. No shor sharaba. No mad running around terrorizing onlookers like in Mumbai. A very different gentry at the cost of sounding elitist.
All around are the police. Keeping an eye but staying on the sidelines quietly. The procession followed by 5-6 Police jeeps and vans. Especially at baba jaan chowk where it pauses and comes very close to the Sunni processions.
There is a dargah with some chaadars and some religious items inside glass cases. I take off my shoes, ask my friends if my head needs to be covered, and after observing how the others pray there, I pay my respects and pray. You are allowed to touch the glass with hands or forehead, as well as bow in front of it and touch your forehead to the table with your hands on either side. This is apparently something that is not allowed in places like Iraq and other Sunni dominant countries per my friends.
Then we go into a smaller courtyard, where on the side there is a kitchen where guys are making black tea (hundreds of glasses) which are constantly being brought out with sugar and spoons. Man they like their tea sweet! Lovely tea (I have many glasses
).
The Imambara is there, and after taking of my shoes, I am taken in by my friends. I am a little hesitant at first because like our Atash Behrams, it is totally dark inside (no artificial light allowed). The atmosphere inside is charged. Lots of guys sitting and hearing the guy on the mike singing. Head in hands (like mourning). Apparently different nationalities have turns inside.
Some of the chants are in Arabic (?), some are in Farsi, some in Urdu. There is some serious chest beating and sweating and crying going on. I am feeling out of place for not doing the same, so I come outside and watch through the huge French windows. Have some more tea. There is an Afardanyu (the urn in which we have our holy Atash) also there which I spot and point out to my friends. There is no fire inside and they do not know what it is for.
There is another huge metal degchi like thing with round stones (look like soap stones). I am intrigued. I ask what they are. Apparently they are holy stones which are put on the ground when people offer prayers and bow down so that their foreheads do not touch the ground. So that is the mystery of the devout Muslims with black discoloration in the center of their foreheads solved. It is by regular 5 times a day namaz day on day week on week, month on month year on year. Worn as a mark of pride by the really religious guys!
There are these kids who come to a large rectangular wicker basket kept outside. With prayer caps. Some of felt (like us), some the typical jaali waali topis (with gold brocade on some like the Bohras), and some are made of cane. There are also light green colored prayer bead necklaces which they take and hold and sit down outside on the porch and pray. We have the exact same system in our Agyari for our prayer caps, but the difference is we cannot go inside with our heads uncovered – here the guys inside were without caps.
One striking thing is a HUGE banner at the entrance of the courtyard by the management committee that asks people not to indulge in any political discussions or any anti social discussions at all. To be strictly dealt with by the management. Very nice touch and greatly appreciated by me to see. A place of worship and faith should be only about one’s faith and God. Nothing else!
There was a huge sandpit on one corner also where small clay figurines were laid out to depict the Battle of Karbala. The armies of Yazid and Hussain. White tents. The River Euphrates flowing by. With small placards and signs giving an explanation of the whole thing. And some Iranians there who were told by my friends that I was Zoroastrian and then them going at great pains to explain to me how we were blood brothers and how we shared the same enemy (Umayyads). LOL (that was intense!)
We mingle with the crowd some more, walk some way with the juloos, come back. It is almost 2 am now. We go and see the Baba Jaan chowk where all the processions meet and pause. The Sunni also have their processions. They are different. They do not do matam for one or wear black. They have these circles enscribed with bricks on the roadsides in which there are hot burning coals kept. I do not know what it is for? Do they walk over the coals? The people are dressed more like the muslims we are used to. Same clothes, same beards, and again, there is a HUGE difference in the class of the gentry. There was also some animal butchered which some people were skinning - right on the roadside .....
Return home at around 3. We were to go for the main procession (with chains and blades etc.) the next day. First it was 10 am. Then one of my friends calls up and says it is at 2 pm. Then most are fasting and the plan is dropped.
All in all a very very nice and moving experience. Something I will be repeating every year from now on. And I will take my camera along as well (was not sure if it would be allowed this time - but everyone seemed to be holding up their mobile phones and recording the whole thing).
Cheers, Doc
This year for some reason, my friends asked me to join them inside the premises of their Imambara as well, and I agreed.
Because I have always wanted to know more of what has always for me been a very private and dignified mourning by my friends. Up until now they had never asked me, and for some reason (being a Parsi and having our own hangups about people coming into our places of worship, death, rituals, etc.) I had never pressed.
So Saturday night my friends came to pick me up at 10, and we went to the Imambara, parked our bikes outside, and went in on foot. Freshly bathed and wearing jeans and a black kurta, the winter chill quite strong now in Pune. All over the city at important chowks you have huge banners across the width of the road proclaiming "SALUTATIONS TO THE MARTYRS OF KARBALA!"
There is a famous Puneri Irani at the entrance with a polic laathi directing people and traffic much to everyone's amusement. The police are sitting around smiling benevolently as other Iranis talk to them in Irani-fied Marathi! LOL
The first thing that you notice is a banner at the entrance that asks ladies to be properly covered in a hijab within the premises. But its not the common black tent that we see and associate for the most part. On the young ones in fact its pretty graceful. The older aunties have it more all-covering, but the faces are open and men and women are together in the same compound, openly talking to each other and mingling.
The compound itself is almost a ditto copy of our big Agyari compounds cum community centers. Big open compound with trees and houses on the sides. The Imambara is at the center (much as our Agyari) and behind are the homes of those who live there for the upkeep, priests, etc.
There is a stall on one side selling CDs of the lament in different languages. Unfortunately most of them are in Arbi or Hindia/Urdu, and the Farsi ones are over. The Farsi one really sounds nice. It is so melancholy and just sounds very good. I am hoping some of our Iranian friends can helpout with a link to it.
There are a few mobile vans making green/black tea. It is being served in thermocol cups to people on huge trays. The tea has chopped badams in it. Very nice and refreshing. My friends and I have a few cups. Most are checking out the crowd, and warning me not to get my "Persian" genes activated for fear of getting chopped up into small pieces! LOL (50% of the crowd are Irani, maybe 20-25% are Indian, and the remaining are from mainly Jordan and other countries like Bahrain etc.)
There is a small shamiana which has biryani and some gravy being cooked and served to the mourners. I have had my dinner, and the rest of the guys want to got to Chinese Room later, so could not try what was looking really nice and steaming as preople were walking around with the plates and finding places to sit down and eat.
What strikes one first is how civilized and clean and nice smelling the whole place is. And how smartly dressed the crowd is. The dress code is standard black tops. Most of the guys are in black shirts or T-shirts, and the women in the black hijabs. The beards are also very different to what we normally associate with Muslim beards. They are mostly on the older men, and well trimmed and full (unlike the normal "Muslim" cut).
There are small kids running all around, and some of the slightly bigger ones even join in the matam (they are really enthusiastic and look really cute doing it - with one eye on what the big boys are doing, and trying to outdo them).
There is a big charriot looking thing in the center with a big pole/staff with feathers and stuff, and a white cloth with what looked like dried blood drops (my friends told me it was actually only color).
The procession started with the heftiest guys carrying tall poles with a lot of stuff on top in the front center. Behind them were groups of guys doing the matam and chants in proper synchronicity and rhythm. Then there was this HUGE thing with hundreds of ghaslet lanterns arranged like a big chandelier carried by ONE man! (this they twirl round and round - amazing!).
Behind are jeeps with loudspeakers with tape recorded laments/chants and the women walking alongside. Everywhere you see the women gently tapping their chest with their right hands. Apparently they get pretty violent and vigorous with the hand chest hitting too, but in a private ceremony, for obvious reasons.
I am always amazed at the sound they make. I know how easy it is to crack a rib die to blunt trauma, and some of the guys are really thin man (their chest would be as deep as my one thigh). But they seem to go into a trance, are sweating profusely, and some of them are even crying.
But its all very dignified. No shor sharaba. No mad running around terrorizing onlookers like in Mumbai. A very different gentry at the cost of sounding elitist.
All around are the police. Keeping an eye but staying on the sidelines quietly. The procession followed by 5-6 Police jeeps and vans. Especially at baba jaan chowk where it pauses and comes very close to the Sunni processions.
There is a dargah with some chaadars and some religious items inside glass cases. I take off my shoes, ask my friends if my head needs to be covered, and after observing how the others pray there, I pay my respects and pray. You are allowed to touch the glass with hands or forehead, as well as bow in front of it and touch your forehead to the table with your hands on either side. This is apparently something that is not allowed in places like Iraq and other Sunni dominant countries per my friends.
Then we go into a smaller courtyard, where on the side there is a kitchen where guys are making black tea (hundreds of glasses) which are constantly being brought out with sugar and spoons. Man they like their tea sweet! Lovely tea (I have many glasses
). The Imambara is there, and after taking of my shoes, I am taken in by my friends. I am a little hesitant at first because like our Atash Behrams, it is totally dark inside (no artificial light allowed). The atmosphere inside is charged. Lots of guys sitting and hearing the guy on the mike singing. Head in hands (like mourning). Apparently different nationalities have turns inside.
Some of the chants are in Arabic (?), some are in Farsi, some in Urdu. There is some serious chest beating and sweating and crying going on. I am feeling out of place for not doing the same, so I come outside and watch through the huge French windows. Have some more tea. There is an Afardanyu (the urn in which we have our holy Atash) also there which I spot and point out to my friends. There is no fire inside and they do not know what it is for.
There is another huge metal degchi like thing with round stones (look like soap stones). I am intrigued. I ask what they are. Apparently they are holy stones which are put on the ground when people offer prayers and bow down so that their foreheads do not touch the ground. So that is the mystery of the devout Muslims with black discoloration in the center of their foreheads solved. It is by regular 5 times a day namaz day on day week on week, month on month year on year. Worn as a mark of pride by the really religious guys!
There are these kids who come to a large rectangular wicker basket kept outside. With prayer caps. Some of felt (like us), some the typical jaali waali topis (with gold brocade on some like the Bohras), and some are made of cane. There are also light green colored prayer bead necklaces which they take and hold and sit down outside on the porch and pray. We have the exact same system in our Agyari for our prayer caps, but the difference is we cannot go inside with our heads uncovered – here the guys inside were without caps.
One striking thing is a HUGE banner at the entrance of the courtyard by the management committee that asks people not to indulge in any political discussions or any anti social discussions at all. To be strictly dealt with by the management. Very nice touch and greatly appreciated by me to see. A place of worship and faith should be only about one’s faith and God. Nothing else!
There was a huge sandpit on one corner also where small clay figurines were laid out to depict the Battle of Karbala. The armies of Yazid and Hussain. White tents. The River Euphrates flowing by. With small placards and signs giving an explanation of the whole thing. And some Iranians there who were told by my friends that I was Zoroastrian and then them going at great pains to explain to me how we were blood brothers and how we shared the same enemy (Umayyads). LOL (that was intense!)
We mingle with the crowd some more, walk some way with the juloos, come back. It is almost 2 am now. We go and see the Baba Jaan chowk where all the processions meet and pause. The Sunni also have their processions. They are different. They do not do matam for one or wear black. They have these circles enscribed with bricks on the roadsides in which there are hot burning coals kept. I do not know what it is for? Do they walk over the coals? The people are dressed more like the muslims we are used to. Same clothes, same beards, and again, there is a HUGE difference in the class of the gentry. There was also some animal butchered which some people were skinning - right on the roadside .....
Return home at around 3. We were to go for the main procession (with chains and blades etc.) the next day. First it was 10 am. Then one of my friends calls up and says it is at 2 pm. Then most are fasting and the plan is dropped.
All in all a very very nice and moving experience. Something I will be repeating every year from now on. And I will take my camera along as well (was not sure if it would be allowed this time - but everyone seemed to be holding up their mobile phones and recording the whole thing).
Cheers, Doc
