In the days of yore, fleets of ”dhows” manned by the hardy sailors of Arabia plied down the waters of the Arabian Gulf and often riding the monsoon straight across the Arabian Sea, to India and then to the East.
They explored the coasts of India, the Malabar and the Coromandel, looking for trade in spices, wood and ivory. Then they sailed on for precious stones from Ceylon and porcelain and later, tea from China.
Their ” dhows ” were unique works of marine architecture, these flimsy vessels had their hull planks not nailed together but stitched together with hemp or twine. They used them to reach the far-away shores of Sumatra, Bali, Vietnam and China. It took six months for a voyage from Basra, Iraq to reach Canton, China in those days.
These intrepid people had considerable influence in societies they interacted with. Religious conversions..marriages. Some of them have their tribal names like al Hindi and al Malabari even today.
This is about Abeer, the Saudi nurse assigned to my outpatient clinic.
Abeer is a pleasant young Saudi woman dressed up in an abaya and veil. A giggly young chatter-box, who looks out at the world through the slit in her veil and takes the trouble to help me with the paperwork and my rudimentary Arabic.
Of late, I ‘d noticed that Abeer was trying to tell me something personal, in privacy..
She did tell me her ” secret “, few days back.
She told me in her Arabic-accented English, ” Dactoor, my mother too is from Kerala. She too speaks Malayalam, like you.”
And she added laughing, ” So, you are her brother ! “
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Well, I could say that I am the descendent of one of those marriages, belonging to the mopilah tribe of Malabar. The malayalam dialect of my mother’’s generation is dotted with a number of arabic words like khibr, qubool, iskaal, saboor and so on. So you are a doctor.! Well life is all about such mama-bhanji connections., isn”t it?
kya mamu banayaaa…hahahaaaa
Well! all Indians are your bros and sis. Make it the whole world too. I liked Abeer immensely. Doc you rock.
Dear Mathew,
Thanks for good suggestion. In future I will try to give a translated essence of PAHARI poems, keep in touch I always welcomes friend’’s suggestions and critics too.
have a nice time
Jayprakash Panwar (JP)
good god…congrats…anyhow as they say “ibn e adam”…we all are related.
Nice interesting post ..
best wishes to her
wish u many more nieces around doctor……………………………….cheers…;-))~`GIFT`~
ur description regarding the places is superb. ur mamamiya for the young Arab nurse………take care doctorsaab.
nice to know abt ur niece, doc….
A quaint tale of lesser known boats and quainter ties from afar. The need to connect is universal. How nicely this comes across through your new found niece…. Doc. Good going here!
Dear Mathew,
Nice to see your blog. I am just starter may be in future you will find some intresting stories from me. I am from Uttarakhand and have many friends from South India too. Good Luck.
regards,
Jayprakash Panwar (JP)
nice intersting account about the Arabs and of course the newly found niece …..good post ..
Brother sister relationship is universal……
its so simple aint it…we could all be related…T
The world is such a small place…which helps culture, lifestyle interact with one another across the umpteen socities spread far & wide..Murali
Makes you wonder about the spirit of adventure those sailors might”ve had, doesn”t it? Travelling for months looking up at the stars above -without sextants, compasses, climatic announcements or anything of the sort. Would be great if you could put up a pic of a dhow here, so that the flimsiness of it becomes evident. And regards to the new found niece!
ummm.ahhhh..err…ummm..Doc..Doc..Doc:-)
Hmm. So how’’s your new found niece doing? ;-)))))))))
What a sweet tale! Enjoyed it looks like there are a lot of Arabian family there for you to meet Matt!
good post
wow! that is new information…..never knew abt it….thx for sharing
Didn”t know all that stuff about Arabs, thanks for sharing.
well u never knw whom u will meet… as Raj said, I agree…
the world is a small place……………………………..raj