FIRST FLAMENCO IN SAMANGAN

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Said Tayeb Jawad, narrates a tale of love, dance, poetry and good old times in his book ‘the first flamenco in Samangan’. The book blends culture with ecstasy, loosening reader’s grasp on time. It narrates the untold stories of the past which were kept in the hearts of many since decades.

In winters, during school breaks from Kabul, I would go to Kandahar in search of warmer weather and the warmth of my extended family. Kandahar was a vibrant and cultured city in those days, with milder winters and mild-mannered people. The city smelled of pomegranate and fried fish. “Every weekend young people rode bicycles to the suburbs, to Arghandab, Sanziri, Shah Agha and Daleh Reservoir to picnic and play cards. Dand District, the lush western part of the city, was filled with Western tourists and young Europeans.”

This is a tale of a place in the richer past that one living in the present begrudges time and again; an Afghanistan without anguish and eternal ignominy, where foreign tourists keep pouring in and roaming cross-country.

A must read article by Afghanistan Times