I spent the last couple of days in Constantinople (aka Istanbul) helping in finalizing some contract negotiations and I had a chance to meet with my old friend, Turgut.
We (his lovely wife Arzu joined us; I did not make the mistake of kissing her hand as is our western custom since there were a lot of fundamentalists around and kissing a married woman’s hand is considered a no no to Turkish fundamentalists) dined at one of the best restaurants in town, close to the Bosphorus where we had the chance to savor the excellent Turkish Cuisine and talk about the past (I first met Turgut in Tokyo, of all places) as well as current events. One of the things we discussed was the origin of the name of the city where we were dining, namely Istanbul.
Istanbul comes from the Greek set of words (Is tin polin; to the city).
The then Greeks use to refer (and they still do) to Constantinople as Is tin polin (the city). This was misheard and the city eventually ended up being called Istanbul.
We spoke of Mustapha Kemal (aka. Kemal ata Turk, or Kemal of the Turks; an undoubtedly great leader) and his birthplace the lovely Thessaloniki (the capital of the northern Greek province of Macedonia) and how he laid the foundations of the modern Turkish state, of the situation in the Balkans and how this affected business , and of other things that one discusses during dinner.
Turgut ended the evening by telling me this strange tale which originates in Anatolia (and he was also courteous enough to pick up the cheque, much to my objection but it is his town after all):
“There was this young man who lived in Anatolia. He had many hardships when he was growing up, so that when he was blessed with his first son he made a wish. That his soul gets transplanted in the young boy so that the sum of his experiences and knowledge can help the child avoid many of life’s mishaps.
Well, some divine entity heard his wish, and transplanted his soul in the boy, as a side affect ending his life (since his body had a soul no more) and also eliminating his young son’s spirit and trapping the father in the little boy’s body.
The end result was that the family starved since there was no man to support the house (at that time, women were forbidden from working) and there was very little he could do since he was a man trapped in a yet weak child’s body.”
Bottom line : Be careful what you wish for.
Turgut asked me not to post his picture, so here is a lovely view of the Bosphorus.
Thanks Turgut and Arzu for a lovely time, and you have a standing invitation for dinner in Athens, on me!
