Singlewomenbackpacker

I stood there wondering what this lady was trying to say - waving a leaf and talking in rapid Turkish. She walked up to the tree plucked the fruits and offered me one. My face must have registered a look of pleasure as I bit into it, for she quickly handed me another, showing me how to choose the ripest ones. The bus honked in a distance breaking the spell of tasty fruit and sweet silence. It was time to go and on an impulse I hugged her. I was in Turkey and this was the second time I had hugged a stranger.

An hour before this fruity encounter, I was at the Divrigi Great Mosque in the Anatolian mountain town. Outside the mosque I met a lady who had come to offer her prayers, and when two people want to communicate, language is no barrier. Pointing to the ring on my finger she asked if I was married, I nodded an affirmative. Her eyes searched for my husband. I shook my head again - I was traveling alone. I surprised myself when I reached into my purse and brought out the wedding picture. I wanted to share that with her. She pointed to her house across the street and asked me in for Çay (Turkish tea). When we said goodbye much later, she said, ‘Allah korusun’ (God Bless), and we hugged.

I left her home and then met the lady with the fruits. Two trees laden with tiny white fruit stood outside a large wooden house. Young children and purdah clad mothers had come to harvest this. The fruit looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I had seen it before or what it was called. Later, when I boarded the bus, leaf and fruit in hand; my fellow traveler explained that it was the white Mulberry. So I’m guessing, by pointing at her scarf, she was telling me about the silk.

Turkey has a way of welcoming travelers - everyone likes to talk and it always begins with, ‘Where from?’ To which I learnt to say, ‘Hindi-sthan’, the Turkish name for India. One of them broke into a song, ‘awara hoon…’ from Raj Kapoor’s movie ‘Awara’ (1951). Some treated me to Turkish Delight which reminded me of its country cousin - Kozhikodan Halwa from my home state Kerala. The one bite wonder, Midye Dolma (mussels stuffed with rice) seemed like a different version of the Malabari Kadukka Nirachathu. A walk through the Spice Bazaar near Bosphorus reiterated the age old trade connections between the two regions.

In Turkey, I experienced true wanderlust, learnt the lyrics of Awara Hoo and experienced the similarities that stretched beyond borders and dated back centuries.