The ? of Ob: Part 3

So, the other day diarrhea struck down upon me, mercilessly. So I was staggering around the university campus, looking for a place to get some water. They have a little shop in the uni building where they sell odds and ends pertaining to university life. Anyways, so being parched and on the verge of collapsing I naturally ask for water.

So, what do you think happened? Did he give me a bottle of water? Did he? Well of course not! He gave me a bottle of Royal Crown Cola. I pointed out that this isn't water, this is cola, sugar mixed with water. At last he gave me some mineral water....*sigh*

Az in Abkharidan bizAram o malul.

The ? of Ob: Part 2

Going about my usual business, I bought Internet-time for one hour today. But I asked for a bottle of Royal Crown Cola, this time in English. And they gave me a big bottle of water - my usual request.

Tajik Tv

I only get one channel of Tajik TV over where I live. I get one channel too, but it's entirely in Russian and mostly news.

So far I have seen this on Tajik TV:

• A lot of concerts. All of them of Tajik artists singing silly songs about love. Tajik music is generally very boring, and their concerts are worse. Imagine a guy in a suit on an empty scene with some colourful balloons in the background. There is no group so everything is playback. And sometimes there are dancers. That's it. Oh, and at the end a little girl comes with flowers to give to the artist.
• Music videos. From Turkey, Iran (alas, alas) and Tajikistan, of course. Tajiks have a very bad taste in music. They absolutely love silly Persian love songs a la Arash. Why? It's truly depressing. They have an awesome artist in the late Misha but I haven't heard a single song from him while in Tajikistan. Instead they play Andy or Ebi or I don't know what other abominations emanating from Iran, the land of tacky trash.
• I saw a Tajik movie yesterday about a blind boy who listened to bees in bottles. It had Persian subtitles. Needless to say, it was very weird.
• Apparently there are a lot of Indian movies but so far I haven't seen any.
• A theatre about Alexander the Great. A lot of yelling. Very boring.
• News are near to nonexistent. I have to gather my news from the Russian channel or going to the Internet cafe.
• A documentary about the poet Sherali. Interesting.
• A music video, a Persian woman singing "Man ariyaiam" -- "I'm Aryan" to pictures of Tajikistan and its people. Very cheesy. But quite catchy.

All in all, a lot of entertainment, a lot of boring trash.

The ? of Ob

I just returned from Choykhoniyi Rohat, a place where they serve Tajik food and all the waitresses are running around in the state dress, looking all the same.

Tajiks don't have a sense of service, it is very much like in Sweden. That is, you buy one of their services and all you get is a slap in the face instead of a thank you. Of course, not everyone is like that, if you go to an expensive restaurant things are a little bit different.

Anyway, ordering was a hassle. She didn't give me a menu, and I don't know what it is called in Tajik, and even if I knew I'm sure she wouldn't care to bring me one. I asked if they had mantu, which they did so I ordered that and I also said "va ham ob mekhoham" and she nodded approvingly.

The mantus were OK, think of them as over-sized raviolis, but steamboiled..and I think I could discern a pinch of nutmeg in them, too. So when it was time to pay I asked her why she didn't bring me water, as I had requested.

She: But you didn't ask for any water, if you had I would've brought it! *faked tears in her eyes*

Yeah, right.

They just don't understand the word Ob it's like it's not in their vocabulary. I'm beginning to suspect that they don't even drink it themselves. At any rate, I don't think it's something that the regular customer buys, they either go with some soda or just plain without. There has to be some explanation! Today I wanted water at the Internet Cafe, I'm a regular now so they should all know by now that i want:

1. 1 hour of Internet time
2. 1 big bottle of water

But, no..they don't. They gave me that Royal Crown cola again. *sigh*

Inscription

P1000396
Originally uploaded by ajjetollah.

Here's the inscription for you all to read and enjoy. Hope it's easier to read now.

Dog

Near the Rudaki statue, I met these kids and their far too big dog. He was one of the reasons I didn't stay long to chat, I did however get to know that the dog's name was Dick. By the way, don't kids in Tajikistan go to school? They're either walking around town or playing Counter-Strike at the Internet cafe. In the background -- Tajik men, washing their feet in the broken fountain?

Rudaki

I decided to go out and take some pics today. This one up here is of Rudaki, looming over the city of Dushanbe, well not really looming as it isn't as big as the Somoni-statue.

I don't know if you can see the beyt - stanza - at the foot of the statue. At any rate it reads:

Har ke na-Amukht az gozashte ruzgAr
Hich na-Amuzad ze hich Amuzgar

Which would be something like "Whoever doesn't learn from daily events, won't learn anything from any instructor"

I have some more pics but the internet here is terribly slow. We'll see.