Hathor: Mistress of Turquoise

Every profession has a stereotype, like India is for the IT industry (I guess), Egypt is to Archaeology!!! However it has never been my dream to visit Egypt, and the only aspect of Egyptian history that truly captured my imagination was Akhenaten and his failed attempt at introducing a new religion...But this is probably because of my limited knowledge of Egyptian history. Akhenaten happens to have slipped past the shroud of my ignorance largely due to National Geography. However I found myself in Egypt on my way to present a paper at a conference a few weeks back. I cannot say it was love at first sight, but I can definitely say I felt quite at home. It was a lot like India except less colourful. Amongst the similarities I found that women in both our societies are very clear cut on the outside about their values,culture and religion yet ambiguous as you dig deeper. Most of them wear the Hijab which the Wikipedia describes as "modest dress for women". I remember meeting this very sweet woman at the hotel I stayed at, whose clothes completely covered her from head to toe, yet it was so torn in places that I could see more of her body than any average "western woman". While travelling by bus in Chennai you often see women again very modestly clothed yet whose blouse maybe so torn thus....strange isn't it how poverty is the same irrespective of caste, creed or religion...

The men in Egypt also remind me a lot of Indian men, any woman in India I am sure has been groped at least once in her life time...I am sure that any Indian woman visiting Egypt has also been groped at least once!!!!I It seems that like many men in Kerala, who seem to have no problem ogling women from outside Kerala, while their "own" women are strictly out of (ogling) bounds, similarly Egyptian men seem to have no issues flirting (though I have to add some of them flirt in the most amusing and harmless fashion) with any woman from outside their own country.

Ruined temple of Hathor

The biggest difference I saw though was that while we are still so connected to our past and culture the Egyptians themselves seem so disconnected. If I were to visit the Big Temple at Tanjore, I would definitely feel connected with the pooja, the people, the noise,smell and sounds of the temple. However one of the Egyptians who was with us when we visited the Pyramids said he felt no connection to the pyramids, and that most Egyptians probably do not. Which is totally understandable, there remains no connection between the pyramid building, Hathor praying (who is amongst other things the Mistress of Turquoise, goddess of love, music etc) Egyptians of long long ago to the Islamic, Arabic speaking Egyptians of today....

Yet every Egyptian I met knew of India, whether he or she was educated or not, poor or rich..They thought of Indian as an ancient civilization with beautiful women and the land of Amitabh bachans!!! Visiting Egypt maybe every archaeologists dream but for me it was such a wistful experience, the old world and all its charm...So many times I have thought that because in India traditions, language, people and their practices of the present and past is so connected there is little we have to make believe and imagine. I am so glad that it is that way now...while I remain a huge believer in imagination I realise that to be able to understand some traditions we have to know of its existence, not just have physical remains to create an image of what it could have been like. I now believe that living traditions act as a boost and not a deterrent to imagining the past. To be able to imagine priests of the Chola period doing poojai at the Tanjore temple I can always visit any temple in South India...However I have no such crutch to help me imagine the processions that took place around the temple of Hathor...Its hard to decide which is better to let my imagination run wild or have some way of confining it to a semblance of reality.......