Friday 3 October 2008

Taklamakan, Edits, Headaches, Previews BUT ... (part 1)
Friday, October 3, 2008 at 5:37pm

Right about this time for the past few years I get myself in a knot over the editing part of my job for one of our teams, which is always in two parts; the first being scripts for a TV documentary and the second being the coffee table book. The past couple of years have been... hmmm.. a tad difficult. I do pity the writers, producers and photographer who have to face me asking for a that quick approval in the shortest amount of time possible. Incidently, they never ever get it..

Miraculously, it always happens within a couple of weeks of the Eid-ul-Fitri celebrations.. My patience is usually already precariously thin during the fasting month despite my best attempts to swallow the urge to unleash my infamous vicious tongue-lashing at whoever crosses my path at that time.. To those who have had been unfortunate t'is the time for forgiveness so I am truly sorry, it is NEVER personal..

By the time I'm done reviewing the drafts, there's absolutely no trace of the original, as the pages are filled with red, orange, blue, yellow, green and purple marks running diagonally, vertically and horizontally across each page. At some stage of the process, I usually end up writing it from scratch. But, when Jimbo the photographer comes by with the book hot off the press, I sit there with my jaw on the floor thanks to his bloody awesome photos! I momentarily forget the pain and agony of going through the captions alphabet-by-alphabet, sentence-by-sentence and simply marvel at the end product.

This year, in my attempt to be slightly level-headed and a bit calmer, I reflected, probably due to the fact that the team went on quite an unusual trip. Granted every expedition is different and has its own strange and bizarre characteristics. Instead of grumbling under my breath as I sort to check and recheck the facts, I learned something in the process. Either that, or I am getting older...
Go in and you will never come out...

On the eve of Eid, I found myself editing the portion of the book when the team crossed Kyrgyzstan into China, skirting around the fringes of the Taklamakan Desert. At some point some of us doco geeks might have chanced on places like the Gobi desert through Discovery or Nat Geo. But Taklamakan? Come on, raise your hands if you have.. Located in the Northwestern part of China in Xinjiang, Taklamakan in the native Uyghur language loosely means - "go in and you will never come out"..
So I wikipedia'd it. Not only did I learn what it means, but that it's also one of the world's sandiests deserts and a cold one at it. Because it is so cold and so dry, the remains of those who dared ventured in are so well mummified.
The guys and gals on the team didn't venture in too far, but stopped in several towns located at the edges of the desert along the infamous Silk Road - mankind's very first superhighway between Europe and Asia - including the town of Kashgar, a town that dates back 2000 years!

Thousands of people be they farmers or traders descend onto the town's market religiously every Sunday for every year since, not just to trade but for an entire gamut of other reasons too. Who needs E! when one can get that gossip on Mr. So and So with Ms. This-That at that madam selling the clay teapots at the end of aisle 5. Thanks Jimbo, your photographs really made me feel like I was there!


Of the pointy past, Khufu and the Nubian Kings

I didn't go but I do have a thing for deserts. A few years ago, I had the chance to work with the team as they crossed another desert.. the Sahara in North Africa. Sure, it was incredibly hot to the point that you couldn't stand outside no longer than for a few minutes, otherwise the soles of your fancy sneakers would simply evaporate. Seriously..

After a week acclimatising, you do get used to the 50degree temperatures and the sand in your hair even after a shower. You get used to the sand being EVERYWHERE! So, off I went into the desert and stumbled on the collection of pyramids built of dark stones in a place called Bijwaria. More popularly known as the Black Pyramids of Meroe, the pyramids were the resting place of the Nubian kings. Living in New York years ago, I remember hanging out with some Hip Hop folks who used to address the pretty ladies as their Nubian princesses... eh? I thought..
Everyone knows Egypt's pyramids, famous thanks to the coverage it gets everywhere. Everyone at some point has heard of the Khufu's Pyramid in Giza just outside of Cairo (and yes, it is pretty amazing to see it when driving down the highway and boom.. there it is..), the Sphinx, the boy king Tutankhamen and the curse, Ramses the Great's temple for his beautiful wife Nefertari, and the famous bust of Akhenaten's queen Nefertiti, but I sure as hell knew nuts about the Nubian kings..
Sitting in the hot baking sun, I found out that round about 1000 BC, the collapse of the New Kingdom in Egypt saw the re-emergence of the Nubian Kings from Kush (now Sudan) as the rulers of Middle Nile and they ruled Egypt. History is always something disputable either for the fact that facts are scarce or misinterpreted over time.. I haven't delved any deeper but I will.. It was a true sight to behold when driving down the sandy highway just looking out into brown-ness for hours on end only to come across this magnificent necropolis seemingly out of nowhere.. it was simply breathtaking.. and it wasn't the stifling heat with the temperatures hovering around 47 - 50 degrees celcius either..
We drove on for another half hour and came across the remains of what was the palatial home of the Nubian Kings. Sadly, like the tombs of the great Nubian kings, there was nothing left bar the few structures that once held these great monuments aloft.

Everything was either looted at the turn of the 20th Century by so-called "explorers" or destroyed by the onslaught of the Saharan sand storms or ransacked through the centuries by invading marauders. There was really nothing left bar a hazy memory handed down through generations and a handful of evidence that couldn't stand up in a court. Honestly though, there is still something there.. Call it X-Files if you will, but I left feeling incredibly small and humbled..



Part 2: Timur the lame aka Tamerlane, Samarkand..