Istanbul

People travel for various reasons. When I decided to come to Istanbul, I tried to be very honest to myself about my intentions. I felt deeply privileged for the opportunity to come and see this crossroad of astronomical historical significance. As a history nerd, I wanted to come and soak myself in the rich history of the town, where once Roman emperors and Ottoman sultans prevailed.

Now that I am here, I feel that if I would have come 10-15 years ago, it would have been a completely different trip. Certain things require growing up and developing appreciation for things that are beyond one’s immediate surroundings. Over the last 10-15 years, I have haphazardly come across ideas from history, economics, politics, linguistics, religion and in this trip, it appears that an invisible thread is stitching and realigning all those things to compose a vivid image of this place going back centuries.

In the last few years, the concept of time has evolved for me and I have become somewhat a slow traveler. Nowadays, I feel very little need to rush through things as I have realized and accepted that there is no point in doing so. I have also found that if I allow enough time, the universe sometimes unveils itself to give me a glimpse of itself.

While visiting Istanbul, one must suspend the idea of it being a glorified museum fixed in time. This is a living-breathing city that is going through constant reincarnation and leaving behind historical residues in that process. It is fascinating to study how the economic forces dictate the evolution of Istanbul. At this point in time, tourism has become the key contributor to the city’s economy and the cityscape is also responding to it. Almost half of my six years old guide book is now useless. I went to the Spice Bazar and there are as many souvenir shops as the spice shops.

Obviously it is unreasonable to ask a city to arrest its growth and stay frozen in time for the tourists to come and enjoy. But the question I wonder is whether this current growth is cancer-like to force the city to change its entire personality and from where there is no coming back. Particularly, if the city becomes uninhabitable to its denizens, what is that we will be left out with?

As I talk to Istambulites, I see their general acceptance of the city being a juxtaposition of old relics and new artifacts. The city has out-grown its first six hills around Golden Horn and more and more of the distant hills are now being populated by its people. It is hard to predict the future; so I can only hope that these new changes bring good to the people who make Istanbul Istanbul and keep the city thriving.