JUST AFTER THE CHAMOLI EARTHQUAKE IN INDIA, I received an invitation from Professor Abdullabekov, Director Institute of Seismology in Tashkent to participate in Jubilee Science Conference to be held on April 27-28, 1999 in honour of Professor A. N. Sultankhodjaev to celebrate his 70th birth anniversary. I was the only scientist from India to present our data relating to Chamoli earthquake, and other quakes in the N-W Himalayas, which we recorded using geochemical and geophysical techniques. Professor Sultankhodjaev is the father of "geochemical precursor method" for prediction of earthquakes, and I had the occasion to meet and discuss with him the use of radon/helium gases as earthquake precursors, first in Tokyo during 1996, and now in Tashkent. I booked my flight for Tashkent on April 24 but till the last minute I was kept on tenterhooks by the Uzbekistan Embassy in New Delhi by refusing me visa. It was quite a frustrating experience in my life, but my perseverance and pleadings with the consulate clinched the issue and I could fly by Uzbek Airlines plane from Delhi to Tashkent.

Delhi-Tashkent flight during a sunny day is a novel experience. You fly over the snow-covered peaks of Hindukush, valleys of Fergana and Kirgyzstan and land in Tashkent after two and half hours. The temperature in Delhi was over 40oC but it was pleasantly cool at 15oC in Tashkent. Professor Bykovtsev, my friend and host, was waiting for me and took me to Tashkent hotel in the centre of the city. It was built by the Russians in 1956, with a room capacity of 600 or so, and it remained the official lodge for diplomats. The 1966 peace delegations, led by Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan and our Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri camped in the same hotel. I was overwhelmed to find myself in the same hotel - if a generation later and on a totally different mission- as a seismologist from India.

25th April being a Sunday, Professor Bykovtsev arranged for me a tour of the city in his private car. Our first halt was - understandably - at the monument dedicated to the Tashkent earthquake which had occurred in the city centre, not far from Tashkent hotel, during 1966. Its magnitude was 5.6 on Richter scale; four people had died and partial damage caused to some buildings in the old town. Tashkent city is sitting on a fault line and can be devastated by any earthquake in the future. There are many parks with fountains in the city centre. The roads are wide, like Paris boulevards, but without traffic jams. The local transport is very cheap costing 1 soum (10 paisa) per trip in a tram or bus, all run by electric power. No wonder Tashkent city is pollution free, laid out in a square grid of 20 km x 20 km, with its airport in one corer of the town. It now boasts of a metro-rail network.

The museums are generally open on Sundays and we spent a few hours visiting museums of art, history and archaeology. We took lunch on a roadside "dhaba" where rice "palao" and "seekh kabab" was being served as delicacies. Being a vegetarian, I enjoyed my bowl of palao with a glass of sweet lassi - in the Punjabi style! Generally, Uzbeks drink green or black tea with all meals. The majority of population is Muslim, but almost all the men and women drink Uzbek wine called "Arak", or Russian vodka at the receptions or marriage parties. Uzbek womenfolk are more liberated than their Indian counter-parts and have no taboos about drinking and smoking. The long Russian rule has loosened the yoke of clergy. However, since the liberation of Uzbekistan, the madrassas and mosques have been renovated in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and other cities of tourist interest. Unlike Iran and Pakistan, Uzbeks are not fanatics and the revivalist movement for Islamisation is on a slow track. In the rural areas, women wear long robes with a headgear, but in the cities Uzbeki belles prefer to wear mini-skirts or jeans. In beauty, they match the French or Italian girls.

On Monday, April 26, I visited the Institute of Seismology and saw a film on destruction caused by Tashkent, Gazli and Armenian earthquakes which killed two hundred thousand people during the last decade. The havoc caused by big earthquakes is really mind-boggling. We had lunch on a riverside restaurant and continued our tour of the old Tashkent with its narrow lanes - like old Delhi. We visited some of the old madrassas and mosques built during the reign of Amir Temur who was born in Tashkent. He conquered whole of central Asia and subdued Delhi and parts of Europe. Amir Temur was an able administrator, military strategist and promoter of science and culture in Uzbekistan despite his physical handicap. His statues adorn the squares in tashkent and Samarkand and he is worshipped as an Uzbek hero. The statues of Karl Marx and Lenin have been removed from their pedestals in Tashkent and replaced by those of Amir Temur riding on a horse.

The international conference started on 27th April where I presented my paper - with the help of an interpreter. In Uzberkistan, English is not understood and the medium of instruction is Russian, and the Uzbek language which is being promoted at all levels. There was a gala dinner on 28th April where Uzbek music and dances were presented. I was also called to join and performed a few steps of Punjabi "bhangra" to regale the audience. The Uzbeks start the dinner with dry fruits, a variety of salads and soup - shorba - and continue with kabab and other meat dishes. The food is relatively cheap, even cheaper than Punjab, with milk selling at
Rs. 7 per litre, coke at Rs. 4 per bottle and dry fruits at a throw-away price. The fruits and vegetables are grown in abundance and Samarkand is famous for its dry fruit and silk. Punjabi traders set up a caravan serai in Bukhara and trade of wool, silk and dry fruits flourished during the Mughal period between Punjab and Uzbekistan.

After the conference, I visited Samarkand and Bukhara, the two ancient cities of Uzbekistan situated on the old and famous silk route between Asia and Europe. Mirza Ulugbek, the grandson of Amir Temur, was the most famous ruler of Samarkand. An astronomer, scientist and builder of madrassas, he built an astronomical observatory and prepared tables of planetary motions long before the European scholars ventured into this field. I visited the remnants of his observatory, registan and three old madrassas, the Gur-Emir mausoleum, the burial place for Temur and his family, and Bibi-khanum mosque, a grand structure built in honour of Temur’s wife to celebrate his victory over India. We rounded off our tour of Samarkand after paying a visit to the market place in the evening where Uzbeki women attired in their national dress were selling fruits, vegetables and naan. They were all smiles to see a Sikh gentleman in Samarkand.

On the last leg of my journey, I paid a visit to the holy city of Bukhara. I was always dreaming to see Bukhara, a city which finds a mention in Punjabi folklore. Bukhara, like Samarkand, enjoys a great past in antiquity with a history of 2500 years. It has been adopted by UNESCO as a world heritage city. I visited the old madrassas built by Ulugbek, Indian caravan serai, the remnants of old fortress wall around the city and mausoleum of Said Bahauddin Nakshbandi, a great Sufi mystic and teacher of Temur who had a large following in India. What impressed me in Bukhara is its historical connection with Punjab which extends over a millennium. Legend has it that 33,000 dervishes (holymen) are buried in this city. Bukhara produced a galaxy of historians, philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, poets and Sufi saints during the middle ages, like, al-Bukhari, Ibn-Sina, al-Khorezmi, al-Bairuni, Abu-Nasar Farabi, to name a few among celebrities.

What surprised me most during my sojourn in Uzbekistan is the discovery of common cultural heritage between Punjab and Uzbekistan. The Punjabi dress "salwar and kameez" has its origin in Central Asia. Punjabi language has borrowed and assimilated scores of words and phrases from Uzbek/Arabic/Persian languages. I made a list of some words of common origin, e.g., shahar (city), kitab dukani (book-shop), bazaar (bazaar), madrassa (religious seminary), darvaza (door), bag (garden), garan (village), chaikhana (tea-shop), nagad (cash), registan (desert), and many more we use daily in our dialogues. Who can forget the Punjabi proverb: There is no comfort in Balkh and Bukhara that can match the comfort one finds at home: Jo sukh Chajju de chaubare, oh na Balkh na Bukhare’. After my return to Amritsar, I experienced this proverbial truth.