Habib Khan, Quetta: Some say that the Scientist and the Poet Omar Khayyam were two different people with the same name, living in the same period, while others argue that he was the same person with, published works in Science and Philosophy and hidden (oral) works in Poetry which were written and collected after his death, and my friend Amir believes that he was a Mathematician, Astronomer and philosopher at young age, while a Poet and a hedonist in the old age.
Well, whatever the truth may be, my family- my wife, two daughters and I-set out for Neishabur, Iran in the summer of 2004 to visit Poet Omar Khayyam’s resting place, as he (the poet) was the one who inspired, rather mesmerised us by the beauty of his rubayat.
In those days, PIA used to operate a flight from Lahore to Mashhad via Quetta, and from Mashhad, we hired a taxi for Neishabur, approximately 120 km away. Although we had little interest in visiting shrines, and our visa specified sightseeing as the purpose of our visit, the taxi drivers in Mashhad insisted that we visit shrines and refused to budge until they took us to one.
The cab driver also insisted that we visit a shrine en route to Nishapur, with a slight detour from the main road. When I declined, pleading that we need to spend more time at the Khayyam’s mouseleum, he gave me a threatening look, as if I had committed a crime or sin.
He eventually bulldozed my decision by persuading my wife not to miss the opportunity to visit the sacred dargah. Fortunately, the dargah had a decent tea shop where I could spend my time while the girls performed their rituals.
“As if that wasn’t enough, the taxi driver promptly began to advocate for visiting the Imamzadeh shrine in Neishabur, which I was unaware of was adjacent to Omar Khayyam’s grave. He stopped the taxi next to the pathway to the shrine’s entrance, and said in an indifferent tone, “برو راہ آرامگاہ عمر خیام ہمین است” “Go, this is the entrance to Omar Khayyam’s grave”. We came to know later that Khayyam’s mausoleum had a different entrance.
Hundreds of people were passing through that pathway, resembling a moving procession. I felt delighted to see so many visitors at Khayyam’s resting place, but they were all turning right towards a domed structure (the Imamzadeh shrine). I mustered the courage to ask a gentleman about Khayyam’s grave, and he gestured towards the left. I immediately recognized the tomb, where ironically just one person was standing – a scholar gathering data from the grave–as we later learnt.
The tomb had been erected in the 1960’s, and it must have seen a number of destructions starting from the Mongol invasions to different earthquakes of the past centuries.
The authorities had done their job in preserving the mausoleum, and the garden around it having a sculpture of Khayyam, and a souvenir shop as well ad a well maintained canteen. The visitors, however, was much more interested in thinking about the hereafter by visiting shrines!
That left me a bit in a depressed state, and I spent some time on Khayyam’s grave reciting his rubayats on his three major themes: Living in the present moment, the Impermanence of all living matter, and finding one’s own happiness in the futile world.
ین یک دو سہ روز نوبت
عمر گزشت
چون ابر بہ جوئبار و چون باد بہ دشت
ہرگز غم دو روز مرا یاد نہ گشت
روزئ کہ نہ آمدست و روزئ کہ گزشت
( A few days of life granted have already passed
Like rain in a stream or like wind in a plain
Worries of two day’s have not ever strained me
The day that is yet to come and the day that has passed)
We bought a couple of audio cassettes and had tea at the canteen but my state of disappointment continued over the indifference of the visitors towards the great polymath of his time, and I just sipped my tea refusing to talk to anyone for few moments.
With heavy steps and a heavy heart we left the place and went to “Attar’s (Fariduddin) mausoleum. It was in a comparatively deserted place and where we didn’t find even that one person.
While driving back towards Mashhad, my face looked more threatening than the driver’s; he remained silent–didn’t talk about any other shrine.
