Istanbul has some interesting looking doors along its oldest streets and it is amazing to think that people have been living behind those same doors for centuries. Each generation has stepped out into the street each day, witnessed history and then gone back inside their homes and continued with daily life. Istanbul has grand monuments, but along its forgotten neighbourhood streets are also plenty of reminders of ordinary people, who walked, shopped and held their families close, throughout whatever invasion, calamity or victory was busy shaping the city’s destiny during their lifetimes.
Istanbul is quieter in 2020, than any of us could ever have imagined. As the city shuts down to deal with COVID-19, even the traffic, we all once complained about, has stopped. At first, I found myself longing for a return to “normality” (with slightly less traffic) but now, I am not sure what normal might be for any of us after experiencing the silence, the economic worries and changes to our routines. In the first days, my mind was racing back and forth trying to gather information about the virus, in the hope that there might be a solution that would allow us to reset the clock. After far too much scary scrolling, I focussed instead on trying to arrange everything so that we can all live, work and study at home. There were days that life was complete chaos and the children missed their beloved grandparents and school friends. Luckily, there have also been some easier days. Now, we are adjusting to our new way of life and although home schooling is maybe not so successful for our family, we are trying to make up for it by baking and tidying out cupboards. We try not to worry too much about the future, although we know this threat will linger just beyond our front door, for many more weeks.
Anandhati Roy wrote an article for the Financial Times (3 April 2020) in which she says that “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
I like the idea of emerging through a “portal”, with a light step and less luggage. It is very apt for this time when we are all having to shut the doors to our homes to keep everyone safe. I am waiting for the day when I can open my own front door and step out onto the street, knowing that the city is out of danger. Part of the strangeness of living in Istanbul right now, is the fact that it is possible to walk straight along the sidewalks. I miss weaving my way around the simit carts, fruit sellers’ baskets, badly parked cars, lost tourists and street cats.