Time Patrol. Afghanistan 1953

Kabul, 1953. Long before the many wars. My father Cyril was Air France General Manager in Pakistan. Karachi was the road to the Far East. Paris sent him to Kabul to investigate the possibility of opening a line to Afghanistan. My parents had lived in Pakistan for 6 years already. They spoke Urdu fluently. He knew the region. He took my mother’s 8mm camera. Shot a film which my mother edited, and I recently digitized. Converting the analog 8mm movie to a digital piece, plus music and so on and so forth.

The following is an introduction to the digital movie below.

My father Cyril. Kabul, 1953.

Come along. We will show you Kabul, with the horse drawn carriages. The sheep and the donkeys. The mountains of the Hindu Kuch.

We will take you to the Kabul Bazaar to meet the Pashtu, the Tajik, the Uzbek and many others.

Life had changed little in centuries.

We shall buy a few carpets. Persian carpets. Remember: always look at the other side of the carpet, to see the thread.

This carpet is a Bukkhara. The gentleman is from the French Embassy.

You will see the little boys, dressed as princes, walking around with their fathers:

Come. Come with us. We shall take you to the lost Buddhas of Bamiyan, carved into the cliff around 600 AD. The sculptors had learned their trade from the Greek craftsmen Alexander the great had brought with him. Some say Roxanne was an Afghan princess.

The Buddhas had been defaced by the Moslem conquerors at one time or the other. I’ve read conflicting accounts. But you will see the frescoes and the Apsaras, the divine dancers painted above my Lord Buddha’s head.

You will meet the nomads of the North, herding their goats, sheep and camels in caravans that roamed central Asia for millenia.

You will see the crystal-clear waters of the Band-e-amir lake:

And meet the little Hazara Princess in her tent made of Persian carpets:

Just click below (on my new Youtube channel). Equinoxio’s flying carpet will take you back to a world long gone.