Since Bell House has gone online, we’ve done our best to continue offering stimulating workshops and events and have been able to reach communities Since Bell House has gone online, we’ve done our best to continue offering stimulating workshops and events and have been able to reach communities that we would not normally thanks to the wonders of Zoom. We were delighted (and a little bit surprised!) to find that one of the participants in our recent Shared Reading sessions was joining us all the way from Tajikistan in Central Asia. Victoria was kind enough to answer a few of our questions and we wanted to share her thoughts on the sessions she’d taken part in and teach us something about Tajik culture.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Victoria Ivanenko. I live in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and I teach English and Critical Thinking at the School of Professional and Continuing Education in my home country.
How did you find out about the Shared Reading sessions?
The pandemic made me think about what sites I could use for personal development. I remembered Eventbrite and that’s where I discovered Shared Reading.
Did you enjoy the session? What did you like about it?
I enjoyed Shared Reading because of its style and purpose. I like reading, and I read every day in English and Russian, so reading new poems is very attractive. Books are my friends. I prefer reading detective stories and short, thought-provoking poems, so Shared Reading is something which strikes a chord with me. The gem of Shared Reading is that it creates a friendly atmosphere where you feel welcome and you have an opportunity for personal development — exactly what I was searching for. I adore the opportunities to listen to the professional reading of poetry and to discuss it with a group. It makes me more open-minded because I can hear views of other people and learn about things that have been closed to me. For example, I had never heard about ‘Love after Love’, a heartfelt poem by Derek Walcott. Some views expressed in the poetry we discuss are very far from the culture I grew up with, like the idea of self-love expressed by Walcott. There is a line in ‘Love after Love’, which reads: ‘Give back your heart to itself’. In Tajikistan it is considered egoism to express self-love; you live for your family, you must do everything for your family. There is basically no ‘I’, there is ‘we’. Without an opportunity to listen to the opinion of others, my interpretation of a poem would be narrow-minded. Most importantly, Shared Readings creates a sense of ‘togetherness’, which is very close to the spirit of my home country.
The majority of the poems that we discussed are new for me, and I doubt that I would have come across them without Shared Reading. ‘The Dead’ by Billy Collins was unfamiliar, but this poem is definitely worth reading. It feels very appropriate, especially nowadays.
For me such a club is also a chance to communicate in English and learn activities, which I can further use with my students. I am really grateful to Bell House and the facilitator of Shared Reading, Ben Abell, for establishing an online free book club where you can learn and feel respected. I think such clubs are especially needed during isolation and a pandemic because people lack human communication, they can suffer from depression, and what is also important is that such clubs are free. Not everyone can pay for self-education, and such online events promote equity in learning.
Have you taken part in any other events run by Bell House online?
I took part in a yoga class. I remember funny names of poses: dead bug and alive bug. My muscles were sore afterwards, so it was really good exercise. I also felt energetic. Fitness is needed, especially now when movement is limited. At the moment, I go out only to buy food or medicine and to empty the rubbish bin.
Bell House is a charity for learning and culture. Can you share something about Tajik culture with us? A favourite writer or artist? Or a place?
Tajikistan is a very hospitable country with beautiful nature, a lot of greenery, and high mountains. The air is fresh and you have never eaten such tasty peaches and blackcurrants as those that grow in Tajikistan. Juicy watermelons and melons, pomegranates, mulberry, sambusa [a traditional pastry] with pumpkin, tomato and cucumber salad, plov [a rice dish], mantu [dumplings], and green tea with lemon will make you very happy.
This wonderful country is full of ancient traditions, which are cherished in every family. Tajik people celebrate New Year (Navruz) on 21–22 March, and on these days you can try an absolutely delicious and healthy food, called sumalak. It looks like porridge of cocoa colour and it is made of germinated wheat, flour and water. It is cooked all night by women who have to constantly stir it, dance, and sing songs. Little pebbles are put at the bottom of the pot, and it is believed that the person who gets a pebble in their porridge will be lucky. I have never got a pebble, but I love sumalak!
On Navruz people visit their relatives, eat a lot of tasty traditional food, and they should wear something new; it is a custom passed from generation to generation. Tajik people have a remarkable tradition of food sharing, so on that day your neighbours will treat you with the food they have made and invite you to their house.
My favourite Tajik artist is Dilorom Shermatova. She uses dried rose petals to create art, a unique technique which only she knows very well in the whole world. People assume that she colours the roses to make things like black eyebrows on a girl’s face, but they are wrong. She also skilfully makes artworks from precious stones.
My favourite building in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, is the Ismaili Centre. It is an architectural masterpiece. For me it is a place where you can relieve stress. When you look at it, you will understand how much labour the workers have put into it, and you will feel that each of its bricks was built with love to art and humanity. When you will see a gigantic, wood-carved door, you will be astonished by the talented hands of its workers, and here your amazement will not stop. The centre is surrounded by plants and flowers from different countries. You will want to visit it again and again!
Omar Khayyam is one of the most famous poets in my country. His poems are witty and wise. I in four lines he can express what I cannot express in a thick book: ‘...You better starve, than eat whatever. And better be alone, than with whoever.’