Dushanbe – A Night in Student Dormitory

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I went early to the Kyrgyz embassy just to find that the embassy only opened one day in a week, that is on Tuesdays. The embassy itself is well hidden in the alley, long way from the city center. It is next to a medicalcampus of the university Teby. When I was asking direction here and there, I met this boy. His name is Alyourov Bakhriddin. He is a medical student in the second year. He is an Uzbek boy from the northern town of Istaravshan, about 200 km away from Dushanbe.

Bakhriddin has a Russified Islamic name. The names of Uzbek and Tajik were following the same pattern as those of the same ethnics in Afghanistan, but since the Russian occupation, the names of the people also consist of 3 parts: imya (name), otchestva (fatherly name) and familia (family name). The father’s name (otchestva) has ending –ovich for males and –ovicha for females, and the family name or grandfatherly name has ending –ov for men and –ova for women. Thus the Tajik president, Imamali Rakhmanov Sharifovich, hasname Imamali, is the son of Sharif and grandson of Rakhman. The Russians follow the pattern: imya – ochestva – familiya. Bujt some Tajiks still follow the traditional pattern familiya – imya – ochestva. This Russian style of naming makes the Central Asian in ex-Soviet republics have distinct name compared to their brothers and sisters in surrounding countries.

Back to Bakhriddin, I met him when he was reviewing his notebook under a tree. He the n offered me to be a guest in his room this afternoon after class. Bakhriddin, as other students in Dushanbe, was wearing a white clean shirt with a necktie plus an elegant Western suit and black pants. It was indeed good looking dress to be wore by university students here. But this is just for formality. I noticed students here don’t bring so many books to school. The bags are flat, thin black folder with maybe two or three notebooks in it. Maybe because they are more efficient.

Bakhriddin shared a room with 4 other fellow students, all are Uzbeks. All of them are fasting during Ramazan. “It is our tradition,” said Bakhriddin. The boys sleep on the floor. It cost them 40 Somoni per month for the accommodation fee in the house, which is actually not too far from the president’s house. I was just impressed by the proximity of the presidential residence and office from the civilian neighbourhood.

Bakhriddin and other boys in the room has part time job, from 3 p.m. to midnight, every two days. And they sleep in the working place as the dormitory owner declared curfew after 10 pm. Bakhriddin works in a supermarket. “Why do you work? Don’t you get money from your parents?” I asked him. “I still get money from them. But my tuition fee is expensive. It cost 500 $ per year. And I still have other brothers.” Bakhriddin still has another 5 years in the university as to be a doctor one needs to study for 7 years.

At night as almost all of the boys went out for work, it was only me and one Bakhriddin roommate, who studies pedagogy, in that simple, but warm dormitory.