What is nostalgia...

I really do not have any yearning for the past. However, I lived a nostalgic weekend. It started with my high school classmates meeting in the cafeteria of our school. I was very touched when my very close friends showed up for the lunch. We were 13 years old young girls when we arrived in this building which was build for 6 daughters of an Ottoman Emperor. Our back yard was the Bosphourus, I mean that literally. Classrooms had huge marble carved fireplaces, high ceilings were adorned by gilded hand paintings of sceneries etc. It was a simple pleasure to go to school every day. We talked about our days and our teachers. Tulin was most vivid in her description of experiences we had with the teachers. She played the piano. Beyhan was always a lady and preferred to listen, then Rengin arrived with her usual hava. She was delightful as always and told us all about her boyfriends and how she mixed and match them. Finally got her love of her life to propose to her. Sibel made me remember the disco scene we frequented in Istanbul. I loved to dance.  Asuman and Zuhal talk about the year they had to repeat and how happy they were to be together that year. Four and a half hours of sheer fun we had. We had some lunch but do not remember what. Each one of us earned our place in the society as independent women with professions. We are mothers with successful, healthy, happy families. We are ATATURK'S DAUGHTERS.

I have big plans this Sunday. We are going to visit our aunt (paternal side) Dr. Huceste Kumcuoglu (Dinccag) who is 95 years old. Eldest member from my Dinccag side. She lives with her care giver near to her sons Ali and Tunc. She is a doctor of internal medicine, graduating in 1945. We were 8, including our uncle's son Mustafa, Ibrahim Dinccag with his fiance who is a great grand son of the grand uncle from Bafra. We all took turns interviewing my aunt,  trying to find out as much as possible about my family's background. My aunt was in good spirit, she told us about her years in medical school which corresponded to World War II. University of Istanbul was strengthened with the German professors who ran away from Nazi Germany. She says, they were great educators with great sense of humor. They used translators in the classrooms, eventually most of them spoke Turkish and became Turkish citizens. She has 3 classmates alive, they call each other everyday to talk about their blood pressure and sugar levels. I will not take your time with other details but one story I would like to share.

When one of her professor passed away, they found out that he wanted to be buried in a Muslim cemetery. Permission was denied by the government. Luckily she says, one of his student wrote to the ministry of health claiming that professor was a Muslim without really declaring it. His student claimed that professor was heard memorizing and repeating kelimei shaadet. After several more bureaucratic steps and correspondence professor was given permission to be buried in the cemetery of his choice.

I have one more week left in Istanbul.

I would like to define nostalgia as a general interest in the past in its personalities and events rather than lusting or yearning for the past.