There are some memories that you don\u2019t wish to recall. As a matter of fact, even if you wanted to, you would recognize that you buried the details somewhere deep.\u00a0 You cannot tell about them.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see how successful I can be…<\/p>\n
I was staying at a house in F\u0131nd\u0131kl\u0131.\u00a0 An old, lonesome house at the top of maybe three hundred steps.\u00a0 I was twenty or twenty-one.\u00a0 Right in the middle of my puberty period.\u00a0 When I was a bold, fearless warrior.\u00a0\u00a0 In the days when I left everything for pure love, respect and, most importantly, for freedom.\u00a0 I was a junior in the medical school, at the time when September 12 was happening… Everything I looked for, freedom included, was hidden in the woman I fell in love with.<\/p>\n
At the moment, I\u2019m lost in deep thoughts, with a keyboard on my fingertips… At those dark nights, in a one-room house with walls that almost fell down, accompanied by a dirty mattress covered with an oil-stained sheet, and a wooden table with one broken leg.\u00a0 How did it feel like to find pleasure in living in a setting that had nothing but a squeaking, unbalanced chair?<\/p>\n
Yes, the moonlight magnificently slipping in through a wide window with cracked edges, the Istanbul Strait and the Maiden\u2019s Tower. Oh, that Maiden\u2019s Tower. That was a powerful reason for me to cling to life… And the small, battery-operated radio that I had.\u00a0 Those lonely nights and days spent with Hijaz and Nihavend tunes…<\/p>\n
Finally, those horrible midnight hours… Those crimson, bright, tiny eyes that didn\u2019t look friendly at all… The raids of the mice that aimed for the piece of bread hung on a doorknob in a plastic bag, which was the only food I had. Yet, to bury my head in the quilt and wait for the rustling to come to an end… That was the only thing I could do.\u00a0 However, those raids would have never stopped.<\/p>\n
I drove a tight wedge under the door sill.\u00a0 But that was in vain. How about rat poison?\u00a0 Unfortunately, they were too great in numbers and extremely intelligent animals.<\/p>\n
After all those desperate, lonesome and fearful nights, the only protective thing started to show itself slowly… Sunlight! Bright and full of life…The sunlight that gave hope and defeated the fear…<\/p>\n
Those breakfasts I prepared with great pleasure. The tightly-covered cheese, olives, marmalade… And the leftover breadcrumbs that I had to share with the mice…<\/p>\n
Those arm-sized sewer rats couldn\u2019t enter the room after that wedge… Dormice were harmless…But the bread… Could it eat be eaten?\u00a0 What\u2019s worse, I had no money… So, it was not possible to buy freshly-baked bread every day.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s to say, love was such a powerful impulsion that paved the way for a spiritual and mental freedom, leading to a much more glorious attitude, eliminating all sorts of physical traumas like hunger, loneliness, danger, mice and many more… Thus, although prisons meant physical captivity for freedom warriors, it was not possible to put such exalted spirits in chains.<\/p>\n
At one night during those days, through my radio that was on at all times, I was going to hear a statement from the junta leaders, saying even those failing only one course would be deemed to lose an entire year.\u00a0 There were just five days until the microbiology exam, which was already postponed to the February period.\u00a0 And that gigantic microbiology exam was going to be passed only through a five-day study period full of attempts to predict what topics would the great professor Ekrem Kadri Unat would ask about, while watching the changing views of the Maiden\u2019s Tower as I was feeling exhausted.\u00a0 Long story short, it was going to take its places in my memories as one of the greatest achievements of my life.<\/p>\n
So, being free meant creativity.\u00a0 It meant the joy of life.\u00a0 It was an everlasting energy.<\/p>\n
After years, I was going to hear Victor Hugo say in my ears, you should be able to leave everything for your darling, but you should also be able to leave her for your freedom…<\/p>\n
The great master was right…<\/p>\n
About the house?\u00a0 It was going to keep being a shelter for many students, some fellow fugitives of the September 12 included.\u00a0 Nowadays, when I pass by, I see that it was demolished and replaced with quite a flamboyant building.\u00a0 It almost seemed like it virtually became a prisoner of the general skyline of the city, deprived of its freedom despite the beautiful looks…<\/p>\n
A valuable friend of mine from those days said, \u201cIt protected you quite well.\u201d. \u201cWho?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cNature,\u201d he said, after a short pause.<\/p>\n
I cannot help but say \u201cThank God\u201d from within.\u00a0 After all, from those times to these times…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are some memories that you don\u2019t wish to recall. As a matter of fact, even if you wanted to, you would recognize that you buried the details somewhere deep.\u00a0 You cannot tell about them.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see how successful I can be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aphorisms"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n