‘Irrigation Project’
Ansary portrays the irrigation venture as an unwavering fantasy: “ In the 1950s, however, inspired by the legend of those irrigation works, the Afghan government conceived a fantasy of restoring the breadbasket. They would sell the harvest for cash abroad, use the currency to buy machines, and transform Afghanistan into a country as modern as turkey. This was the vision that enraptured the royal family of Afghanistan , and out of the ranks of the Western-educated commoners, they plucked my father’s friend Dr. Abdul Kayeum to serve as president of the project.” Here, Ansary represents the assignment as a fantasy that is ascribed to romanticism. The vision disregards veracities that would counteract its chances of realization. The irrigation project did not yield the modernist recompenses which the royal family had unrealistically proposed.
Lashkargah
Ansary elucidates, “Lashkargah was two blocks wide and eight blocks deep-four of the stately mansions , where the Americans and the Afghan officials lived, and four blocks of cramped bungalows, which housed the clerks and minor bureaucrats. There was no plane, train or bus service to Lashkargah. Only one road came in; only one road went out. No telephone or powerlines connected us to the outside world.” Ansary’s representation of Lashkargah renders it an elite locale whose access is delimited in view of the residents’ materiality. Outsiders would not trespass Lashkargah considering the safety procedures that are instigated. Residing in the place is an embodiment of luxury and high status.
