Can Gazi meets an accountant with an artistic bent - Ahmet
Posted: Thu 22 Jan 2015 9:45 pm
Coffee Cup Conversations by Can Gazi
In my line of work I get to meet many interesting people and it seems that everyone has a fascinating story to tell. Many years ago I interviewed Ahmet Abdulaziz, a Pakistani man living in North Cyprus. Back in 1996 he had written a record breaking sentence that was 3144 words long. However Ahmet is not only a writer, he is an artist and a sportsman too. This is his story.
Unfortunately I hadn't heard from Ahmet since our first meeting back in 1996. Then a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, he found me and sent me a friend request on Facebook. We caught up with each other recently and he told me of all things that he's currently involved with. Married with three children (two of them born here in the TRNC), Ahmet proudly announces that his date of birth gives him a strong convection to Turkey. He was born in 1955 on the 29th of October, the same day Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the foundation of the the Republic of Turkey back in 1923. Leaving Pakistan with his wife and young son, the family eventually settled in North Cyprus and have lived in the capital Lefkoşa since the early 1990s. A chartered accountant by trade, now retired, Ahmet prefers to bypass work and instead talk about everything else he has a passion for, so we do!
As I have mentioned before, Ahmet and I originally met not long after he wrote his infamous long sentence - he later broke his own personal record when he wrote another sentence of 3351 words in 1998. Aside from this amazing feat he has also written a couple of books, including a novel about finding love on the Internet and this book is still available to read online - The Two Tulips. A man with many talents, Ahmet often swaps his pen for the paintbrush. Showing me a selection of his work, again I'm very impressed. Ahmet enjoys mainly painting portraits, although he has dabbled with abstract art. Using oil on canvas, he has created an amazing picture of his beloved wife, and also one of famous film star Sophia Loren (a lady who visited Cyprus many years ago, but this is another story in itself). Ahmet has exhibited his art both in his homeland of Pakistan and also here in North Cyprus, and hopes to hold another exhibition in the TRNC sometime this year.
Whilst both writing and painting require patience and involves being stationary, Ahmet is not one to keep still for long. Ahmet enjoys waking and running, but not just around the park or up in the mountains; he can be seen walking from town to town. To be more precise his long walks have taken him from Lefkoşa to Girne and from Gazimağusa to Lefkoşa. Not afraid of the long distances laid out in front of him, Ahmet enjoys taking in the beauty of North Cyprus as he walks along the dual carriageways. He doesn't compete to win a race, but rather to keep active and fit. He explained to me that as he is now in his sixtieth birth year, he wants to complete one marathon every week until his birthday in October. To put it another way, fifty-one walks or runs in twelve months. It's no mean feat, but he is certainly up for the challenge. Ahmet concludes that he is happy and content living in North Cyprus and will keep on setting personal goals for himself as long as it is physically possible. He is an inspiration to us all!
In my line of work I get to meet many interesting people and it seems that everyone has a fascinating story to tell. Many years ago I interviewed Ahmet Abdulaziz, a Pakistani man living in North Cyprus. Back in 1996 he had written a record breaking sentence that was 3144 words long. However Ahmet is not only a writer, he is an artist and a sportsman too. This is his story.
Unfortunately I hadn't heard from Ahmet since our first meeting back in 1996. Then a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, he found me and sent me a friend request on Facebook. We caught up with each other recently and he told me of all things that he's currently involved with. Married with three children (two of them born here in the TRNC), Ahmet proudly announces that his date of birth gives him a strong convection to Turkey. He was born in 1955 on the 29th of October, the same day Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the foundation of the the Republic of Turkey back in 1923. Leaving Pakistan with his wife and young son, the family eventually settled in North Cyprus and have lived in the capital Lefkoşa since the early 1990s. A chartered accountant by trade, now retired, Ahmet prefers to bypass work and instead talk about everything else he has a passion for, so we do!
As I have mentioned before, Ahmet and I originally met not long after he wrote his infamous long sentence - he later broke his own personal record when he wrote another sentence of 3351 words in 1998. Aside from this amazing feat he has also written a couple of books, including a novel about finding love on the Internet and this book is still available to read online - The Two Tulips. A man with many talents, Ahmet often swaps his pen for the paintbrush. Showing me a selection of his work, again I'm very impressed. Ahmet enjoys mainly painting portraits, although he has dabbled with abstract art. Using oil on canvas, he has created an amazing picture of his beloved wife, and also one of famous film star Sophia Loren (a lady who visited Cyprus many years ago, but this is another story in itself). Ahmet has exhibited his art both in his homeland of Pakistan and also here in North Cyprus, and hopes to hold another exhibition in the TRNC sometime this year.
Whilst both writing and painting require patience and involves being stationary, Ahmet is not one to keep still for long. Ahmet enjoys waking and running, but not just around the park or up in the mountains; he can be seen walking from town to town. To be more precise his long walks have taken him from Lefkoşa to Girne and from Gazimağusa to Lefkoşa. Not afraid of the long distances laid out in front of him, Ahmet enjoys taking in the beauty of North Cyprus as he walks along the dual carriageways. He doesn't compete to win a race, but rather to keep active and fit. He explained to me that as he is now in his sixtieth birth year, he wants to complete one marathon every week until his birthday in October. To put it another way, fifty-one walks or runs in twelve months. It's no mean feat, but he is certainly up for the challenge. Ahmet concludes that he is happy and content living in North Cyprus and will keep on setting personal goals for himself as long as it is physically possible. He is an inspiration to us all!