THE HINDU -2005-AUGEST-25

                                                  Living on the edge
                                                    

                                     Moidu Kizhisseri: the Iraqis forced me to be a spy.

Moidu Kizhisseri says he is no spy. "But many nations mistook me for one. The Pakistanis put me in jail. The Iranian army made me a soldier to fight the Iraqis. The Iraqis forced me to be a spy to extract details of the Iranian army," writes Moidu in his forthcoming book, Kanalpadhangalilude narrating his dangerous exploits in several countries.

He claims to have defied international laws and sneaked into war-ravaged borders of nations in three continents without proper travel documents from 1976 to 1983. "And, I has survived to tell the tale," Moidu, who hails from Kondotty near Kozhikode, told The Hindu here.

Moidu is now planning another trip to Turkey in September. And this time, with a valid passport issued from the Kozhikode Passport Office two months ago.

His wanderlust and abject poverty at home took him to places where most people would dread to go. He boarded a train bound for Nizamuddin from Kozhikode in December 1976. "That was after paying a penalty for loitering around on the railway platform. It was during the days of Emergency in India. I was then barely 17," he recalls. Moidu attempted to cross the Wagah Border at Attari to Pakistan in January 1977, but ended up in an Indian military camp. He was let off after the officers were convinced that the young boy meant no harm. During his second attempt, the Pakistan army caught him and detained him.

He says he fled to Lahore after languishing for 28 days in a filthy Pakistan jail. He did odd jobs at a farm owned by Nouroz Khan there for a year. "Passion for travelling took me to Karachi, Multan and Thaftan. I reached Kabul after crossing the Baluchistan desert in 1978," Moidu says. Afghanistan was then under proxy rule of the erstwhile Soviet Union. "Poverty was visible in towns and tribal villages. Local mullahs had a big sway over the people. Opium cultivation flourished," he recollects.

Moidu left Afghanistan for neighbouring Tajikistan and later reached Kazhakistan. He returned to Kabul and journeyed to Kandahar and finally arrived in Pakistan. "The police put me in jail. A week later the judge ordered my deportation to Iran thinking that I was from that country," Moidu says.

Life was not easy in Teheran. The city was rocked by civil war. Once he narrowly escaped a bullet fired during an army action on a group of rebels. "It was then that I decided to go to Iraq. But the police arrested me and forced me to sign a document stating that I would never go to Iraq. When I refused, they detained me in an army camp," Moidu says. Moidu claims he fought against the army of Saddam Hussein. But he escaped to Turkey in 1980."Later I joined the Ilim Okuma Yasma Ilgisi institute in Istanbul to study language and history," he says.

He remained in Turkey for two years. "I will never forget my days in Ankara and Istanbul. I got a passport from the Indian Embassy in Ankara. I visited Moscow, Chechnya, Georgia, Sudan and Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria in 1981. ''

The Iraqi army detained me once. But the officers allowed him to go after giving some information about the Iranian army, he says.

"I longed to return to Kondotty in 1983. After reaching a refugee camp in Teheran, I made my way to Pakistan and from there crossed the Wagah border, came to Amristar, New Delhi and reached Kozhikode on January 1, 1984, " Moidu says.

Knowing seven languages, including a smattering of Russian, is the only asset Moidu has acquired during his seven years of travel. "I learnt Turkish watching Turkish movies," says Moidu

Moidu married Sofia, a native of Pookulathur, in 1984. The couple has a daughter, Sajina and son, Nadirshan.