People & place
Three Imams, One Lifetime: An Ismaili Couple at Deedar in Hunza
Between them, nearly two centuries of life.
On the occasion of His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V’s Deedar in Hunza, we sat with an elderly Ismaili husband and wife whose lives have spanned three successive Imams: Aga Khan III, Aga Khan IV, and now Aga Khan V.
The occasion brought their lifetime of memories into the present.
A voice through the radio
They remember hearing their first farmaan on a radio.
Crackling. Distant. But his voice.
It was a small detail in our conversation, but one that stayed with us. Long before this gathering in Hunza, there had been a radio—and a voice they still remembered.
Three Imamats, two lives
Their lives have unfolded across the Imamats of Aga Khan III, Aga Khan IV, and Aga Khan V.
For them, these are not simply names in history. They mark the passage of their own lives.
And now, on the occasion of Prince Rahim Aga Khan V’s Deedar, they were here.
We did not have words for what that meant.
So we sat with them for a while.
The memories a place holds
At The Natives Travel, we document more than landscapes. We listen to the people whose lives give a place its meaning.
Sometimes, a story begins with a journey. Sometimes, it begins with two people remembering a voice through a radio.
Deedar Mubarak, Jamat.