When I was very young, there was a song by Emel Sayın, Sevda sevmessen [When you don’t love, love]… It was called Rüzgar [Wind], I was very young and I used to imitate her very often. When my cousins would come to stay over, I would say, ‘Do you want me to imitate Emel Sayın?’ I would sit down, put the pillows on the floor, my hair on one side {shows with her hands}, I would say, ‘Go get the hairdryer so my hair would look like it’s blown by wind just like hers in the music video.’ They applauded me. When a guest would come to visit us, my father always used to say, ‘Come on, sing some songs.’ Now, when I think about it, I can say that these were the hints that I was going to be connected to music.

We were together, yes, we were spending time together with, with the Turks, that, those who lived there in those houses, who wore special nanule, which I adored, wooden. (laughs) And with their nanule, they entered their hamam, those are gone now. I think they are gone. Well, for example, they did not have parquet, for example, but they had wooden flooring {explains with hand}, the long deck, that they had to brush. It was yellow, like a gold yellow. Very clean people and this Mazlum of mine, who is still here today, you know. […] After so many years of knowing one another, and so much love and evocation of childhood memories, because she knew me as a baby, what kind of people we are, how we were, all that we did. I mean, all our adventures and such, she taught me how to bake lokum, and even katmer pie and a kol pie, she taught me everything. My mom taught them other things, so we exchanged. I say, like a family.”

The new building was inhabited by the old Serbs, old Serbs of Pristina, old Turks and old Albanians. They had houses where the cinema is now, previously Omladina Cinema, do you know that settlement now? And, when those buildings were built, they were, since they were old houses, they gave apartments to host the owners of houses and they all lived in that building. Everyone was settled in that building. I was the only one and another journalist, we were, like this, to say from aside. All the others were… they simply transferred all of their settlement to this building: the old Albanians, the old Serbs, the old Turks. And that was very interesting. When I arrived there, as they got used to sitting in front of the gates, in front of the house there to talk… that mentality and this custom was transferred to the building. They also put benches there, there was coffee, everything… this building was different from all. And so people were close.

Since I was in a position, I and some Stihović, I say… someone from Novobrdo, one Albanian was the director of this nursery garden, Vitia, yes. I remember, Vitia. I was a functionary at that time, I was engaged in politics, I do not know how much you know… I was the Executive Secretary of the Committee […] And he comes to me, ‘What can I do for you, for you, comrade Trajković?’ That’s it. I say, ‘Listen, come on, look, take a look in front of my building where I live, people are so, you know so good. Go on and do it, plant some trees.’ And the trees now, I do not know if you know when you go before that tunnel down there are those buildings. All of these trees are… yes, that was my plan, I asked for that, and it was planted for me. No one knows that, people who lived there know. Otherwise, others do not know. That’s how it happened, that… the forest just ahead of this building.

I was part of the drama section, I played for the amateur theatre Roma in Pristina, we traveled in the then-Yugoslav country, went to festivals, and I tried to give my contribution and to find refuge from that reality in the world of theatre, acting, so that we can transform {moves his hands} and become other characters. What I appreciated back then was the effort invested in putting a smile by means of comedy on people’s faces who come to the theatre, because, and I return to that, at that time life was hard, especially here, we had constant migrations, we had people who lived in difficult economic conditions, we had conflicts […]

At the time, we did the play in Romani language. We had two families {gathers his hands}, you know we took the entire concept of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, their conflict, but all of this we did through the lens of Roma life. Through Roma lens, through that, if I may say class struggle, economic class struggle inside, inside, inside Roma society. In the end, even Shakespeare in his oeuvre has depicted class struggles, conflict regarding wealth, power, love.

…I witnessed when the Jews were being taken that night, when they gathered them, because I was at home. A paternal uncle of mine came every Monday for Tuesday’s market day, on Wednesday morning he would leave for Gjakova. Also, the paternal uncle was there that night when suddenly the door, we had a door with a hammer knocker, they came and knocked hard, dd, dd, dd {onomatopoetic} to this day I can’t forget it. Then, yes, bim… bom, bom bom {onomatopoetic} they knocked the door down and they entered.

When they entered the corridor, my paternal uncle went outside, they told him, “Go inside!” In fact, they were Albanian SS, the [Skanderbeg] regiment… They took all the Jews, the house was left empty, they were in their pajamas and this is how they took them. We were speechless, it was horrifying.