US trip Intro 29 October, 2008
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Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it – New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it – New York, New York
Frank Sinatra
I’ve just returned from a trip to the US. This was my first time to cross the Atlantic, so you can imagine how excited I was with the trip. I had a long long list of things to do, places to go, things to buy,,,, Elhamdlelah I did 99.9% of my list 
I heard that when you go to NY, do not expect it to be just like the movies, and that many people were disappointed with what they saw. For me I loved it. It was pretty hectic, crowded, noisy, fast-paced. Kind of similar to Cairo in some aspects. If you want good food, there are tons of restaurants. Wants culture? Tens of exhibitions and museums. Nature? you have parks. Partying? I won’t go through that, but I heard that it was niiice.
It’s really nice to walk in the streets of Manhattan, only my feet hurt that I used the cabs. And without noticing it I discovered that I imitated the fast walking method of the New Yorkers. On average I used to walk something like 3 hours a day! Just thinking about it, makes my muscles ach.
On the other hand, cabs were also fun. There is a screen featuring some news, and a GPS map showing the way. But when you ride more than a cab during the same day, the video seems annoying. Cabs in NY are way better that the ones in Washington. Only few months ago, cabs in Washington used to calculate the trip by zones, it was very complicated and expensive. Elhamdlelah, they changed the system to the normal metering.
—
The day before I go there, MBC2 was showing “The Day After Tomorrow”. It was kind of funny to watch the streets I’ll be walking in in an icy atmosphere.
I couldn’t help but remember all the movies that were shot in the streets of New York. Friends, Seinfeld, You’ve Got Mail, When Harry met Sally, Maid in Manhattan,,, It was something like a déjà-vu 
Geneva 2 August, 2008
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Now let’s talk about Geneva.
First of all it is so damn expensive! In London you can have a decent meal (appetizer, meal, drinks) in a small retaurant for 14 Sterling (say 140 LE), while in Geneva two shawerma sandwiches will cost you 20 Francs (= 100 LE)!
Second, there are so many arabs and egyptian! If I shouted in Arabic, I know for sure that I will find at least 10 people understanding what I say. I don’t know if they are immigrants, or what, they are just numerous.
After getting used to the fast-paced Londoners, it was a bit hard for me to readjust to the slow motioned Genevoises. It is a totally different atmosphere. 3ala albohom marawe7 is the perfect description. Expect to stay 10 minutes at least to pay for something in the supermarket. But it’s cute in some way.
Lake Geneva is really nice. I quote someone describing it as being in Alexandria in the 80’s. Humidity is high. People are taking a walk. Kids playing around. I heard that there are 2 beaches but I didn’t have the chance to check them out.
Geneva is such a cycling friendly city, you rent the bicycle for free! Too bad I didn’t have the chance to do that.
I had the opportunity though to go for a guided walk throughout the old city. It was really nice, especially that Geneva is really small (only 15 km2!), I don’t have exact figures, but I think Maadi (with its extras) is a lot bigger. Pretty small, hein?
At Five in the Afternoon 13 April, 2008
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Lately I watched some movies, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to check out reviews or write my opinions about them. I will try to catch up
Ah, that fatal five in the afternoon!
It was five by all the clocks!
It was five in the shade of the afternoon!
“At Five in the Afternoon” is a 2003 film by Iranian writer-director Samira Makhmalbaf. She took the name from the Spanish poem (above) which is recited more than once throughout the movie.
What’s interesting about this movie?
- It tells the story of an ambitious young woman trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban.
- Samira (the director) is 28 years old
- She shot the movie in Kabul when she was 23 years.
- It was the first film to be shot in Kabul after the NATO invasion.
- The film premiered at Cannes in 2003 and was awarded the Jury Prize.
Is it a good movie? mmmm I can’t say so, but it is definitely watchable. Samira is definitely a good director. Don’t watch it with the attitude of seeking entertainment though. It’s a bit slow and pessimistic.
At five in the afternoon. It was exactly five in the afternoon. A boy brought the white sheet at five in the afternoon. A frail of lime ready prepared at five in the afternoon. The rest was death, and death alone.7 January, 2008
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Muslim Heritage Images 30 August, 2007
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Dubai firm launches Muslim image bank
Muslim Heritage Consulting has launched the world’s first Muslim history image library online.
The library, at www.MuslimHeritageImages.com includes manuscripts from the 10th Century as well as contemporary images of people, architecture and museum artefacts.
I really like their idea
Meet Joe Black 25 November, 2006
Posted by nousha in Movies, Quotes, Uncategorized.2 comments
Meet Joe Black tells the story of Death taking a break from his usual duties and inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human. The film covers many storylines at once, including a naive Death’s (Brad Pitt) first experiences with simple pleasures like peanut butter, his chosen guide’s (Anthony Hopkins) coming to terms with his own mortality, and a romance between human Death and a young woman (Claire Forlani).
This movie has lots of those special moments, like when Hopkins was with his daughter on a helicopter and they were talking about Love, I really like this part.
William Parrish: Love is passion, obsession, someone you can’t live without. If you don’t start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who’ll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I’m not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you’ll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love – well, you haven’t lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven’t tried, you haven’t lived.
William Parrish: I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish.
And when Hopkins was making a speech for his 65th birthday, the last one as Death is waiting for him by the bridge…
William Parrish: I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night! Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly… perfect memory. Sometimes we’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re all together, And you’re mine, for a night. And I’m going to break precedence and tell you my one candle wish: that you would have a life, as lucky as mine where you can wake up one morning and say, “I don’t want anything more.” 65 years, don’t they go by in a blink?
The 3 Gunas 25 November, 2006
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In the Know Yourself course at Serafis, Dr. Juan mentioned the 3 Gunas:
- Rajas:: which correspond to positive or Yang
- Satwa: neutral, Tao
- Tamas: negative or yin
Here is an entry from wikipedia:
In Samkhya philosophy a Guna is one of three “tendencies”: tamas, sattva, and rajas. These categories have become a common means of categorizing behavior and natural phenomena in Hindu philosophy, and also in Ayurvedic medicine, as a system to assess conditions and diets. Guna is the tendency of the mind and not the state. For instance, Sattva guna is that force which tends to bring the mind to purity but is not purity itself. Similarly Rajas is that force which tends to bring the mind to perform some action but is not action itself.
- Sattva (originally “being, existence, entity”) has been translated to mean balance, order, or purity. This typically implies that a person with more of Sattva has a positive or even orderly state of mind. Such a person is psychologically kind, calm, alert and thoughtful. Compare also the bodhisattvas in Buddhism. Indologist Georg Feuerstein translates sattva as “lucidity“.
- Rajas (originally “atmosphere, air, firmament”) leads one to activity. This type of activity is explained by the term Yogakshem. Yogakshem is composed of two words: Yoga and Kshem. Yoga in the present context is acquiring something that one does not have. Kshem means losing something that one already has. Rajas is the force that creates desires for acquiring new things and fears for losing something that one has. These desires and fears lead one to activity. (Rajas is etymologically unrelated to the word raja.) Feuerstein translates rajas as “dynamism“.
- Tamas (originally “darkness”, “obscurity”) has been translated to mean “too inactive”, negative, lethargic, dull, or slow. Usually it is associated with darkness, delusion, or ignorance. A tamas quality also can imply that a person has a self-destructive or entropic state of mind. That person is constantly pursuing destructive activities. Feuerstein translates tamas as “inertia“.
Sattva-guëa encompasses a steady state of maintenance, and gives rise to knowledge, happiness and virtue. Rajo-guëa is responsible for creation and action. It corresponds to hankering for that which is not, and ultimately leads to suffering and pain. Tamo-guëa is the agency of decay. It obstructs action and causes apathy and confusion.
The three guëas are never separate. They constantly intermingle with one another and compete for supremacy. What’s the use of understanding the 3 gunas?
When one learns any discipline, science or philosophy what one receives is a categorical scheme, a paradigm, by which one looks at the world and understands things. There are many ways of looking at the world, and the way one chooses depends on one’s purposes.
The concept of the three guëas is a categorical scheme given for the business of understanding the universe so that one can transcend it (the ultimate objective of Yoga). That is the assigned task for a spiritual practitioner. For the purposes of modern scientists the three-guëa scheme may not be useful categories, but to a practitioner of Yoga they constitute the theoretical basis of his entire enterprise.
One who knows that the three guëas—sattva, rajas and tamas—are not constituents of the soul but of material nature, and who knows that the pure soul is simply an observer of the actions and reactions of these guëas , is not bound by them.
Isn’t this similar to what Stephen Covey said? That 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. It is as if the two speak the same language but with different vocabulary…
Twenty Dollars 29 October, 2006
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A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked. “Who would like this $20 bill?”
Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you – but first, let me do this.”
He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked. “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air.
“Well,” he replied, “what if I do this?” He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air.
“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by …WHO WE ARE. You are special – don’t ever forget it.”
—- Author Unknown
Angry white pyjamas 23 October, 2006
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Interesting book:(review from amazon.com) The author of the book, Robert Twigger, an awarded poet from England goes to Japan as means of escaping the boring corporate reality. In Japan he hopes to find that his life means something. He begins his experience as an Engish teacher in Japan. Shortly afterwards, his job is reduced to a part-time, one day per week position. Poor and disilusioned, living in a cheap apartment with a couple of other random gajins, he finally decides to discover the value of self by signing up for a course in martial arts.Once a member of a dojo, he realizes that he wants to push himself to the extreme limit of his mental and physical ability. As a result, he signs up for the super-ultra-tough course, usually taken by candidates for the Tokyo riot police.Insanity ensues as he learns martial arts every day for almost 11 months amongst pain, sweat, complaining of fellow students, and constant cultural faux pas.
The book was discussed many times on aikiweb , and it seems quite interesting.
The world is just so small!!! I discovered by chance while surfing the blogosphere (from this) that the author is currently living in Egypt and when I contacted him through his website, I found that he is living in Maadi, very close to where I used to live !!!
An everyday story 23 October, 2006
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Ladies and gentlemen
Do you want to hear an every day story? But I must warn you this is not a Romeo & Juliette tale, this is the story of a normal normal normal marriage (talata normal). What more can I say? Anyway, here we start. Ehem ehem.
I am just a 30 years old guy who spends half of his day working and the other half sleeping and eating, and my weekends are generally spent at home or with el shabab at the nearby ahwa. I am a normal guy who represents 80% of the Egyptian male population under the age of 40.
Life for me was very predictable.
Of course I had the dream for the whole package: my own home, wife, kids,,, but as I wasn’t really that experienced when it comes to women or as they say ‘mesh medardah’, it was normal that I left for my mum the task of finding a suitable bride.
That’s how I got to know Jihan.
We first met with the company of our families of course, and we followed the path of any traditional marriage, we read el fatha at her house, I visited her couple of times and brought her a little gift on valentine. And as my apartment was ready and there was no reason for delay, we were married in exactly 6 months.
Jihan is a well educated girl from a nice family, but the problem is,,,, she was active, not politically (God forbids), but she had lots of ‘hobbies’, and at the same time she leads a prominent career. I don’t know from where she got the time or the energy for all this. I just don’t get it. So obviously, we had a problem in defining what is “interesting” and what is not. For example, how do you call it ‘fun’ to sit down on the dirt in a deserted place in degla? & what’s all that excitement about the desert? I pass by the desert every year on my way to the North Coast and it is just pills of ugly sand. Anyway, I had no problems with her “nature loving” fuss, she is a good wife and I had no problem with her so-called activities as long I find my lunch ready upon my arrival and that she is there whenever I needed her.
Then few months ago, the most awful thing happened. Jihan lost her sight. My 25 years old wife can no longer see the light. The doctors said lots of stuff about diseases I can not even spell its names, about the 50-50 chances of operations that would cost hundreds of thousands pounds and only 3 doctors in the world can perform them. For us it was just talk talk talk, the fact remained, she can not see.
Jihan closed all her doors.
At the very beginning, she quit her job, refusing any other job proposals that may be suitable to her ‘case’. She stayed at home 24/7. Sometimes I would return home and find her still in bed. She refused talking to anyone, even her mother and her best friends. She even limited talking to me.
Till one Friday evening, she came to me saying all that none sense about her inability to sustain our relationship, about me going on with my life with a ‘normal’ woman and that it was God’s mercy that we didn’t have children.
I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t know what to do. This was the first time I feel that my life was shattered. Frankly, I was terrified. At that point, I couldn’t help but cry. We wept together like two babies. And I think that’s when I realized that I can’t afford to lose her.
After that day, there was nothing to talk about. Each day I try to persuade her and each night she would repeat her request.
On her birthday, I decided to take her out. I nearly forced her to dress up for this special occasion. I decided to take a felucca ride, a thing she had asked me a long time ago and which I didn’t have the time (or the will) to do. Alas.
We started the ride an hour before sunset. It was awkward for me that it was the first time since we were married to sit next to each other in a felucca, but I concealed this by being extra humorous (or so I thought). She started asking me about the time left and whether it was getting late. I told her that we still had lots of time, the sun was still yellowish. At that instant I wanted to bite my tongue, but to my surprise she was listening carefully. And slowly she started asking me all sorts of questions, is it the full moon night? What are the colors of the skies? Are the birds flying in circles? Are there fishermen nearby our boat?
I answered her questions one by one. Sometimes I had to look very carefully to provide an accurate answer for she asked me about things I have never noticed before, like the stillness of the water, the reflections of the city lights, the features of el marakbi,,,
It was for her that I started noticing the little things in life that are worth observing.
It was for her that I started to feel life.
It was in that day when –for the first time- I kissed my beloved delicate hands.
Didn’t I tell you that this is not a Romeo & Juliette story? My dears, this is my own fairy tale.
Giza
21/10/06
