Volcanoes!

The earth is strong and so enduring with all kinds of life and death, and despite its amazing enduring power volcanoes do happen. But the earth remains the same, still solid and firm, revolving in its eternal path and still enduring all what happens on its surface and within its heart. I'm your Earth, please forgive my Volcanoes!

You in My Life!

Having you in my life feels like placing an ice-cube over a painful burn!

Look, Listen and Learn

I learned that in our life, we should Look, Listen and Learn. If you don't look, you will not see. If you don't listen, you will not understand. If you do not learn, you are not human enough.

When you're not with me

"When you're not with me I feel like a fresh water fish placed in the sea neither living nor dead just surviving for others to see waiting for you to feel alive like I should be"

The ON AIR experience with PTP!

Yes it was my first time to be on the radio, live and I'm extremely happy that my first time was with and for PTP (Pen Temple Pilots, a wonderful cultural group thank God I'm an active member in). We were invited by Egypt FM on Monday November 13th to talk about our group, who we are and what exactly are we doing. The whole thing was a new experience to me that turned out to be marvellous. It started with surprise, tension, nervousness and anticipation. It passed smoothly with the sweetness of Yomna (the interviewer), the support and the nice atmosphere with my beloved friends. Right before the interview, we were talking with Yomna and when she asked why TEMPLE, I answered her that it's sacred, it's clean, it's meaningful and it has its own unique effect on everyone, believer or non believer. And that is how our group work, a group with a vision, with strong but flexible rules, with concrete base and clear targets, with a wonderful moderator and amazing members. As soon as the interview started, I was really talking from my heart, I meant every single word I said and there were thousands of things I wanted to say but the time was limited, yet I managed to talk about my own personal experience with PTP that changed my life tremendously and took me to new horizons. I mentioned how I used to be an extremely shy person whose intellectual production's final destination was the drawer of my desk, burried under my stuff for no one to see. And now after two years with PTP, I published a lot of stories, poems, pieces, personal impressions and even travel diaries from Iran, Syria and Paris. I keep receiving wonderful feedback and a huge support from all the members that make me keen on writing more and improving myself. I managed to win the battle with my shyness that I gave a presentation about herbal medicine trying to bring this lovely group into my professional life to add more beauty and charm to it. Yes, through PTP I saw a lot, places I could have never gone to unless with PTP, I got a lot of information about all sorts of things, I met lovely similar people and made a number of good friends, I was able to reform my character and enhance my self confidence, in short, I became someone else and I'm happy with the new me that PTP has helped me to upgrade. It was a night to remember and a wonderful experience

Why Women and not Men?

I have always wondered why religion encourages the manifestation of the beauty of men and covering that of women. Why are women not supposed to get turned on? Why there is no single thing that orders men to hide their beauty or attractiveness or whatever it is called? Why are men allowed to have their upper parts naked although it can be a source of extreme sexual arousal to women? Why are women and only women considered element of desire while men are not? why there is no order for men to hide their beauty from women? I know that some men are seen beautiful as much as women, for example when you go through a fashion magazine a man sees the female models as beautiful and/or sexy and also the women see the same in male models, something that has nothing to do with characters and manhood but with looks, just looking at a photo!!! So beauty does exist in men, it's not very common but still exists, my question was why beautiful or attractive or handsom men are not ordered to hide or minimize this??? Why wasn't the Prophet Youssef ordered to hide his beauty? It was obvious how he affected the ladies still he wasn't orderd to cover his body or hair or whatever they found attractive in him. Just a simple question. Based on my own experience in The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has a strict law that women should wear scarfs and should wear a kind of long blouse that reaches just above the knee. I didn't know this fact before going to Tehran but in the plane and just after landing I found all the femles getting out their scarfs and wearing them. Also from Tehran and as soon as the door of the plane was closed, all the ladies took off their scarfs (including some 50+ women!!!) putting in mind that the Iranian ladies are already very beautiful and sexy and with the scarfs they get more and more tempting, I just don't know why. About the blouses that should be (By law) Long and with long sleeves, some Iranian ladies try to make it as sexy, exotic and eye catching as possible by making it very tight for example, brightly colored, decorated...etc. Also they wear very well applied make up, strong perfumes and try as much as possible to expose as allowed as possible from their beautiful hair. In Iran the government just wants to spread an Islamic APPEARANCE of the country, accordingly the schools and universities are separated so are the cinemas and the consequence is the thirst of the young generation to GET OUT. You will be amazed to know that almost all the people I met who are my age and younger dream to go to USA although we all know how Iran and USA are with eachother. You will be amazed also to know that the people are just like any societies with religious and non religious people and also that prostitution is found there. Also in KSA, it's the same problem. I'm not against or with Hijab, I'm sure that God sees deep inside us, into our souls and hearts rather than checking if my beard has been shaven or grown and if this lady has covered her hair or not, an extreme difference between GOD and HUMANS. Most humans tend to go for looks and get affected but God has his own divine ways of judging as he is the only judge and only he knows ow to judge. Finally, looks never say the truth, never. I'm just against forcing girls to wear Hijab and I'm sorry to say that uptill now some families force their daughters to wear Hijab and the results are tragic.

A Journey by Train

I address this to everyone, living or dead because I believe that the dead are still around us, we just can't see them and our human abilities have their limitations and this is how life goes, a journey by train and we have to leave the train without our will, it's planned up there when to get on the train and when to leave...And it's the time we spend inside the train that really matters, who we met and what we did or said. How many persons we made happy and how many we hurted. What did we leave behind us? But still the train is moving according to the plan and the journey has to be continued...

What is Love?

Love cannot bedescribed using our words, you will never find any definition for love in any language. In Arabic you have one word, "ANA BA7EBB" you say it for everything, people, places, clothes, food...etcBut in English there's "LOVE" and "LIKE" and they describe different feelings. That's it "FEELINGS" they are made to be felt and not described, just feeling is describing. Think about this, you use the same single word "LOVE"to describe what you feel towards your parents, brothers and sisters, friends, partner, God, Country, Religion, prophet......etc Do you feel the same? of course not, and this proves what I say, a word that cannot describe something precisely is a useless word, and here the word love just takes you near the area but never in so do not waste your time looking for a definition using any spoken language, use other things that can't be heared, written or spoken but still can be fully understood. Like the eye language this can really show what love is although can't fully show as blind people still fall in love :)Love was made to be felt, enjoyed and add happiness to our lives, just love and live" Have a wonderful day full of love...

When you're back!

"And when you're back I will remove all the traces left by anyone and will leave you heaps of my traces that no one can ever remove"

Antizionism!

We cannot be anti-semitic nor anti judaism, the Jewish religion, I mean the real one that is not related to that modern Israel, is a wonderful religion and the closest to Islam. However, when you want religion to serve your political targets, it's not religion anymore. We, or at least myself, anti zionism, that is how that vermin started to grow, Israel has a black horrible shameful history that makes a normal human being feel just one thing, disgust, as much as the holocaust drive the same feeling. Israel is a vermin, I say it out loud it is a vermin and will perish, either by Arabs, by Moslems, by Iranians or even by an outerspace attack, I don't really care, it will perish simply because what is built on wrong will never survive, insects in general have a very short life cycle, so just wait and see.... Again I repeat I am not against the people of Israel, I pity them and I wonder how can the survive when they are surrounded by all this hatred and when their history is so shameful and black and disgusting, I really pity them. And I thank God everyday for being a Muslim Egyptian with all the negatives that we can see in our life nowadays still we have a legacy that enlightened the whole world, a legacy that did not include the Nazists, the Fasicts, the world war of Europe, a legacy that did not include the murder of natives, the use of atomic bombs, the double standard and biased unhuman politics of USA. I am proud and hard times do not erase history, read history and see the future of Israel and USA.

Banat Al Riyad

Banat Al Riyad is the first novel for the Saudi femal writer Ragaa Al Sane3. Apart from the problems that the book tackles and exposes while taking us deep into the lives of four Saudi young women on their first steps in adult life and as a reader I really consider this book as a typical modern 21st Century novel, written in the form of weekly mails as each chapter is an email sent by the female writer every Friday. Each chapter starts the way an email starts with the address and subject...etc so it really feels like you're reading an email. The writer begins each mail with quotes, poems, verses from the Koran, hadeeth and sometimes Do3aa. The mails are like TV series where the 4 stories all run in parallel exposing the differences in characters, events, reactions but still they all share the same feelings and problems. The narrating style of the writer is so catching with its simple free flowing sentences, the dialogues are so real and the way she wrote English sentences in Arabic was really innovative. The novel as a whole reminds me of the works of Ehssan Abdelkoddous, the very famous Egyptian writer whose works were very famous in bookstores, cinemas and TV from the sixties till now. The similarity is mainly in the simplicity of the narrating style, the focus on women and their relations with men and reactions to such relations in addition to the oppression they face in our societies. One last word, the novel is a must read and especially for those who liked The Yaakoubian building, the novel, they will find Banat Al Riyad somehow similar in style although the content is very much different. I guess we will see this work soon on TV in Ramadan

Kinds of Love

“Most of the people think that there is only one kind of love, the love that comes after time, after knowing a person and getting sure that he is the one but there are hundreds, thousands of different kinds of love, you do not have to pass through them to know that they exist, but they do exist, love just happens in a year, in a month, in a day or even in minutes, still it is love, a love that has nothing to do with time. You think that you do not know the person but you have already known parts of him and that was enough to make you feel love...”

The Syrian Experience

I'm writing from Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. I'm here only for two days which have already ended but I managed to steal some time and look around. As soon as I got out of the airport, accompanied by a very friendly officer who loved me instantly just knowing I'm Egyptian and insisted on taking me to the car, I noticed how I did not feel away from Egypt. For all the next days I really felt at home, the buildings, the streets and the shops all exactly like Egypt. No wonder why Syria and Egypt had that famous union in the fifties. As usual I headed straight to the old areas, Al Sham city as the Syrians call Damascus, has an ancient wall with several doors one of them is Bab Touma (St. Thomas door) which is really attributed to st. Thomas who spreaded Christianity in this area. The whole area is christian with ancient churches and monasteries. The narrow streets are amazing and the architecture of the houses....My God. I visited the Omayyad mosque (Al Masjed Al Amawy) that was established 706 AD When Damascus was the heart of the Islamic world at that time under the rule of the Omayyad empire. It is believed to be a pagan temple and this is clear from the roman pillars all around the place then it became a jewish synagogue, a church and finally a mosque. One of the huge rocks building the outer walls really has the carving of Jesus!! Inside there's the tomb of Prophet Yahia (John the baptist/Yo7anna al ma3madan) and the beautiful Islamic architecture prevails. My Christian Syrian friend Kareem took me in a tour INSIDE the mosque (Moslems and Christians live in a beautiful harmony and amazing acceptance for each other) We went to the very famous Hamidiyah market where you can find thousands of small shops selling beautiful hand made ladies' gouns, table cloth, fabrics and cushions. I went to the herbal store of course and made some shopping, the city is really cheap. We had booza, delicious creamy rich ice-cream covered with about quarter of a kilo of pistachew, we had fresh blackberry juice prepared just by soaking blackberry in sugar and drinking the syrup!! Dinner and lunch are more than I can explain, with all the famous dishes that we hear about in Egypt as Shamy food, Oh just go there and taste the real shamy food. Forget what you have in Egypt... Kebab 7alaby, kebba, Fatta, Farrouj with lemon, kefta, lamb meat are just amazing. Kebba naya (a paste of raw meat with herbs and spices) and sawda (raw liver with spices), fattoosh and tabbooleh are the most famous and delicious appetizers. A very famous restaurant is kasr Al Narjis (Narciss palace) a very old Syrian house that is now a restaurant with oriental music and beautiful atmosphere, I didn't want to go to my dull modern hotel toom. The Syrians are very friendly, you make friends just walking in the street, they love egypt and the Egyptians so much with abnormal passion for Um Kalthoum and Abdel haleem songs. One of the waiters asked me to send his regards and kisses to Adel Emam, can anyone help me having this message delivered???

The Persian Experience/Beauty in the Laboratory

Salom, Sobbekheir, Haalet chetooreh... Greeting words in Farsi that you start Your day with in Iran. It's my first time to travel outside Egypt and I think I'm very lucky that it's to Iran. Although I was stopped in Cairo airport and was questioned several times by the police and the head of the security police himself who was relieved with my casual clothes (bright orange shirt, tight low waist Jeans, small waist bag) I found an extremely welcoming attitude in the Imam Khumeiny Airport near Tehran . Now I'm writing to you from Tehran , the capital of Iran, situated in the north. I'm on a work trip visiting Behshahr Industrial company in Tehran and I'm amzed with everything; cleanliness, organization, hardworking men and women, advanced R&D and above all beauty, beauty in the laboratory and I'm not sure about the source of beauty, is it the view from the window that shows a vast green area full of tall pine and berry trees, bright colored flowers and green ground ivy spreading all over the place and also the great snow-covered Tochal Mountain, is it the ornamental plants carefuly placed all around the lab, Is it the beauty of the people here that reflects to the environment, I really don't know... Beautiful women and men (I think Iran should be the source of Models for all the world) with wonderful hair and over friendly attitude, snow covered mountains, huge trees, wide gardens and very clean streets are everywhere. Iranian kabab, Iranian rice, Saffron, Zeresht and other wonderful things whose tatse cannot be forgotten are the main components of Iranian food. This is just the introduction and I will be posting more about Iran and about my Persian experience... Please tell me about anything you want to know and I will be glad to give you all the information from my Iranian friends here (I already made a lot) and I can't tell you how much they love and are fascinated by Egypt as much as I'm fascinated by their wonderful country and their warm overwhelming attitude. I'm having a wonderful time...

The Persian experience/Ordibehesht.

Tehran, Chaharshanbeh 20 Ordibehesht, 1385. According to the Iranian calendar (Hijri shamsy) we are in the twentieth day of the second month Ordibehesht. In the Iranian calendar the new year starts in spring, which -in my point of view- is very logic. The new year is celebrated in 3 or 4 days and this is called Norooz they prepare a tray with seven foods that start with (Seen) like Seeb (apple), Seer (Garlic), Samoneh (a kind of sweet bakery). The months of the year are Farvardeen, Ordibehesht, Khordad, Teer, Mordad, Shahrivar, Mehr, Aban, Azar, Dey, Bahman and Essfand. The days of the week are Shanbeh, Yekshanbeh, Doshanbeh, Sehshanbeh, Chaharshanbeh, Panjshanbeh and Jomeh. The farsi language is written in Arabic letters but some of them are pronounced in a diffrent way and it also contains other letters that do not exist in the Arabic language like P, J, Ch. .... Yesterday I experienced the worst thing in Tehran , traffic, I spent 4 hours stuck in Tehran streets which was mainly due to the International Bookfair. Still I was enjoying the beauty all around in the streets and in the faces. Uptill now I haven't seen a single face that is not beautiful. In the Islamic Republic of Iran and according to the Law, the women have to wear scarfs and I assure you that these scarfs add to their beauty and attraction from which they already have plenty. I went to Valiassr street , the most important and main street in Tehran . On the sides of the street there are canals that allow the water from the mountains to run freely and plant the enormous pine and berry trees. I had a wonderful time in Mellat Park (national park, free!!) and I was amazed with the open green landscape. I'm having a lifetime experience

The Persian Experience/I'm a millionaire!!!

Being a shopping maniac, I couldn't miss the chance of doing a lot of shopping here in Tehran. With just 200 dollars exchanged in Iranian Riyal, I'm a Millionair!! The curency of Iran is the Riyal and also the Toman (10 Riyals) 1 US Dollars is equivalent to 900 Riyals, but still the city here is very expensive. I went to Tajreesh square and had a walk in the old Bazar, I went straight to the herbal stores and I spent like 500 US Dollars buying Iranian rice which is like Basmati rice but bigger and has a strong characteristic smoky flavor, I bought REAL IRANIAN SAFFRON* which is very expensive (about 25 dollars for 2 grams) I bought Zereshk( kind of red sour raisin that is cooked with rice), Sliced bitter almonds, Iranian raisins (Greenish, very sweet and longer than ours), sliced sweet orange peel, dried garlic slices, and a mixture of nuts with dried berries. I tried to buy Iranian carpet but that was extremely expensive, a small carpet just the size of an A4 paper is for 100 US Dollars!! I bought some hand made boxes with wonderful minute decorations, handmade silk scarfs, handmade cushions with golden decorations and other handmade extremely small items. The people are extremely friendly and I was given enormous discounts, thanks to my Iranian friends and being Egyptian, something they highly appreciate here. Today I will go to the mountain that overlooks Tehran and will keep you updated. I miss u all but......I don't want to leave all this beauty I'm having a lifetime experience *Saffron is the dried stigma and top of style (Very small threads that are found inside the flower and are parts of the female reproductive organs in flowering plants whose job is the reception of pollen grains) of the crocus flower ( A type of Sawssan) the flower itself is purple to mauve in colour and saffron is dark red threads that give yellow colour and strong taste in water. It is used for cooking. Rice with saffron is very common in Iran. It is extremely expensive as thousands of flowers are need to produce few grams of Saffron.

The Persian Experience/On the roof of Tehran

I'm just back from a wonderful day in the mountain of Tochal, a huge green-covered, snow-topped mountain that embraces Tehran. They call this place the roof of Tehran and from this place you can really see all Tehran below you, a wonderful view with the huge white beautiful buildings, glowing golden domes of the mosques and of course the vast green landscape of the city. I passed by a small waterfall and I was about to take off my clothes and take a shower in the pure water that is coming from the snow that is melting in this time of the year. I preferred to keep my clothes on and take some photos and drink some of this pure fresh water. Up on the mountain I took the Tele-Cabin and for the first time in my life I SAW SNOW, a wish that came true. Tehran is a city of outstanding beauty, just driving in the streets is pleasure as you can only see on both sides beautiful gardens and beautiful buildings. The Iranians are wonderful, apart from their outer beauty they are very welcoming and warm I just want to hug them all and hug Tehran. I'm going now to a shop that is very famous here in Iran for buying nuts and I'm sure I will spend some Millions of Riyals again. I'm having a lifetime experience

The Persian Experience/Going Nuts!!!

My last day in Tehran ended with a wonderful visit to Tawado3 Shop (They pronounce it Tavazo) which is a very big chain in Iran famous for selling NUTS! I found there things that I have never seen in my life, in addition to the very famous Iranian Pistachio (They call it Pesteh) and Cashew (They call it Badoom Hindi) you can also find several types of Hazelnut and Almonds. Uptill now everything is ok, till you go to the partition for Raisins (They call it Keshmesh) and you find tens of different kinds with various shapes, colours, sizes and tastes. Another partition for dried fruits (Pine apple, Apple, Strawberry, Kiwi, Melon, Watermelon, Oranges, Apricot, Plum, Dates, Cherry) and vegetables (Tomato, Egg plant, pepper). The shop also sells different kinds of flavored and unflavored Iranian tea, which is very unique, something between black and green tea and they don't add sugar to it but prefer to eat sugar cubes while drinking. Another partition displayed hundreds of mixtured of nuts with sweet and colored candy and chocolate. I was amazed with all these products in addition to the Iranian traditional sweets and beautifuly decorated desserts. Another thing that I found in this shop was Iranian Caviar, which is considered the best in the world and of course very expensive (50 g cost 238 US Dollars from the best type and another type cost 126 US Dollars) That was my last day in Tehran and I ended it with more shopping and more love to this city and its people. On my way to the hotel, I had to but another suitcase to take all these things with me. My Trip to Iran was something that i will never forget and I hope I succeeded in giving you just a glimpse of how great Tehran is and how wonderful the Iranian people are.

The Dark Corner

No one can say that the earth should be the place for angels or angel-like creatures but as humans we have all the colors inside us not only black or white but every color you can imagine!! Nothing says that we have to be angels, only fools try to do things they know they will never achieve, but on earth there is an everlasting battle between good and evil, black and white and the other colors are still there but we always focus on the black and white because they are always in battle. Sometimes the white color wins the battle sometimes the black wins and as human beings who can think and feel, who are aware of this battle we, either by our choice or without, sometimes help the white color to win and sometimes we help the black. I agree that evil helps indirectly but apart from everything try to think each day before you go to sleep, ask these questions: How many people have I made happy today? How many people have I hurt? Did I assist the white or the black? No one says we have to refuse ourselves being a mixture of black and white but it is our duty to support the white WHENEVER WE CAN...

Life and Death

A very interesting experience that might happen to anyone everyday and everywhere but only few people can realize this... We are living a life that we think it's long enough to grow up, learn, work, succeed, have fun, have family, worship God, do anything we like and finally to die peacefully when we are old surrounded by our beloved ones... But in most of the cases things do not go as we plan, death comes without a notice and without warning, some get signs but the majority either do not get any sign or could not see the signs... Death is there, everywhere around you, the earth we walk on might be the grave of millions, each breath we take means death for millions of microorganisms, our food, water...etc Think of everything we do it's death that gives life and life that gives death.... Death has no color, it's associated in our minds by black, a sad color probably since the two sons of Adam had their fight and the bird that taught the brother how to bury his brother's dead body was a Raven Life is not white, may be it was chosen as the natural opposite of black but still other colors including black are there and we die everyday without noticing this, we murder without intentions and our life means death in a different way, this balance between the living and the dead creates life. One final thing, don't we die every night when we fall asleep, isn't sleep a mild form of death; don't ever be sure that you'll be there next morning!! Sorry for the sad tone