Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Baba Tells : Golden Era of Egyptian Entertainment

Faten Hamama, Umm Kulthum, Abdul Halim Hafeez, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Farid al Atrash, Asmahan, Baligh Hamdi, Wardah, Omar Sharif, Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Fayza Ahmad, Magda, Soad Hosni, Laila Mourad, Taheyya Karioka, Sabah, Fairouz, Anwar Wagdi, Emad Hamdi, Shadia, Ismail Yassin, Ahmad Ramzy and many many more.


I grew up hearing about them, listening to their songs and music, watching the movies, though half the time I was making up my own storyline due to lack of subtitle and Baba's censoring the racy parts of the movies.

What started off with discussing the life and death of Faten Hamama, the 'Audrey Hepburn of Arabia' soon became a refreshing lesson in Egyptian movies and music history of the 1950s and 1960s with Baba. I wish I could document it all, listening to Baba telling it reminds me that he was young once too. And he lived it all in Cairo at the peak the golden age of Egyptian entertainment era.
After years of denying, tonight he finally indirectly admitted that he named me after Faten Hamama! We slyly threw in the question when he least expected, he just grunted in positive.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

If we could take selfie of our soul

Will it be pure white?
Rainbow of colors?
Different shades of grey?
Or pitch-black?
Are there apps or filters
Enough to fool ourselves?