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.

Haircut : Before and After

 

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?

that superb adventure

After a week of being almost completely off Facebook, my sanity is almost restored. As I was scrolling through the newsfeed while waiting for my flight early this morning I realized that nothing much has changed, the keyboard warriors are still seeing blackness in every white, the crazies are still trying very hard to show how crazy they can get, while the stalkers are still... hmmm, how do you put it kindly, stalking? *wink*

I can't say that I don't miss the bantering and more importantly I miss my gaggle of silly geese who believed in me and stood by me no matter what. True friends, you know who you are, and for you I'd risk my sanity.

Special shout out goes to those who cheered me throughout the whole boot camp, even though most of you didn't really know what's going on, such gems you are!

And for those who guided and helped me throughout the whole thing, right from the beginning (the roast chicken idea during the first round's brilliant!, sorry I couldn't pick more of your brain) right to the one who spent hours giving me ideas over Korean food, teh tarik and more lepak session. The one who was on nightly standby to help me with the presentation (and anything in between), and also my eating partner and airport ride, thank you, thank you, thank you for believing in me. I wouldn't have been able to make it that far without you all.

I am truly blessed.

red or blue?

Red and blue pills, they say it'll take the blues away.

#loveandmisadventure #lullabies #langleav #poetry #poet #foodformysoul