First post

A couple of friends recently told me that I tend to give a first impression of being reserved and proper ("hadi keda w gadd awi") before revealing my self as a generally laid back and exciteable guy.

My interest in having this blog has to do with my feeling the need for a kind of hysterical and lucid commentary on what goes on around us, mostly here in Egypt. That commentary already exists very much in my own life and in the lives of those around me. But why not concretise it a bit, put it up for others to see, make a routine out of it?

And so it is. Yesterday I called my friend H and told him it was time to start a blog. He said of course and told me to give him a day to think about a good name for it. He smsed me gayyash last night and here I am.

Now, I mentioned the bit about first impressions because I'm feeling quite shy as I write this first post. But this is no place to be shy. I want to be ecstatic. That said, I don't care to shock or be sensationalist either. My line is simple: there is actually very little to be embarassed about in life and there is very little that truly compromises one's dignity. An honest look at lives lived from the heart should yield no shame. What's more, I am believing more each day that it is morally imperative in these times to actively seek a new grace in the world, about the city, on Channel 2, with the asshole lady at the koshk, in a smashed up packet of sham3edan. And as this grace comes to the fore, so can we laugh louder in unison at so many of the current markers of rogoola, moroo2a, teeba, shiyaka, gad3ana, asaala, shahama, 7alawa, nadafa, re22a, zuo2 etc. as the hollowness of these markers rings louder too, like a tabla riff leading this blessed state of inner shakhla3a.

So let's see where this goes.

Ne2ra el Fat7a.