In the kingdom of the blind

In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
One of the few quotes I've heard that are as true and meaningful as they are catchy.

Would you be happy being the one eyed king?

Re-blogging

It may be ironic that the factors responsible for my restarting blogging are the symmetric opposite of the reasons I started the blog in the first place. I started the blog mostly because I was relocating from Egypt to the US(which I did) and thought I'd have fun maintaining it (which I did not). I came back to Cairo two days ago (for a visit) and here I am restarting the blogging.
Evidently, change in one's geographical location is a big deal.

A lot of people (like three of them) have asked why I stopped blogging, my answer was (and still is) that I don't know exactly why I started blogging in the first place. But right now I feel like I have words to blurt so I will. This should not be taken as any sort of promise of continued e-blurting --blogging, as it came to be known in recent times.

So I'm back in Cairo, for about a month. I've been away for 27 months (2.25 years for the mathematically challenged) and I seriously couldn't have anticipated the shock. Ironically (I love irony), I was not in culture shock moving to the US, but I am now that I'm visiting Cairo.

Don't get me wrong, I am really excited about meeting all the people again. I love my family and friends and it's the one thing you miss when you leave a 3rd world country, but (you knew this one was coming, didn't you?) you definitely do not miss much else. The list (of things you don't miss when you leave Egypt) is so long I don't know where to start.
And it's very well that I don't too, because I'd probably be like that snobby, "westernized" relative of yours who left the country for a couple years only to come back with a fake accent and attitude complaining about everything he sees and some things he doesn't. Let's just say the complaints are mostly warranted, even though the fake accent is not.

As always, I managed to write more than I had intended, and thus I'll end it here.
To be continued...

(I just entered the letters in the word verification thing wrong twice three times, I feel like Nagia)

It's a beautiful life

I've always liked Ace of Base, I'm not sure why. I thought they were dead (musically) but a look at their wikipedia page suggested they have an album in the works.

A couple weeks ago I was at my new favorite breakfast cafe. They have friendly baristas, play good music, serve good coffee and an excellent tuna sandwich, and they have free wifi. It doesn't really get any better than that. So they're my Seattle Cilantro substitute (dang it, took me a few seconds to remember the name Cilantro, this can't be a good sign).
So I'm sipping on my coffee and browsing the internets, and a bum comes in. He's black and looks over 50 or so with a plastic cup in one hand and a few quarters in it. He asks me if I have a couple of minutes so naturally I presume he'll be asking for money. I turn around and he starts talking.
"You see, I'm a musician".
'Yeah, right' I thought to myself.
He seemed to have trouble saying complete sentences, he was just blurting words and it was my job to collect them and guess what he meant.
"Can you.... check my name... amazon... music... joe bayana... b a y a n a", he said.
I fired up google and looked for Joe Bayana, the search turned up results and the first is to a page on amazon. This is weird.
I go to the amazon web page and lo and behold. It's an album with a familiar face on it. I look at the man's face, and the picture in front of me, and they match. I take another look because I can't believe it, but there is no denying it.
'Hey, that's you, this _is_ your album, that's great, man', I said. He cracks up a short giggle like someone who hasn't laughed for a long long time.
"music... people buy... money... can you check?"
I don't quite get it so I ask him to clarify.
"check for me... orchard.... last name.... password..."
So I figure he wants me to check if his album is selling and if he has any money to claim out of it. But I don't know how to do that. I ask him to clarify.
"orchard", the man said.
So I try orchard.com and there is nothing there. I rescan the search results and check any promising link with his name in there, but it doesn't get me anywhere.
A couple minutes later I raise my arms up in defeat. 'Sorry man, I don't know where to check for your money'
"That's ok, God bless you", he said. He slowly walked away and out of the coffee place thanking the baristas for letting him in. Never asking for money...

I sit there thinking for a couple minutes. I don't get it. That guy _is_ a musician, at least used to be. He has a published album that's being sold on amazon. He's now homeless. Life is weird.

I go through the amazon page again, and I notice in the album details that the publisher is called The Orchard. Oh, that's got to be what he meant when he kept saying orchard. Another quick search and www.theorchard.com turns up. I go to the page and there is a login link for artists to check their accounts. Darn, that's what he meant. He wanted me to log on to his account and see if there are any new sales that would have credited his account. I look out the window but I don't see him anymore. I run out to see if I can find him, but he'd vanished.

When that man walked in, I presumed he'll be asking for money. But he didn't.
When he told me he's a musician I presumed he's lying. But he wasn't.
When he saw me sitting at a computer he presumed I can help him. But I couldn't.
And however unlikely it is, anyone stumbling on his page on amazon will probably presume he's a well-off recording artist. But he isn't.
Presumptions are cruel.
Or maybe life is.

That man must have been jumping with joy with the recording and publishing of his album. He must have thought it's his breakthrough. Ironically the album has got 3 5-star reviews, so he might have been justified. But life had something else in store for him.
Is it really a beautiful life?