A tour of Coptic and Islamic Cairo followed through the weeks of our stay in Egypt. From a Synagogue, couple of churches, St George’s holy shrine to the oldest and simplest “Ibn Toulon mosque” , to the highly embellished mosques of the later centuries, my amazement heightened as I admired Egypt’s history
from the Pharonic period to today, and its people for preserving this history with utmost effort so that this mesmerizing history could be shared with anyone who loved just watching centuries pass by!Alexandria, Marsa Matruh and Siwa were the places where I re-lived every moment amidst clean blue waters, soft sands and the yellow sun. In other words…The Sea, the sun and the sand! It was vacation time! Alexandria had in her a Citadel, a museum and one of the most fascinating libraries ever! Marsa Matruh on the other hand screamed vacation in bold! Singing to “I’m gonna Soak up the Sun” repeatedly ,taking a dip in to the Mediterranean sea , a swim with a jelly fish and a tan to flaunt my beach visit fulfilled my dreams of being in my hometown back in India, minus the jelly fish!Siwa was different! Just different! I had seen sand before but not a desert, I had seen lakes before but not the Oasis, I had seen sand boarding but not experienced ita short cool swim in “ Cleopatra’s well” for some and a fantastic dive in the Oasis for the rest got us all geared up to conquer the desert!
Cruising across the sands in the Land Cruiser, bouncing up and down, making cute yet noisy “weeeeeeeeeee---eeee” sounds just to get the feel of being on a roller coaster!!It was simply superb! The sand dunes, the sunset, the “sand devil”, so much so that I even ate some of the sand to prove my love towards the deserts!When I saw the mummy of Tutankhamen, I came out saying...that’s it I have seen it all...and there is nothing more I need to see in this life atleast...! But obviously I was wrong!! In between these trips I had the chance to pay my visits to the Egyptian museum where I saw huge statues, more sarcophaguses and more Mummies! I saw em all…I saw all the royal mummies. Hetshepsut...not obese anymore, King Ramses not young anymore, his hair had turned yellow thanks to the chemicals used to preserve him. The day clearly was for the dead and gone! The sarcophaguses seemed to narrate a story. The artistic/carved sarcophaguses seemed to be for the rich while the poor were placed in a weaved basket. Unsure of this detail , it still makes complete sense when I retrace the memory lane! Also the mummified crocodile that I saw seemed to be larger, much larger than the crocodiles we see today! Evolution ha?In this “Golden period” I lived thru a mix of cultures. The Egyptian, the American and the Indian! Having glass bottles thrown inches from our heads, being called an Indian first and then being corrected and called an Egyptian, being cat-called in a way that said “Welcome to Masr” was a brief introduction to the people of Egypt. I was scared, critical, over analytical and confused! That’s when I decided to note down “fi kull hagga taHt shams” (literally.” everything under the sun).The initial days went with me over splurging on everything I set my eyes upon, including food! I loved the food there..It was simple and spicy and above all affordable! I was addicted to their sweet “basbousa” to an extent that I had to have a piece everyday like a vitamin dose!
Being at the receiving end of cultures I had an interesting tryst with the American culture. How they react to the Egyptian and the Indian culture, their reasoning behind rationalization of events and above all their readiness to respect the culture not by its face value alone but because they understand its sensitivity and its impact on the individual. I had my doubts initially a zillion of them to be honest, about my acceptance in a group of Americans, but all went well. It’s very simple I guess, everyone’s different with the way they are brought up, but one thing that brings us all together are human emotions. I loved the days I spent with each one of my peers. I took home memories, I took home friends, along came the cultures and some of the trends!My satisfaction grew no bounds when I had the chance to work on two projects both completely different, but in their own ways targeting the same goal. The St Andrews organisation worked with tutoring refugees in conversational English, and sincere thanks to Cynthia I got an opportunity to be an active volunteer
for the last two weeks of my valuable time in Cairo. Helping them with their homework, just talking to them about anything they wanted or their experiences in Egypt as well as their home countries made me realise a simple truth about life…to be thankful and to have the strength and courage to overcome any
difficulties in life .The few times I had my rendezvous with them they exhibited determination, courage and the will to survive.Bus break downs...dint stop us from being creative...be it the Hollywood way or the Bollywood way! Sweat trickling down our foreheads...moist hands and the heat of the desert dint let the cameras shut away!!We had fun...in our own ways and sometimes in organised ways! Swirling dervishes were mind captivating…I only wish they could be captured on to our cameras!! I returned to Boston with splendid and beautiful henna on my hand and a scarab on my ankle! Dozens of gifts form khan-il-khalili over stuffed in my bags, a new pair of trendy jeans, and a smile that stretched from one ear to another accompanied me back home. I was sad to leave Egypt, but at the same time I was excited to be home. Even while I am writing this I miss those moments of candid talks, jokes and just hanging out with my new friends. I miss the authentic
falafel, shwarma and the mouth watering Mankousha.I miss Arabic music to which I could sing out loud and no one would think it was weird! I miss the fact that a bottle of Dasani was so darn cheap! All said is true, but I’m home now.To brief the whole trip up, to me it was a trip I would have probably never made on my own. I am genuinely thankful to all the goodness around me, because of which I got to experience century’s preserves, immerse in a new culture yet again, make new friends and acquaintances and above all learn a new language and a new cool script!

WHile i was wondering what to write …struggling hard to gather my thoughts..Taxing my brains to pull back the memories in the chronological order of their existence in my life…and that’s when I realised..how my life in the last 44 days(April 30th-july 6) had taken unknown paths…paths from the presence of reality to those of the dead…from blocks of stones 5000 years ago..to concrete jungles of today…from cute little felucca rides to the jazz and the glamour of a cruise that sails across the Nile…which has been flowing gracefully through Egypt, watching it grow..watching it fall!Digging in to my bag trying to find the evidences to my memories and visits I stumbled across the entry tickets to the sites we visited. Hence m blogging this way..
First places and then people and the cultures I was immersed in to during the days that went like a lifetime.Leaving Boston was simply hard. My friends were here and I was a reluctant rather scared to leave them and go to a place completely alien. The excitement had started to die down, but when I saw the group of people I was travelling with and most importantly the known face of Dr Sullivan I knew I wasn’t alone. None
of us were. Sleeping through the flight wasn’t difficult! Cairo airport was interesting..and so was the warmth of the strong sun! We reached the hotel, walked around to get acquainted with the place(“Zamalek Island”), expressed genuine surprises at seeing places like cinnabon, pizza hut, hardee’s , Mc Donald’s and pulled our laptops out to do the one pending thing…change the city in “Facebook” to Cairo!!The Giza Pyramids: The sole purpose of my visit to Egypt…well of course later on I realised that there are places that bewitch you more than the ones you know…and that the more you explore the more you react and your reactions are so priceless that not alone the cameras capture it but also do people!. The pyramids were spectacular…they were huge and brown and did not fit in my cyber shot camera screen! Zoom in Zoom out…move back move front..all the hassle to get the 9 pyramids in my memory card! I did get them eventually one after the other…but the highlight of the journey to the pyramids was the camel ride…in all its glory and my bones! Abool-hol “The father of Terror” popularly known as “The Sphinx” looked majestic even without the nose! I had the pleasure and the privilege to see all the pyramids in this life! The bent pyramid, the step pyramid, the red pyramid…and the Great Pyramid! The dusty , old and moist smell of the Red pyramid…the steep down slope as we walked…the soft lights just illuminating our shadows…and a whole some workout finally brought us IN TO the pyramid where I experienced inexplicable and extreme emotions…from isolation to claustrophobia literally in the same breath! The Importance of life and oxygen suddenly fell in place! As the journey to the pyramids came to a tiring end, our travel continued to the Valley of the Kings and the breathtaking Philae Temple.Aswan and Luxor was humid, we were a band of 35 kids and places to visit were in multiples of 2!The valley of the kings was where I saw “A Mummy” for the first time ever and more over it was King Tut’s Mummy! King Tut was the youngest pharaoh who died at 19! In its presence I realised, I was there amidst a boy pharaoh, a ruler, an era, an age! King Tutankhamen’s mummy and the tombs of all the other kings was the POA for the Valley of the Kings. Moving on to see the “Obelisk”, Heptshepsut’s temple, Luxor temple , Aswan dam, Philae temple and a peaceful yet entertaining felucca ride on the Nile, the day ended with us
boarding the train to head back to Cairo, which was to be our home away from home..Shopping at Aswan/ Luxor sookh or at the Khan-il-Khalili pretty much decided our worth!!People were ready to offer 100-200 camels for each of us! The man who walked with us was considered so lucky that the shop persons were ready to give the guy all he wanted just in return of us! As interesting and flattering that was, for some reason it angered me because I questioned of course my self and not them “who are they to decide the worth of a woman or anybody for that matter??!Is this how everybody thinks? Is that the status of a respectful woman in the Egyptian/Arab world?”Dinner at Abduh and Hayams place was our getaway from the hectic life that we led in those 44 days in Cairo. The spread was awesome and so were our de-brief sessions. This was the occasion I actually found time to get all dolled up!Arabic Classes began with full gust and vigour and I learnt as much as I was taught and more! Language writing, conversations as well as cultural insights were the ingredients of our everyday classes. Lunch at the Cairo’s best Koshery (Egyptian traditional food) place with our teacher and our visit to her home were like our mini field trips!