Dinner-and-dessert in the desert

Came back from dinner with Myriam. She is going to California now. Wiam will be leaving for Winchester, UK. And all my friends slip away like sand, while I stand in this desert. I will stick to rowing in the Nile perhaps. I will hopefully be going to the States in Sept/October and then I will pass by and see Myriam and others hopefully if possible.



So Myriam and I went to our hangout the Aubergine’s, and after some Mexican burritos and rice that we shared for dinner, we walked around in Zamalek heading towards Harris Café hoping for better dessert than Aubergine had to offer. On the way, we passed by this antique shop and decided to take a look. And as expected, found lots of wooden, glass, paper paraphernalia and an old man with lots of stories. We heard Indian tunes rise up from an antique radio that Myriam lost her heart to, while the old man told me stories about which Indians he knew, especially shop-owners in Suez, whom I think I might know. An Egyptian and his French wife came along and ended up buying the chairs that Myriam really liked, which worked to the bargaining power of the salesman. The Egyptian man asked Myriam (who spoke better French, of course) if we were sisters – which is so completely flattering. And she said what I would’ve said, we’ve known each other long enough. Well, we took our leave and arrived to find Harris desolate. We entered Arabica and decided on sharing fiteer with sugar and eshta (cream)… funny thing as Myriam pointed out was that while I was trying to figure out this bilingually-named dish I knew what eshta was, but seemed to forget what ‘sugar’ meant. We ended up having a great time writing silly, raunchy, and seriously R-17 stuff (not mature enough to be for 18 year olds even), à la Beavis-and-Butthead on the paper they have for that express purpose. Well, Myriam says she’ll take it to Cali and hang it on her wall.



Towards the end of the dessert, we ended up talking about the same old topic of our love-lives and past relationships. Its okay, as long as I have a friend like Myriam to listen to me with the “Aw” sound-effects at appropriate times, in appropriate inflexions (and Meryam, and Wiam, and Kailash..and…and..), life and love are bearable. As she dropped me off I told Myriam, if we both got friends as good as us for life-partners, that would truly be something good. Like she said, we weren’t great friends the first year, it took time and it worked. Then, as it can happen only in Cairo, we saw one of those tiny yet very shiny ‘Smart’ cars, with only a frame on one side and drivers inside going on its normal course in Cairo traffic. All its glitz was perhaps stolen, Myriam and I tried to take a pic but didn’t work!



Came home and Kailash has come back with gifts from Shady, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran – a favourite, and a pendant of a ‘wise owl’ because said Shady to Kailash, he’s always thought of me as a ‘wise owl’.. hm, how flattering! :) And Shady, too, is going to California… I’ll miss you all! You made this gift of Nile a whole lot greener!