Chit
Chat on the Oriental Express Café
By:
Aadel M Al-Mahdy
Chapter
1: The Oriental Express Café
The
Oriental Internet café is a place where they meet once a week; a group of intellectual
adults of different education, religions and nationalities. They gather
together to discuss freely and honestly a variety of topics; everyone does according
to his own personal view whether such view is moderate or extreme, with no
grudge held or insult taken.
Located in Al-Azhar Street and owned and run by Dhabbourah Abu-Ali who is assisted by Memmis Al-Halawani and his little army of waiters; Zuklah, Halambas, Abu-Sinnah, Ukashah and Zeiner-Rigaal, the Café is of a considerable size, furnished with tables and chairs inside and outside on the terrace. The inside is composed of a big hall with a large Satellite TV monitor, a moderate size room on the right hand furnished with internet computers and a printer, and a conference room in the back equipped with a medium size TV monitor, one internet computer, a small printer, tables and seats. In this room they meet once a week not interrupted by the outside world. Lavatories are located next to the conference room.
The
renovated café is clean, air-conditioned and well-ventilated to combat the
smoke clouds created by the Shishahs’ customers. A whole array of oriental hot
and cold soft drinks is served in the cafe; tea, Turkish coffee, salep, carob,
caraway, whole and ground Fenugreek, anise, kakady, cocoa, liquorices and the
likes. Small dishes of sweets like meshmishiyyah, mihallabiyyah, rice pudding and
custards are also served. No alcohol, except for local and imported beer, is
served. A variety of dishes of nuts and delicious pickles always accompanied
the beer.
Before
modernization, the café was frequently raided by the police for suspicion of drug
deals. In fact a stone throw behind the café lies Al-Bateniyyah quarter where Cairo active drug lords
lived. Also at almost the same distance from the café stand Al-Hussein Mosque
and Al-Azhar Mosque supplemented by the second oldest functioning university in
the world, Al-Azhar
University.
While
Osamah was sitting in the terrace of the café having his hot whole-fenugreek
drink and waiting for the rest of his friends to show up, the same man came in
and sat quietly in a corner inside the café far from the shishahs’ smokes and
the clients’ commotion. Osamah saw him once before. The man was in his early
forties, neatly dressed in meticulously clean and pressed pair of trousers.
Grey hair invaded the pitch black hair of his head that was covered by a white Egyptian
Takiyyah. His trimmed beard was not exaggeratedly long. He was a handsome man
of medium height whose facial features looked so relaxed and eyes so serene as
though he was in an ecstatic state of content.
When
Halambas passed by, Osamah held his sleeve, bent forward and whispered curiously
in his ear, pointing stealthily to the man who aroused his curiosity, “Who is
that man?”
“He
is Sheikh Ali, the Dervish. Thank you for pointing him out to me” Halambus
whispered back to Osamah and then turned around and loudly announced, “And
prepare one hot whole-anise drink, and make sure it is extra sweet for our
beloved Sheikh Ali and also be doubly sure it is on the house” Osamah asked
Halambas who was about to leave, “Wait! Why do you call him the dervish? He
does not look like one. Halambus said, “He is a Dervish all right and sometimes
he slips into peaceful fits and mumbles mysterious words which Dhabbourah
consider as blessings to the café” Osamah exclaimed, but asked Halambas, “Seized
by fits, sometimes!”, “Is he sick, or mad?” Halambas answered before left, “Neither!
He is just a dervish”
A
man pressing on little pieces of burning charcoal on top of his tobacco roll
and diligently sucking in an intermittent manner on the stem of his shishah
hose looked at Osamah and smiled. Osamah smiled back, moving his hands in the
air in a certain way signaling his confusion. The man then said after clearing
his lungs from the retained shishah’s smokes, “He’s one of those blessed who
are into religious things” Osamah asked, “Does he Hallucinate?” but the man
quickly said, trying to explain himself by means of gesticulating, “No! Maybe...
Religious hallucination…I mean…You know, those mysterious things” Osamah said, “Ah,
you mean mystic things Feeling a relief, the man smiled and nodded before
mildly having a round of short dry coughs. Osamah thanked him, and then stood
up to got to the conference room to await his friends. On his way to the
conference room Osamah passed by the dervish who mumbled when their eyes met, “One,
One, He is One and the only One. He is alive, alive and never dies” Zeiner-Rigaal
who brought a glass of water to the dervish said, “Here is the water you
demanded, Sheikh Ali. Allah makes it taste in your mouth like honey” Ten
minutes later Osamah’s friends started to show up one by one.
Shishah/waterpipe/Hukkah
