الأحد، يونيو ٢٩، ٢٠٠٨

Egyptians.. The humming birds




When I walk on the street and pass by people, very often do I hear them singing to themselves, very often do I hear them humming. Sometimes it's easy to figure out what they are singing, sometimes not. I hear women; old & young. I hear men. I hear children. It always attracts my attention how they do this.
Some of them walk in the streets with a slow pace, lowering their heads, keeping their faces & eyes down & singing to themselves very melancholic melodies with very low voices. It's as if they don't see or can't feel the presence of other people around them, or maybe they think that others share their mood & thus will act in the same way or at least will accept this behavior.
Others walk with a steadier pace, with their heads held up and their eyes looking ahead of them. Their eyes fall on the passenger coming in the opposite directions, move to the next and then to the next as if they haven't seen any of those people. This type usually hum a melody that is quite fast compared to the previously mentioned one, but they both share this feeling; that they either don't feel the existence of the rest around them or expect some compassion based on resemblance of mood.
Another type walks with a much slower pace than the rest, with their heads, foreheads and chins almost reaching the sky. Their eyes are escaping the people on the street and their chords are humming a tune that is clearly a lonely escaping melody. It's as if they are so much focusing on the thought of flying away, I don't know where, maybe to the sky.
They differ in a lot of things; their ages and looks, their pace of walking, the directions they are going in, the way their eyes look, and the tunes they are humming. However, they are all humming some sad tune, they all look desperate and lonely. And what is adding to their loneliness is their indifference to those who are around them. If they had cared to listen to each others' tunes, they would have noticed that they all have melancholy in common and they would have, accordingly, tuned in to each other's melody; united the tune and the rhythm, and made a huge chorus sharing the same pains, depressions, and hopes; humming one note in the hope of being heard one day by the heavens. One thing I know for sure about my people, they are group of scattered humming birds.
* The picture attached is a copper artwork done by the Egyptian sculptor Mohamed Rizk.