My apologies for those who have been waiting for this post- those who messaged and emailed me.. many apologies!
okay so coming to the post- honestly, charming someone is an art- an attractive quality to possess but like i said, age doth make a man wiser. Through experience i have learnt this, and because 14 year old Bedouin boys need to learn that when the nice lady has said she doesnt want to marry you, you dont grab on to her arm and pull it till it hurts.
Other than that because i seemed to gel in and look Arabic/Egyption- i got treated with respect and in times of doubt or just to make conversation people would just yell out "where from ? where from? espaniol? italiana? mexican?" and when i would yell back "LA. Pakistani" they would be thrilleddd (not the reaction i expected) and yell back "Musalman?? mashallah!".
it was all very random but made me smile every time, which made them smile and we went on with life. no fear of this guy following me home, stalking me on my cell and making my life miserable. it was liberating to smile at someone on the road- get a smile back and LEAVE IT AT THAT. Over here, I actually know a girl who was blamed for "leading a guy on" by the dude coz she smiled at him :S yes..very random.
We are an intensely emotional qaum.
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13 comments:
we are psychic twins.
tuesdays in college for sure,babe!!!
:D
well just not this Kay..its also our crummy popular culture...think of the lyrics of songs we heard growing up..."Na na kartey piyar kar beythee"..."Larki hansi tau phansi"...so even if you are saying NO and not leading them on, "common sense" dictates that we do love them deep deep down and they just have to pester us just a little bit more.
oh i absolutely love and i mean LOVE, no i mean REALLY LOVE, the last frame!!! i grew up in a dessert town just like that one. the camels, the shifting sand dunes, the men with their severely wrinkled face coz of the sun and twinkly eyes. u totally captured its essence.
also, it may just be an arab thing. while growing up, whenever i went to a store or the airport or a pay phone, men would lower their gaze. the younger ones did sometimes 'harmlessly flirt', though most would be shocked if i initiated an interaction.
but anyways, love the post!
did u ask the center frame man (the dancing guy?) if you could take his picture? or was he just not leaving the frame?
aneela: you are so right :P
the whole "honton pay na par dil mein toh haan hai" theories tend to get us women into this trouble.
damn these bollywood songs!
(still love em though).
Sakhmeth: thank you! and no i did not ask the guy in the second frame if i could take his picture... he just kept insisting i take it and wouldnt move...then when i did he tried grabbing me and the camera so he could take a picture of me :S i had to literally shove him off!
the first frame guy is posing with his son though.. he was nice. from a souvenier shop outside the pyramids..my friend and i sat there and chatted with him for half n hour about education and schools and pakistan. this interaction is what i love about travelling.
khiz piz: we are freakkyy :)
And an intensely emotional post.
Khaula, all Pakistani men aren't bad and all Egyptian men aren't good.
Every society has its good and bad. Egyptian society is known for its sexual harrasment of women, Pakistani society does not lag far behind. In fact, in Egypt 8 out of 10 women take the headscarf. But still they are harassed.
So it might be a generational thing and/or it might be a societal thingie? Who knows. What we can do best is watch our own character.
That is my sermon for the day. Thank you. Come again.
and yawar in true pakistani spirit sends an emotional response :P
thus proving my theory correct.
okayy, so no pakistani men do not suck and no egyptions do not rock in all aspects...if THAT is what you are getting from this post then the point of this post has gone totally off.
i am comparing cultures and as khizzy has put this very well in her recent online magazine article, "eve teasing" is an inherent part of the eyyption nature as it is for pakistanis-
i am telling you how me being a female having walked the streets in both countries is comparing my experience of being "eve teased".
i know egyptions are known for harassment... i was harassed myself (and not only by fourteen year old boys)- but, as i mentioned that in my post as well, i was casually flirted with a LOT more than i was harassed. THAT was my point.
another point i want to make just to drive my previous point in further...take it as perhaps a theory as to why over here in PK men get more excited when a passerby would politely smile- its because they are far more frustrated! egypt is pouring with ppl from all over the world- they have more exposure to various cultures MUCH more than us- they do not gawk like monkeys if they see someone with a skin colour different from theirs. they can live with smiling and moving on.. or maybe a little more.
Everything becomes relative on different experiences ppl have had so when you say i am generalising, my apologies, i really am just relating the experience of me and the people who i met there.
I'm flattered that I got such a lengthy response from you =). Let's leave it at that, little one.
PS: I'm a total misogynistic, chauvinistic Pakistani male (read: pig). Yep, and I'm not afraid to admit it. So there ;).
the story about the 2nd guy is hilarious! i wonder what kind of story he must have had to tell his friends that night. it was probably the highlight of his day. and if he ever comes across ur blog, it would make him so happy! lol.
merry christmas, happy new year and happy holidays!
"we are an intensely emotional quam"...what a note to end the year with eh..
spot on about the desi road psychology! smiling is somehow equivalent to leading a guy on, here. and it's thriple worse here in lahore! sad, sigh.
omg my experience of egypt was just the same. i wish i had written about it more when i went .... i loved that place. absolutely loved it!
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