Wednesday, January 07, 2009

History X

My great grandmother was Turkish.
She had all the royal Ottoman empire discipline and lifestyle nested in her head.
She passed it on to her children. And then to her grand children.
My great grandmother was extremely picky.
She had her morning Turkish coffee in a golden ornamented ceramic cup and a saucer.
She had her morning Turkish coffee with a long etched glass of water.
If her grandchild brought her the glass and it happened to be wet, she'd go furious.
If her grandchild brought her the glass and so much as a drop of water was on the outside, she'd go furious.
She'd keep her temper, shake her head in disgust and pity.
"welad 3arab!" she'd call them, when she shakes her head, in disgust.
In pity, she'd shake her head and call them "welad 3arab!"
My great grandmother was Turkish.
She had all the royal Ottoman empire discipline and lifestyle nested in her head.



My great grandmother taps her foot.

The Turkish coffee is a poppy carbonated state of liquid.
The golden ornamented ceramic cups and saucers are blue and red cardboard.
The long etched glass of water is plastic and disposable.

The glass is always wet.



My great grandmother is sitting on her wooden chair, holding her Turkish coffee on the saucer, and is shaking her head.

She shakes her head in disgust and pity.
"welad 3arab!" she calls us, when she shakes her head, in disgust.
In pity, she shakes her head and calls us "welad 3arab!"






-inspired by Gaza happenings-

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8 comments:

Mohammad said...

ur great grandmother was very far sighted.

Brownie said...

thank ur grandmother for the compliment ;)

Anonymous said...

lol
i will only say this once:
you're an artist!

The.I.inside said...

LOL,
Alot of people can't help but live in the glory of the past, every family got a few of those,

Vile said...

My great grandmother was a farm woman, she drank tea from a stained glass and baked fteer all day long.

Zee Puppette said...

My great grandmother died when I was around 3 maybe .. I never got to know her .. I know what I know about her from my mother ..
And Vile, I'm positive your great grandmother and mine have a great deal in common .. they were people with dignity and self respect .. The only reason I think my great grandma would label us as she used to is because we - Arabs- have become disgusting in so many fundamental ways on so many different levels. We even lack the ability to stand up for ourselves. The coffee cup and the etched glass were more of a metaphor for self respect than plain objects.

Vile said...

i didn't know my great grandmother, and frankly puppet, i have nothing to prove that she was a woman of dignity and self respect.
point is, she being lowly woman does not diminish me. and she being a great woman does not add value to who i'm.
That's also where we stand at the moment, it doesn't matter how great and powerful we used to be. We are who we are, and nothing else matters. (in egypt it might be the might of the fara3na or the undisputed achievement of the Islamic state)
Gaza is just a reminder of where we really stand, a reminder of our status... a wake up call for those who think that they are doing ok, just in case it is not evident in their everyday lives.

Zee Puppette said...

I completely agree.
But to everything there's a comparison point.
We wouldn't know who we are, if we don't know who we have been.