Lost In Translation

In my office, people like to decorate their cubicles. When i was on my way to the pantry the other day i saw one chic posting a huge ass photo of her baby on her cubicle wall, another guy posting a photo of him and his girlfriend, another one had a photo of a monkey, there was also something that looked like either a volcano or a very scary creature i'm not sure, anywayz u get the jist of what i'm saying, so i said to myself why is my cubicle that boring? Decorate the shit out of that already! So i posted some manchester united logos and a very big scrap out of the newspaper with the headline: "EGYPT are African kings" and a photo of Ahmed Hassan holding the African cup.which brings us 2 my next point:


I've been thinking alot lately about Egypt, Egyptians, Arab countries, our relationship with them,how to set a good example and how we are the ambassadors for egypt everywhere we go. So i've been super friendly with everyone in the office, i know people from almost all the departments and i hang out with everybody around here, different ages different sexes, different posts, everybody, aaaaall but one! aaah! that one guy! that one guy who looks around my age, or maybe a year or 2 older than i am, he's really very weird, he gets on my nerves, becoz he seems 2 be repelled by me in a way or another! i see him in the morning, i smile like everybody does around here and he just acts like he didn't see me! whenever we're in the elevator or in the same place, i instantly feel this aura of hostility and repulsion surrounding him, this overwhelming blast of hatred and indifference. i really had no clue why this guy isn't like everybody else in my company, i alwyas keep telling my friends how an amazing workplace my company has, everybody is astonishingly friendly and smiley allll the time, amazing spirit eveywhere, so i really didnt get why this guy is like that. until last week when i was just tying my shoe lace outside the mosque after the Friday prayers (big ups 2 the emam, he was tremendous) and i saw that guy talking 2 another guy, in what sounded 2 my ears like veryyy fluent French, i look at the guy he's talking to and i found that he's almost Kareem Zayany (the Algerian football player)'s clone! and then it all hit me, the guy actually does look Algerian, he's talking 2 an Algerian, he's talking in fluent French, he must hate me coz he saw the post on my cubicle and he knows i'm Egyptian! it didnt take me a second to figure it all out. i thought about this all week, it didnt really piss me off, there was just this voice inside my head urging me to do something about it, act upon what ive been thinking and talking abt lately.

so 3 days ago, i'm waiting at the bus stop, i'm the only one there, i see him crossing the road and approaching me, we lock eyes, i smile at him and he acts like i'm not even there! he comes, sits right next to me, pulls his cell phone out of his God damn pocket and acts like he's typing something ( i say acts, coz this is what most people do when there's an awkward moment, u act like u're smsing or even talking 2 someone on the phone, i'm sure everybody knows the drill) . at this point, i thought 2 myself, that's it, i gotta give him a piece of my mind, i have been working on my anger management, so this can also be a very good practice and a nice demonstration of me being civil, polite and caring abt how 2 countries regard each other. so i say "hey man whats up?" he looks at me, nods, and then looks the other way!!! i said:" YO, BRO! " he looks at me again giving me this tired bored what the fuck do u want from me leave me alone already look. so i take a deep breath preparing for a long back 2 back non stop scolding and go balistic on his ass, saying : "yo man i really dont know what ur problem is, i'm friends with almost everybody here, ive been trying real hard 2 be nice 2 u and u obviously dont give a crap, all that because of a football game? u cant possibly love football more than i do, yet u r the one holding a grudge, u're already going 2 the world cup God damn it! seriously man, we should do something abt this, this is very very shallow! shame on u if u let something like that affect ur relationship with others, we're colleagues man!and i'm really tired of all this Egypt and Algeria hatred bull shit."

The guy looks at me with what to me can only be interpreted as "HA?!", smurks and says: " nice meeting u man, i'm Faiz from Pakistan".........