A Man with a Big and Long Nose

A couple of days ago, in my neighbourhood, as I was passing by a newly-wed woman with her friends, I couldn't help hearing the complaint that the newly-wed man had a big and long nose. This woman is now very old. She felt desperate many times, for no one proposed to her. But why does this big and long nose really matter to this woman? I do not think it should matter to her for the simple reason that the means justifies the end. The means here is absence of suitors, and the end is getting married to a man with a big and long nose. Anyway, let us simply wish the newly-wed happiness ever after.

And Old Man Sitting on a Bench

While my brother and I were having a walk through a garden in El Jadida today, we spotted an old man sitting on a bench alone. He seemed to indulge in deep meditation. He bowed his head wearily. And he was holding a crutch. As we approached him, my brother told me that he was one of our distant relatives whose wife had recently died. Instantly, I remembered him and talked to him. I reminded him of myself. What took me aback was his dejected face. His face expressed the right sense of bereavement. I could not help gazing at his red nose for so long, for in the latter I was able to feel how devout he had been to his late wife. His difficulty in uttering words clearly is living proof that he had done the best for his wife in her lifetime, that he had offered her all she had needed, and that he had loved her as she had been. The real problem that we face today is that this man's likes are few and far between.

A Thirty-Year-Old Teacher of French

I very well remember when a thirty-six-year-old teacher of French, my colleague in Zagora, told me a lot about his love story with one of his classmates during his university days. As an avid listener to this real story, I did not concern myself with trivial things of any love story, such as the places they used to go together, what they used to tell each other when night fell, the sort of their relationship, or all the things they exchanged as lovers. But I still carried on listening until the thing that would draw my attention was raised. It was the promise they made to get married once they landed a job. As this friend of mine told me, they loved each other so vehemently during the four years they spent at university to the extent that even some passers-by thought that they would make a successful couple. He added that they revised their lessons so diligently and did a good job at their studies. This was why, he said, they were optimistic about their future. As their studies came to an end, and they all graduated with success, they went to sit for the entrance exam to the teacher training center. To their utter dismay, she succeeded, while he failed. Still worse was the fact that he failed all the following entrance exams of the four years that ensued. His would-be wife kept her promise during the first two years, but as the third year was about to end, she began to get bored. My friend told me that he felt so through her new behavior and lifestyle. She no longer phoned him, and she did not ask after him anymore. When he asked her why, she made up some flimsy excuses, like that of having to care for her parents or that of busying herself with her teaching career. This would-be wife, my friend believed, did not do so out of innocence, but rather out of apathy and selfishness, particularly that she was now a teacher, while he was still jobless and penniless. A few years later, she turned a deaf ear to all his approaches. She even changed her phone number and made it impossible for him to even stay in contact with her. Only then did he understand that this girl was no longer going to be his other half. He became dejected and hopeless on the spot, he said to me. One day, he heard that she got married to someone else, but he did not know anything about his occupation. With time, this friend of mine at last succeeded and became a high school teacher of French. And he was appointed in Zagora, and I had the chance to live with him in the same house. He lived upstairs, and I lived downstairs. And we sometimes met and talked. One day, I raised this love story of his to him once more, and he said that he had some advice for me. I then had to listen with awe. Never put all your eggs in one basket, he said to me.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

In 1987, during an interview, Tahar Ben Jelloun, a Moroccan writer and poet, was asked about the great people he admired. He started with his mother, the thing I appreciate so much. Then, he moved on to talk about King Hassan the second, and began to whitewash him, saying that he was someone he highly held in estimation and someone he respected so much. Notwithstanding, during a recent interview with Ben Jelloun about the current Arab revolutions, he intervened to say that for him King Hassan the second was like Mubarak, the toppled Egyptian president, and that torture and social injustice were what characterized Hassan's regime too. The conclusion I have come to here is that Tahar Ben Jelloun and his likes are hypocrites just like those who are whitewashing Mohamed the sixth at present. I only hope other hypocrites of today will not make the same mistake with our current king.

Fake Faces

I love the face of this emaciated Somali baby. I frankly prefer it to the face of a beautiful girl while she is smiling. I love his eyes too. You know why? It is because the suffering his face expresses is true. He does not sham it. He does not feign any pain. He instead feels it. It is tearing his limbs apart. Unlike his face, that of a beautiful girl is full of fake smiles, fake interest, fake grimaces, fake loving eyes and fake winks. I love this Somali baby because he is telling the truth, the thing we lack in many beautiful faces of girls.

Marriage

I have heard many people discussing marriage. One of the issues they raise is whether women get married for the position the man has got or the good qualities that he possesses. If you pose this question to women, they will tell you that they marry a man for good qualities. For me, however, this is not the case at all. Women usually marry because of the position. They are not to blame whatsoever as they are not conscious of the fact they have married due to this. Let us take one simple example. Here, I would like you to be honest. I know a rich company manager with very good qualities who got married to a rich woman. Now what you're going to do is divest this man of all his wealth and position. Make him a poor man with no stable home. Just keep his good qualities. This is all before he goes to propose. For God's sake, do you think this rich woman and her parents will still appreciate this man? Alternately, imagine two men that have the same personality and the same good qualities. One of them has got only good qualities. The other has got the position. Both go to propose to the same girl on the same day. Who is going to be chosen?

Girls are like Shadow

Girls are like shadow. If you try to catch shadow, you will miss the light. If you walk towards the light, then the shadow follows, many say. I definitely agree. In reality, this is what is happening to many young men who have recently fallen in love or who have had a crush on some beautiful girls. Facebook as a current means of chatting is where the shadow either follows or is followed. Most of the time, young men follow it. Being one of them, I feel so sorry for them, particularly when a girl does not answer them back or goes offline the minute they send her a message. If a young man exaggerates by asking after his beloved now and then, she will get bored by nature. And she will answer him as his question requires, nothing more. On the other hand, if a young man ignores a girl and rarely answers her questions, she will begin to wonder why this happens to her and will not feel at ease until she poses numerous questions to her beloved. What still breaks my heart is when one is deeply in love and can not help being far from his or her beloved. In this case, when one ignores the other, it is as though their heart palpitation made a sound that anybody can distinctly hear. We might conclude that to win a girl's heart and snatch it firmly in your hands, turn a blind eye to her maudlin messages.

Linguistics and Literature

Personally, I disagree with those who are studying literature in isolation from linguistics, or the other way around. We all know that they are different fields that B.A. holders have to major in in their post-graduate studies, but nobody can deny that they are interrelated and that they overlap. And it is true that one can not do without the other. As a writer of many pieces, if it weren't for what I have studied in linguistics, I wouldn't be able to put pen to paper confidently. Linguistics has been of great note to me with regard to the language and grammaticality of my pieces. And literature has helped me broaden my mind and write about many different issues. It has also helped me write poems, articles and short stories. Literature enriches one's style. Linguistics polishes one's writing quality. I deeply and equally owe a great debt to these two fields.

A Program on 2M about Reading

Today, I watched on 2M channel a program about how often Moroccans read. As I watching, I was shocked to hear an interviewed newsagent saying that Moroccans read a lot and that they always buy new books. What even astounded me more were a few interviewed children saying that they read around six short books a day. An interviewed girl sitting on a bench in a park said that she read wherever she went, even in the bathroom. Two other interviewees said they were once reading in the same garden and one of them came to see the other's title of the book and it was there where they made each other's acquaintance, and now they plan to get married. They added that it was reading which made them meet each other by coincidence and they, therefore, owe a great debt to it. Another interviewee was a taxi driver who said that he read everywhere he went, especially while waiting for the green light at the junction. In response to all these responses by the interviewees and 2M channel, I would say: Enough is enough to hypocrisy! These interviewees do not represent Moroccans, and they are not the ones to ask to see whether reading in Morocco is on the increase or not. I am certain that reading in Morocco is still in drastic decline, and very few people read. The elite few!

Certain Readers

Recently, I have begun to take into account certain readers more seriously whenever I put pen to paper. I did not use to do so, but the number of comments and remarks that I have received on my articles has persuaded me to re-visit my articles. Some readers note that I have to improve my writing style by avoiding sloppy sentences. Some others remark that I need to avoid using simple words and therefore opt for more sophisticated ones. The role of some other readers merely lies in detecting grammar mistakes, nothing more. Others go on to say that I need to focus more on the content than on the quantity. In fact, I would ascribe all this to sour grapes on the part of some readers. I am neither surprised not affected by this advice for the reason that it has come from readers who preach what they do not practise. Their job is to prescribe what to do and how to do it. At first, I thought they had gone through all these steps as novice writers, but they fact that they don't even put pen to paper makes me burst into laughter. How come someone who has never written one coherent paragraph can preach all this! The advice that I shouldn't write simply as prescribed might well be directed to Ernest Hemingway. It was the one who taught us to write simply. Frankly speaking, I wholeheartedly accept readers' remarks and comments on condition that they show me what they have written so that I will learn more efficiently.

A New Syllogism

All humans are mortal. Socrates is human. Socrates is mortal. I am certain you are all acquainted with this syllogism. And you all like it. What I am not sure of, however, is whether this new syllogism interests, and appeals to, you or not. It runs thus: Handsomeness is lovable and Ugliness is unlovable. Ali is handsome; he is lovable. Saadia is ugly; she is unlovable. Through these two conclusive sentences, I have come to know that those men who are ugly are seldom loved by beautiful women, and those women who are ugly are rarely loved by handsome men. Exceptions exist of course, but they don't mean anything to us as long as the majority follow this rule to the letter. As for exceptions, there are certain motives behind breaking the rule. For instance, a beautiful woman who is on the verge of her forties and who has already felt desperate about marriage may say yes to any suitor, be he handsome or ugly. The same thing is true of handsome men who are financially poor and can not afford the necessities of married life. The latter have no other choice but to propose to an ugly woman who does not usually demand a lot from the suitor. Once again, exceptions exist, but they add nothing to our subject matter. Frankly, I wish the newly-wed everlasting happiness.