The day Hassan left for London

The day Hassan left for London 

It was a beautiful September 1962 early afternoon when relatives, neighbors and friends   began to flock to the house of Hassan's father (Abu Hassan) in the village of Bakerly not far away from the town of Hilla and the historical city of Babylon.

Straw mats and carpet mats were hastily spread under the grove of date palms outside the house to accommodate the male visitors and similar action was taken in the middle court of the house to accommodate the women.

Hassan's mother (Um Hassan) sat in the court yard with feet spread in front of her, her head scarf loose down on her chest crying: Oh Hassan why you have decided to leave me? Why didn’t you stay and study in Baghdad?. She turns to the women and explain in tears: Five years are a very long time I may not be around.   You know he wanted to go for eight years! I sent his cousins to drag him back by force before the interview (the interview was for chartered accountancy)... He refuses to wait for the results of the military interview for the medical college in Baghdad, you know he says he quarreled with the general heading the panel and does not expect that they will accept him.

At that point an old women interjected: Don't worry Um Hassan close your eyes, open your eyes and the five year is gone and he is back. Stop crying it's time to be happy.  

Um Hassan resumes crying.....

Her niece couldn’t stand it any longer: Look untie you should be very happy it is me and the other girls who should be crying, we lost a beautiful catch to the English.

Laughter breaks out…..

The niece resumes: I will ask Ali (Hassan's brother) to teach you English so that you can say yes to your blonde daughter in law when she comes.

Giggles and laughter continues …..

Outside, under the date palms a question and answer session was in full swing  on scholarships , the social and political situation in Iraq at that time encouraged by the  free speech under the government of General Qasim

Hassan explains: Every student who got 75%and above average in the secondary school examination qualify for the scholarship.

One guest: Are Jewish students also allowed on these scholarships?

Hassan: No.

Another guest: Good and so they should not  be.

Abu Hassan   : You all remember when the Jews were here , they were good people  , now very  few of them remained . When Hassan was born , he was very sick and we lost hope that he will live .A Jewish doctor saved his live .

Another guest: Jews are just like us Iraqis, they should not have left for Israel.

Another guest: The Zionists and some God not fearing Iraqis frightened them and made them leave the country.

Changing the subject one guest says: You saw how great is the revolution, sending our boys to study abroad.

An old man comments: Yes the revolution is great but they should have not killed the young king and the Royal family. May be one day we shall cry for young Faisal (the young king)    and beat our chests as we are now doing for Imam Hussain .

One guest to Hassan: Why did you choose England? The Soviet Union sent people to space, The British are now finished.  They are behind.

Before Hassan could answer another guest volunteered:    Don’t worry about  Abu Naji (Abo Naji is a nickname the Iraqis invented for unknown reasons for   the English) .

A third guest delves in: Everybody knows, when the well to do Communists are ill they go to London not to Moscow. When we want to buy a cloth we all buy made in England

An old man sensing the exchanges may get out of hand says in a loud voice: Listen good people, have you ever looked up to a plane high up in the sky? Then answers himself: It's so high! Just the size of a crow, now what if one of its engines stops?

Hassan goes in to help  shore up the atmosphere: Granddad... they have a mechanic on the plane who would come out, sit on the wings and fix it ….

The old man bursts out laughing and coughing at the reply he got for his made up question …..

Everybody is back on track congratulating Hassan and wishing him the best of luck.......

Soon a large buss and a number of cars appeared, Hassan and those who would see him off to the airport boarded the vehicles,

The women and the girls  came out of the house to wave goodbye to Hassan, some joyful , some crying  as the cars drove off  leaving Bakerly to go  back to sleep in the lap of the dense palm grooves  ….

Babylon - Zionists - Bakerly - British - Soviets