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In July 1989 I arrived in Cairo, our Embassy then was in Garden City just off Midan Tahrir in the centre of the City, on Mohammad Fahmy Al-Sayed street. The British Embassy was just up our street with its Victorian Gates and the US Embassy was one street over, a gigantic complex. Garden City has the name implies was built in what was before the 1952 Revolution, the vast garden of a Royal Palace. I lived in the middle of the Nile river on the Island of Zamalek, a beautiful area just to the North of Garden City.
There was always occasions to discover the arts and culture in Egypt and many modern artists at the time were still working. One artist who had designed many large modern sculptures in Cairo and Alexandria lived in one of the out suburbs of the city. From the outside you could not tell what was behind the great wall but once inside it was a beautiful riotous garden of greenery, flowers and art work.
The artist Hassan Hesmat, (1920-2006) had a gardener to look after his house garden. He nicknamed him Monsieur Malesh. What a funny name, he explained that if he ever asked his gardener about the garden or something needing attention, the reply would be ”Malesh”. The word malesh in Egyptian Arabic means no matter, not to worry, you hear it all the time. Of course when you say Malesh your facial expression must match the meaning of the word, in speaking Egyptian Arabic you quickly learn the hand gestures and the facial expression which conveys the meaning of what you are saying.
Hassan Heshmat captured in stone sculpture his gardener and named it Monsieur Malesh. When I saw it in his studio I knew he had to come home with me. Monsieur Malesh is one of my remaining souvenir of Cairo and Egypt. He has been in our gardens and amongst plants ever since.
Laurent: This is a delightful story. Your intuition to bring this sculpture home was absolutely right.
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I love the sculpture.
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I love the sculpture too. I always try and bring something back from my travels that helps me remember the moments there. I brought back rocks from Iceland last summer that I found on a black beach. They are worn and soft and I have them on one of my dressers. I see them every morning and they make me smile.
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I love Mr. Malesh. I would have had to have had him (uf!), too. Would love to see what he looks like among your plants!
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Larry what a beautiful story and a gorgeous sculpture! I can easy see how you chose to bring it home with you. What I have read about the city of Cairo has always left me with an intense unresolved curiosity. A friend of my husband was there about twelve or so years ago to buy a camel and then he road and walked across the desert on his own. If I remember correctly it took him many months to learn enough about the language and culture to then be able to negotiate his camel purchase with some help from a third party. His stories of his trek were fascinating but no sculpture to bring home 😉
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oh I love the story and love the statue.
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Very nice story.
Are you sure the artist name is Adam Henein and not Hassan Heshmat ?
Regards
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Mazals thank you very much for the correction. I much appreciated and Monsieur Malesh also thanks you.
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