A caricature of me, aged about 4, by Bahgat Osman (1931-2001).
During the 1960s and '70s, Osman was Egypt's most outstanding political cartoonist. He was a close friend of my father's, and I have vivid memories of him from my early childhood in Cairo. I even vaguely remember posing for this portrait, which was completed in a matter of minutes.
Both my father and Osman were miniscule parts of the diaspora of Egyptian intellectuals. My father was imprisoned and tortured under Gamal Abdel Nasser in the mid-1950s, and came to London in the early '70s for medical treatment. At around that time, Osman sought exile in Kuwait, from the regime of Anwar Sadat; he returned to Cairo in the early '80s, after Sadat's asassination.
The caricature was hanging on our living room wall until very recently, when my son knocked it down and damaged the frame. Incredibly, my son, who will be 3 in February, could recognize the image as "daddy" before his first birthday.
Comments (4)
Before 1 year of age? That sounds quick! Are you practicing neuroscience black magic to make your child super smart?
Posted by: apy | August 31, 2007 3:55 PM