One summer on Egypt’s North Coast, I was a little kid messing about the house when I accidentally stumbled upon some pool chemicals. To this day, I have no idea how it happened, but I still remember the moment I made the mistake of rubbing my eyes with my hands — and the screaming that followed. I couldn’t see, and I was completely helpless, until my dad came rushing in, utterly confused about what had happened.
Without a second thought, he instinctively put the same powder in his own eyes, just to understand what I was feeling. The next thing I remember is the two of us, half-blind, sprinting towards the pool and jumping straight in.
It might sound painful — and it probably was — but somehow, his decision to share my pain before doing anything else turned it into one of my favourite childhood memories. And dare I say, a rather painless one.
So this is an ode to the hit songs I used to listen to with my dad as a kid.— Najla Said