Ahmed's Adventures

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Fate

Two weeks ago I went with a friend to watch this film (The Road to Guantanamo), such an amazing film and directing. After we have seen the film it was 1am and what we should do is go home to sleep but the film made me think a lot, same with my friend. So we decided to go to a 24 hour cafe and chill there for a bit, we both didn't feel like going home.

We enter the cafe and there was only three guys having coffee at the far corner beside the Television. What was on TV, a program about Guantanamo. Is this just a coincidence? So I told my friend to sit beside those guys to watch this program for the film is still stuck in my head.

Hearing what those innocent guys had to go through in this inhuman atmosphere made me really emotional. On TV, this guy is being interviewed, talking about how he was tortured and such just to confess that he is from Al Qaeda. I look at the three guys beside us, and my eyes went wide!! One of them is the guy on TV who is being interviewed.....And then the next guy being interviewed is the other guy in that group and the third one as well!!

They try not to stare at us, because I was only staring at them!!! I stood up and asked them if I can have a conversation with us, they were hesitate in the beginning but since the entire cafe was empty except for us they accepted. I introduced myself and my friend to them and we sat talking about the movie we just saw about Guantanamo and they told us that they just came from watching the film as well and that the story of those three Pakistanis was true and they were in the same lock up with them and they are in constant touch with them via emailing and phones.

I couldn't hold my excitement any longer, I asked them if I can write a book about them. About their lives before this whole thing happened and their struggle in Guantanamo and how this whole experience changed their lives now. Again they were hesitate at first but then accepted and I swore for complete secrecy of the process and their real names. That is why I didn't post any of this the last two weeks.

Today was my last session with them, for the past two weeks I have been practically living with them, seeing the way they live their lives now. Them telling me stories about their lives before heading to the States to study and how they ended up in Guantanamo and how there were times that they thought they will die and such, very intense!!

I don't know if I will be able to publish a book like this, but I am handing it tomorrow to my editor and see what he thinks of it before releasing it to my literary agent to get it published. This was my fastest book ever, two weeks writing and done!!

Posted by Ahmed Arshi :: 9:30 AM :: 0 comments