Last Tuesday I was having an Iftar in the Azhar Park, in Studio Masr restaurant with some of my friends at work… We actually went there without making a reservation first; so the moment we arrived there we discovered that the only places left are inside the restaurant not in the open air area; and since it was a bit too late to change the place, so we sat there… and I must confess that I’m SO thankful to Allah we did!

Before I move on to what make me feel glad of not sitting in the open air area I’ll have to tell you the way the restaurant look like in Ramadan.

Those who went there before know that the open air area isn’t that huge, and since in Ramadan they are famous with their open buffet Iftar and the place gets really crowded there; so they invented a new way to have capacity for the huge number of clients they have. They built 2 wooden bridges on both sides of the restaurant so that the view might appear as if someone is spreading out both of his arms. On each bridge dozens of tables were closely packed, along with huge cooking pots with light fire beneath them to keep the food warm.

I must say that the whole atmosphere was amazing… the food was delicious… the quality of service was marvelous … the day would have been one of those perfect days if it wasn’t for what happened.

Right in the middle of the Iftar, while everybody was still eating, we heard a huge sound; as if a small limited bomb was exploded in the nearby, and a state of hurly-burly occurred everywhere in the restaurant. We moved on to the open air area to come to the fact that one of the 2 bridges crashed down.

Now try to imagine the scene with me…

People on the floor drowned with food and wooden pieces that resulted from their tables and from the collapsed bridge!

The napery of one of the tables that carried the heated pots caught fire…

Shock… pain… and panic dominated everybody…

Waiters were almost crying…

A woman here and there went into a hysterical screaming…

The list never ends… I can stay for the rest of the day writing how it looked like and the more important… how it felt like!

I have no clue who’s to be blamed… the restaurant… or those who built the bridges for the restaurant… I don’t know… but it’s just like one of the people who were standing near us watching that “mahzala” -if I may say- screamed at one of the waiters… “Dee arwa7 nass!”

Later on that day, I was talking with my friend about what happened and I couldn’t but imagine how it felt while they were falling…

I guess what makes such an accident more terrifying is the fact that you have no idea about what is really happening… So, basically, beside your feeling that you are about to die, you become victim to many terrifying thoughts of what is actually happening to you… and those few minutes or seconds that the incident took will seem to be lasting forever…

Sometimes it’s harder when you don’t know!

Didn’t I tell you that I thanked Allah SO much that we didn’t find a place in the open air area…?!

Have a nice long weekend everybody…

                       Rou…