shady's

Last Thursday was the first Thursday on this month(September 2007) ; the monthly date for reunion of class FCIH 2007 graduates (whom I enjoy being friend with a lot of them) so I usually go out with them regularly (& really form my really few refreshing moments, which makes me get back to work, life, etc more active, specially that my class -FCIH 2006- is less active when it comes to outings :D) Anyway, our last outing was @ Moqatam, @ Joe's place (Yousef's) where two GP teams from the class (Kernels, FuTeX) used to live during the graduation project last days/month..I was intending @ first to go to Suez after the night is over but we were late so I had to go back to my apartment @ October..On my way back, I have to pass by a district called "Al-Sayeda-Aa'esha" which is a very poor area..It really reminded me of "Al-Arba3en" @ Suez.. Anyway, So when the bus was on its way through the area, police appeared from nowhere to stop the vehicle ("kamen")..& young officer (wearing civilian clothes) started to check -visually- all the ppl inside the car..It was my first time to experience that..so I was a bit shaky not to mention that I kept on tracking the officer though his thorough check & our eyes met more than once through that tracking.. So -for sure- you can see why he asked (which is a very polite word) me to comedown the vehicle with another guy..He asked me first for my ID..I handed it to him while another lower ranked policeman started (no asking involved) to check my -very suspiciously large- backpack ("dayman gaybaly l kalam") & off course found my laptop..So the Higher rank -but younger- officer asked me if I was working for some "computer company"..I answered -as if the laptop was a piece of some forbidden narcotics "7asheeeesh :D"- that I was working for Raya-software just to give him a reason for carying such a shameful thing ("tohma, mamno3at") ..So, surprisingly, his tune started to change a little bit (as soon as the word "Raya" came out of my mouth) & asked me for my Raya ID..So I started desperately, searching for it my backpack..finally I found it in its regular place (beside my laptop power cable) & showed him the ID..Phew!! finally I heard the relieving words "here u are, go on your way" ("etfadal ya bashmohandes") with the best tune I ever heard through the conversation.. Unfortunately, I was the only one who made it back as they got the other guy with them :S ..Anyway, I kept on thinking about the issue, & if I wasn't working @ Raya (not as software house but as part of reputable group -specially "Raya-Distribution"/"3awez nokia ro7 le Raya " thing, lolz- like Itworx, Itsoft for eg. which are very reputable in IT community...but I doubt that a common police officer would ever know about them..or Even if I'm working in Multinational companies like MS or Google..which may be -not for sure- known by the public but they won't imagine that ordinary Egyptian ppl like us could ever be working there.. Another thing is that I was too shaky in that incidence (actually I can't blame the officer for suspecting me to carry any forbidden substance, lolz), but I can never know why..I had similar incidences but with military police (asking for military status) but I'm usually ready with my faculty postgraduate-student ID to show it to them...also just to show them I'm still a student (but I get the same surprisingly great reaction of good & polite words like "etfadal ya bashmohandes" coz suddenly & according to this small piece of paper I'm moved to the good guys list :D) ...