It is a scent from the past, “Al-Shabandar” café opening its doors again to the public. Personally, I was never at the appropriate age to go and sit in that café and absorb what happened there. However, it feels like a part of me came back to life. I have always heard of that place, and passed by it with my father in our little trips to Al-Mutanabby street and Al-Saray Market to buy books and school supplies.
That street formed a significant part of my childhood. Although I never paid so much attention but to the comic books and the small adventure stories, the smell of the worn-out yellow books is still tickling my nose. The memory of that place fills my soul with inspiration and happiness. And the day that it was bombed, burning the beautiful pages, killing innocent people, and destroying Al-Shabandar café along with it, it felt like a part of me died inside.
This place, as I consider it, is the single most important historic/contemporary spot in Baghdad. Not the ruins of Babylon, neither the old walls of Baghdad. These might show how great it was, but they are completely worthless otherwise. Places like Shabandar café are places that we need to work on so that 500 years later it would still be standing as a gem of culture and tradition.
Reading the news, seeing that this place has reopened its doors, and that the street is paved with books once again was the single best thing I’ve heard in years.
Despite the death of the owner’s five sons who helped him run the place, and despite the death of their mother due to the severe shock she received. Their father whom I consider to be a hero, reopened the place, preserved the old decoration, and is running the place once again.
Things like these, and men like those are like winds of hope cleansing the streets of Baghdad from the blood that they’re immersed in. Life is returning, and hope is growing. Slowly, but it's something.
Best Regards,
Mohammed Al-Saedi
