5 minutes

The New Shakespeareans

Muhammad Salem Al Ali

August 18 2022

In a timeless place, a management meeting of a company took place, and I was invited in my capacity as those who are required to attend to discuss the company’s issues in line with the visions and aspirations. Indeed, I came on time and reviewed what was mentioned on the agenda, to find in it an urgent and long-standing issue that requires immediate solution and does not bear delays .

And because it is like that, everyone attended without exception, and I met them in the lobby as we headed to the meeting room, and since we are all Arabs, our greetings were in Arabic, and the greetings were, as well as the funny comments, conversations, jokes and jokes, and then we arrived after that and took our boards in preparation for the start of the meeting, and he really started on the promise However, with the change in the situation and context, especially the tongues, which soon turned suddenly into the English language with its various dialects and accents, as if those present today were not communicators.

In any case, we welcomed each other again and reviewed the agenda, then the attendees began their valuable interventions to shake the hall with them on the impact of vocabulary, debates and English dialogues from the bygone era that only translations and people of interpretations understand, and then the frantic competition began to list the expressions and formulations, to the extent that I was afraid that someone would attack me with a torrent of it that I do not understand, so I fell short of words.

One of them would avoid slipping with an Arabic word lest he be thought of as unknowing. Then he would throw out abbreviated names whose meaning only he knows, as if we are connected to the global network receiving the explanation simultaneously as well as the explanations, and it is noteworthy that the more complex the words and the difficulty of their meaning the more everyone nodded a sign. With the utmost understanding and comprehension, until I said to myself that I am to blame, and I wish I had brought with me a lexicon to use it or a multilingual dictionary, or I wish I had brought a recording machine that would memorize the sayings and study them later and develop myself in the world of terminology.

In general, the meeting went in a beautiful and uncomplicated manner, and the attendees did not leave an opportunity, otherwise they emphasized that absolutely nothing represents a challenge to them, and that they are able to conquer all difficulties, so success stories followed successively and listed with them the most important experiences and best works, then the manager spoke, explaining his upcoming strategies to begin with his speech Whispers of admiration and louder groans, followed by a period of calm and breathtaking during which some side conversations prevailed, ringing and calls abounded. As for the only thing that was absent, or could be absent, was the essential issue at hand, which was hidden among the agenda papers and covered by pens and mobile phones.

And the truth is said, between this and that I fell asleep and my mind turned away from the meeting, and time moved me suddenly to previous eras that were characterized by such dialogues, and I began to meditate on them and recall all their features of conversations and ideas, and how developing theories in them was a hundred times easier than making decisions, or That avoiding it and postponing it at least was the only thing that had unanimous approval, and I meditated on it until I was shaken by a loud laughter that came after one of the interventions. I woke up to its echoes to find that our meeting had ended and everyone started to leave waiting for the next meeting. I was ashamed of the question about the content of the deliberations, and the answer came quickly to me that it was very fruitful, but the next meeting is definitely decisive and contains all expectations, and only then was I jealous of the writer and the organizer of the meetings, so what he has to do here is to copy the minutes for the tenth time and change the dates while preserving the paragraphs!

• A loud laughter shook me after one of the interventions, and I woke up to its echoes... to find that our meeting had ended.

Founder of Suhail Smart Solutions

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