East or west.. my grand father is the best

It was a time when men were real men and women were real women and their

innocent little children were the hope of changing to better future.

It was a time where Iraqi people were like a big family… where friends were brother and brother were real friend.

It was times where life was simple and people were reflex their simple life.

In the 1921, my grandpa was born in Mosul. Iraq. Feb. 5^th. He was the young child between his brothers and his sisters.

My grandpa grew up In the middle of a big Family. Unfortunately he lost his mother when he was a little child. And that affected on him widely that until his last days he was always mention his mom and miss her impressively.

His brothers didn’t finish their secondary school. But in spite of that we can’t say anything but they were really educated. And that book was always in their hands.

At that time, the numbers of people who finish the high school were very small. So two brothers went to learn and practice their family Vocation that Vocation which was inherited by generations.

All the people admire their kind of work and the sayings about my family reputation are passed through generation.

Unlike his brothers, he continues his study in the secondary school and he was so elegant that he was graduated from the high school and won the second class on Iraq.

In 1943, he finished his studying the civil engineering in the American university of Beirut.

In 1959, he finished his post graduate diploma in Hydraulic Engineering in Holland.

Then in 1962 he finished his PhD in irrigation and drainage engineering. In Utah state university, USA.

Then he return back to Baghdad and occupied many important positions even he was appointed vice president in charge of establishing a university in Mosul, in addition to being dean to the college within the new university, beside many similar positions in Baghdad later.

He was also a member of many scientific academies all over the world. He composed 6 books at his life.

He was retired and nominated Professor emeritus of irrigation, university of Baghdad in 1986.

I am so much proud to be a grand daughter of such a person and I dream of the day when I will go back to sleep and say to myself” If my grand father was here, he will be proud”.

As a grand daughter, I had grown up away from my grand father. He was living in Baghdad and I am living in Mosul.

When I was a little child my grandpa was that man with glasses who was all the time reading books, and he was also the man who have a computer. The first computer and the only one I saw till the age of 6 was my grandfather’s computer.

When I became a teenager I began to see the fact of my grandfather. When people said you are clever, one comment “like her grandpa” and when I go to the university with my mom, old men came and said “I was your grandpa student”.

Previously when we use to go to Baghdad to spend the holiday there, my grandfather was an inspiration to me. At that time we all have a computer but we don’t have like his amazing room. That room which was cover with books, hundreds and hundreds of them.

That room makes you feel like you are in a small library. I remember when I was a little kid, how much I loved to be in that room, and I was always looking for a chance to sneak myself there.

An order to call my grandfather for lunch was an order that I do with pleasure. Now, I imagine myself in a cartoon movie, having a red hair and dress cartoon clothes and sneaking my self in my grandfather’s room and stop in the middle and examining all the books around and being catch by my grand father. It’s funny but it’s never happened. And I don’t have a red hair anyway.

What I notice in that room is the smell, the same smell of my grandpa… nice and weird smell. It’s the smell of knowledge.

Nice days… nice memories and painful one. Now, that room and the big house are empty of people. It’s hurting that we can’t reach that house because it’s in Baghdad.

When I buy a book, I think of one thing “did my grandfather have that book”. Many precious books that I want to read are staying there in that room away from hands. My aunt and uncles left to Dubai and my grandpa and my grandma left everything behind them and came to our house in Mosul.

Here in Mosul is where my grandfather died. But after all I am happy that he turn back to his place of birth and died where he want to die and buried where he wish, between his brother and father.

All I want to say is “I love you my grandpa”...