Monday, September 14, 2009

What does "Mabsuta" and "Bideshi" Mean?

Mabsuta - Happy (female, mabsut for male) in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic

Bideshi - Foreigner in Bangla (desh in Bangla is country)

Why "Mabsuta Bideshi" together?
I feel that wherever I go, I am always the foreigner, even in my own home country of the United States. If you think that when I go to Bangladesh people think that I'm Bangladeshi, you got it all wrong. From the way I walk and carry myself, they can tell in an instant that I'm "bideshi." In Turkey, locals didn't know what to make of me. After some tanning under the Egyptian sun, I get Sudanese here. Ok ok, sometimes I get Indian.
After traveling to so many countries, and now settling into ex-pat life in Cairo, I felt "bideshi" was appropriate to help explain many of my life experiences. "Mabsuta" is pretty self-explanatory :)

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