Hosny Guindy, first editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Weekly passed away seven years ago. He is remembered by his friends and colleagues As I write now, the thoughts and emotions I had seven years ago crowd back into my mind. Of course, there was time to sit back and reflect on cherished memories. I open a book by Charles Dickens and find a chapter entitled "The Fellow of Delicacy." I dig among old papers and find essays on "What is a Gentleman?" and "Manners make the Man". And I see Hosny, or rather some aspects of Hosny, in such things. Naturally, I am not the only person who recognised what an extraordinary person Hosny was. However, as someone who met him on the first day I set foot in the American University in Cairo as a student, I think I also have something particular to say. All agree that Hosny the man, Hosny the professional, possessed impeccable traits. But I must add one word to them, something that in fact stands behind them, and that word is truth. I think of Hosny as the incarnation of Shakespeare's words in Hamlet : "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." For me, truth is the essence of spirituality and the signpost to a rich and successful life. I remember from the first time I met Hosny he expressed surprise that many parents wanted their children to study medicine at university and become doctors even if those children might themselves not want to do so. Why not study what your inner self craves, he asked. I asked him what he longed to study. Hosny, ever the humanist, answered "criminology." He wanted to understand what pushed people into lives of crime. Since that concentration was not offered at AUC, Hosny opted for Psychology and Journalism instead, both subjects that expressed his desire to understand what makes people tick and how to find ways towards solving problems rather than judging people in relation to them. It was this search for truth, this conviction, or even faith, in the need to unveil the positive aspects of human nature, that endowed Hosny with such refreshing honesty. No wonder Al-Ahram Weekly was born fully grown from day one. By Adel Beshai
