That boy is dangerous
Adil Hassan is a London-born actor-writer trained at Guildhall. His tragicomic, absurdist work finds epic scale in the domestic. Of Egyptian-Indonesian heritage, he tells stories from within. He is now making his debut documentary on Egyptian fathers in diaspora.
This is an excerpt from a longer series of oral history interviews by Adil Hassan with his dad and uncle, exploring themes of migration, finding home, and fatherhood. Here he talks about imagining, daring, to build a life in London, explore and take initiative to make things happen. London survival becomes comes with physical exhaustion. Quote: “I worked now like seven days a week, three jobs… Sometimes… I had to sleep in the bus.”
Transcript
So I was very excited. And anyway, choose eight of us, and the they had to get the visas for everybody and tickets and the one of the, the one responsible about this journey, organize it, ask who can get? ... Who can get visas and buy tickets for all of you, and I raise my hand, I can! I can. even I didn't know where is a British embassy, but I raised. I said, ahh I can. So they gave me the money and the things to get the visa and get the tickets. So I traveled from my town, Minya to Cairo, because all embassies and consulate in Cairo. I have to travel. So I got the passports for everybody. Got the money. And when I went there, I managed to get everything. I got the visa, tickets, everything, and I was required to to come back the same day after they get all that. To get back to Minya with the passport and visas, so I was bit tired, I said oh, it won't be, I mean a big problem if I stay one more night. So I stayed one night there, and the governor there in Minya became mad. Everybody there organise it say, what happened? "
He took the money and he didn't come back visa and didn't come back, didn't even call us and say anything." What made them mad? Because I I talked to one of my colleagues, the one who supposed to travel to London with me, I told him "what do you think, I'm going to stay, another three months, in UK? I won't go back straight to Egypt after after finish the course. And he said, "Okay, Hassan, are you sure he serves me? Says, Yeah." And what happened is, he is big mouth. I said that between me and him, private and nobody knows. Just stay after everybody leave, we stay, try our luck. Discover, explore the new nation, because when I came in UK here, they put us in a five star hotel. I and I had very good time in hotel, and also there is the, they organized tour for us will go many places to get some knowledge and experience, I find it's too much different than where I live.
So I was very excited to explore London or UK. So in a way, that man, the big mouth, when he spoke everything he said, the mayor knew what was going on. So this is he said "that that boy is dangerous." Me. That boy is dangerous. He shouldn't go to London. I Have to stop him. He has to stay here. Never go to UK anyway, his advisor told him how? he got his own visa and his passport, he got his ticket, he can go. We cannot stop him. So what happened is, the solution is he said, "okay, okay, he will go. But everybody has to sign like has to pay compensation. 50,000 Egyptian pound that time was a lot of money. He has, if he didn't come back to Minya, he has to pay 50,000 he owe us 50,000 and everybody has to sign for it. I was the first one to sign, and everybody was mad. "Ah you're stupid, why, why, no I'm not going to stay there, yeah, why I have to pay 50 pounds, 50,000 pounds."
I said I pay. If they- I didn't come, I pay. He said "are you crazy?" And the one I told him that to stay with me there he is the first one come back to Egypt, go back to Egypt. So everybody, we had a leader. I told them, no, I'm going to stay whatever happened, I'm going to stay in London. And everyone went back to Egypt.