The Compere, originally uploaded by malyousif.
Sameer Hameed (Abu Hameed) is the Funeral Compere par excellence! He MC’d my dad’s funeral (rest his soul) and left us to deal with our grief, without having to deal with the other bits and pieces like ensuring that there is enough refreshments for people coming to pay their respects, arranged food to be served at the proper time and generally took good care of everyone.
Abu Hameed’s been in the business for 18 years, and he only serves those he _wants_ to serve! Very picky. But this guy is an act on his own, knows the tea/coffee/water/juice preference of every single high official in Bahrain from the King to the pauper!
I’ll put up a blog post about him soon, while the memory is still fresh.
Thanks Abu Hameed!
Comments
Interesting, y36eey il 3fyah. 18 years is impressive, thumbs up for that and to remember everybody’s drink is sweet.
Impressive. I wish we have someone like him around here. I remember how my uncle’s funeral was exhausting for us because we had to do everything ourselves.
In times of stress or extreme sadness, you learn to see who the caretakers are… this gentleman would still be taking care of others in a supportive role if he was doing other work…thank God for people like him, they lighten one’s load,
Ingrid
i swear this guy knows every single bahraini.
hahahaha ABU HAMEEED (sameero il X is his preffered nickname :P) the last person is expect to see here! A very close friend to my family and respected by everyone in the manama “makharka” area,i practically spend every single late night of muharram around this guy as he bosses us around to clean the tight “zaraneeik” around matam zabar 🙂 and there is much more to this guy than funerals, he knows EVERYONE and can help u with ANYTHING! god didnt expect him to get me a bit home sick 🙁 hahaha
Please mahmood do a post more in depth about him! an interview will be amazing, trust me, theres many AMAZING stories you can get from him !
Yes if you’re from Makharga and over 30 this is the guy who will probably put you in your grave and help your family with funeral arrangments at the matam. I even saw him in Duraz helping out.
My father looked like shit after he died…due to chemotherapy. There was a big stink as to whether there should be an open casket or a closed casket funeral.
As it turned out (and I was sitting on the front row with my brothers), it was a closed casket funeral. After that, the funeral people opened the casket and then everyone filed by my father’s “presentable” corpse as I and my brothers watched. One has to give these kind of people credit for something. That is their job, after all.
But, what’s this stuff about refreshments? In my country, that is a part produced by the survivors back at the house; which we did.
“But, what’s this stuff about refreshments? In my country, that is a part produced by the survivors back at the house; which we did.”
PS:
We call this a “wake.”
Abu Hameed is a real jewel.
He took care of every detail during the three-days open house held by my family upon my return from exile.
I have been equally impressed watching his performance duriing several fathaa he MCed.
He is a true professional. And very pleasant. Could pass a salaam from me too!AbuRasool
Sameer is going for Municipality election soon, and i think he will win.
Rayyash I asked him that, and he said that no, it was his brother who was standing, while I am pretty sure it is him rather than his brother!
In any case, I didn’t know that he was THAT famous! I know that Mazin asked for him specifically to MC his father’s funeral which was held in Diraz, and I’ve seen him in several other funerals too. I’ve never seen him do the wedding thing, though that’s not too far fetched really as the duties are about the same.
I agree with AbuRasool, Sameer is a jewel for these things and I think he knows too that he is valuable. I’ve certainly added his telephone number in my mobile, just in case!
This guy looks like the most Bahraini man in the entire world. All power to the guy for it – hope he does well in the elections too. Sounds like he has two attributes of a successful politician: knowing everyone and remembering exactly what everyone wants.
A Bahrani Gem…. ma fi a7ad ma yi3arfa … min 5idaam il hussain 3la goolata
Fortunate of you to find such an excellent person. 🙂 Glad it went as “well” as you can expect of such times.
my sincerest condolenceson the loss of your father….I was just using you as an example to a teacher friend of mine, who teaches social exceptence in high school, and realized your father had passed; I have been there and send you all my understanding and energy. May the warmth of your friends be with you in the hard times. hugzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz from Texas.
River
I am sorry but I find it all rather sinister to be congratulating this “Master of Ceremonies” in such glowing and flowery terms.
If any of you were lucky enough to have been associated with the sadly diseased, you would feel very angry and insulted that Mahmood is turning the spotlight upon somebody wwho is only half the person that we have sadly lost.
Paul,
Sometimes,you need to understand the culture of the people you are dealing with before judging them from your own redneck perspective.
Mahmood, and the rest of us, have nothing but respect for the Late Mr. Al-Yousif and yet we respect and celebrate, with good cause, those of us who are still part of society and continue to do good the best way we know how.
I personally have never heard of Sameer Hameed, given that I am not part of the “Manami culture” but nevertheless, do send him 3 hail mary’s just for being recognized as a service provider par excellence!!
Cheers everybody…
Yeah, I heard he was running for elections this year! I can’t wait for the coming elections to unfold.
He was MCing another funeral maatem this morning at Ma’atem Haji Abbas in Manama, in our old neighbourhood which I have not been to for probably more than 15 years! This funeral was for the Khalaf family who lost their mother recently. I know one of her sons and went to pay my respects this morning and he was there, but this time with his eldest son Hameed helping out. He said that he’s trying to train him up as he might be retiring soon!
Joker, he’s running for the municipal elections rather than the parliamentary one. Just to clarify for others.
Since we talking about elections: take a look at this, a project that tries to make democracy more democratic: liquid democracy
It happens to be that is been initiated by an American (converted) Muslim, Subhana’Allah.
The problem: http://beyondpolitics.org/The_Problem.htm
A solution: http://beyondpolitics.org/Beyond_Politics_Intro.htm
The website: http://beyondpolitics.org
Imagine this to be implemented in Bahrain! Give it some thoughts and -God willing – *we* will make it a reality one day.