Pack of Cards By Madame Sosostris Ramadan, my dears, is always such a lovely month, partly because I constantly find myself inundated with invitations to sumptuous iftars with friends old and new. This week, I had the honour of attending two such events, both of which were perfectly reflective of the religious harmony that pervades our complex society.

The first such event I want to tell you about was hosted by Bishop Basanty of Helwan and Ma'sara, who brought Muslims and Copts together at the Monastery of St Barsoum in Ma'sara for a splendid evening. Sayed Mesh'al, the minister of military production, and Ali Mahgoub, a former awqaf (Religious Endowments) minister, were amongst the attendees, as were MPs from both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. The artistic set was also well represented by singers Mohamed Nouh and Samir El- Iskandarani, as well as caricaturist and TV presenter Ramsis.

Meanwhile, my dear friend Sameh Fawzi, a researcher and editor at Watani newspaper, and his lovely wife Sherine Shawqi, held a private iftar party for colleagues in both the media and non- governmental spheres. The idea was to bring these people together in an informal setting, as well as convey a feeling of national unity. Al- Ahram Weekly staffers Gamal Nkrumah, Galal Nassar, Hani Mustafa and Tarek Hassan were amongst the attendees, as were chat show host Atef Kamel, Nabil Abdel-Fattah of Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, Mounir Ayyad, a founding member of the Committee for Justice and Peace, and Hisham Gaafar the editor of Islam Online.

I have to admit, my sweets, that with all the Ramadan related activities this month, I have been a bit lax about letting you know about all the great art exhibits going on around town. This week, I was highly impressed by Hoda Mohamed Saleh Kira's work, which is being shown at the Applied Arts Faculty gallery. Entitled "Popular Vision for Children", the weeklong exhibition was opened by Adel El-Hefnawi, the faculty's dean, and features a group of paintings, which have been printed and dyed on textiles.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is one year old, my dears, and to celebrate, the library recently signed an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to hold a celebration at UNESCO headquarters. Speeches are to be delivered by UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura as well as the organisation's permanent Egyptian representative, Ahmed Refaat, who will be speaking on behalf of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Moufid Shehab, who is also deputy head of UNESCO's executive council. The celebration includes an exhibition about the Bibliotheca, the screening of a documentary, and a concert featuring the Cairo Opera House Arabic Music Ensemble, conducted by Gamal Salama.

To celebrate the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister and a great friend of Egypt, the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) held a special day for children at Al-Salam Theatre last week. One hundred and seventy six Egyptian children won golden, silver and bronze medals for participating in the "Glimpses of India" painting competition, which was held at 385 schools in Cairo, Giza and various other governorates. The competition was open to schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 17, and youngsters from Aswan and Damanhour participated for the first time this year. Pop singer Hisham Abbas was on hand to deliver the prizes to the winners, in the presence of Indian ambassador to Egypt, Satnam Jit Singh, as well as Karima Abul- Fatah, the Education Ministry's artistic adviser, and Kanchan Gupta, the director of MACIC. This is the ninth consecutive year that the contest has been held.

Speaking of India, last Tuesday, the Press Syndicate's Economic Committee organised a symposium, in cooperation with the Indian Embassy, on "India-Egypt Economic and Commercial Relations". The event focussed on the growing trade and investment links between the two countries, featuring discussions on preferential trade agreements and other important matters. The speakers included the embassy's political and economic adviser, Vishnu Prakash, Alexandria Carbon Black Managing Director K N Agarwal, as well as senior officials from Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Social Fund for Development. Amit Gupta, the Chief Operating Officer of NIIT VirgiTech (a large Indian IT training firm, which operates in 36 countries, including Egypt) was also on hand to provide words of wisdom to the gathering.

The Cairo Opera House, my sweets, continues to reach out to other opera houses across the globe. Recently, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company took part in a dance festival in London, before heading for India, where it performed several modern and classical ballets. The company, directed by Abdel-Moneim Kamel, has also been invited by Russia's Bolshoi Theatre to perform the Zorba ballet in a Moscow theatre. Kamel has been working hard to expand this partnership to include Bolshoi performances in Egypt, as well as the establishment of a ballet school at the Cairo Opera House using teachers and dance experts from the Bolshoi. The Cairo Opera Company, meanwhile, is taking part -- for the second consecutive year -- in France's Music and Singing Festival. While they are there, the troupe will also put on a series of concerts at the Egyptian Cultural Centre. The company features stars like Amira Ahmed, Asmaa Said, Omniya Samir and Walid Haydar.