Other

Lucky Dog!

I could hardly wait to go back to Hashtgerd near Karaj for another visit with the beautiful dogs and the amazing staff at Vafa Shelter. Most of you may have read the story of my first visit there back in march of 2009 I was thrilled to see Mr. Karam and Mr. Gholam still looking after the dogs, cleaning up, welcoming the visitors and... I arrived in Iran early Friday morning. After settling in at my in-laws home, I called Mrs. Esna-Ashari, the shelter’s director to arrange a visit. I had collected many donations to deliver to them>>>

Don't kill your enemy

Have you entangled in an awkward moment when someone asks you a simple question that requires you to give an answer that can fill up a nine-volume book? It happened to me years ago. It happened when I was a ripe tomato out of college and got hired in a reputable American company. My colleagues as a gesture of professionalism towards new hires stopped by my cubical and introduced themselves. A foreign colleague, perhaps out of curiosity, came to my cube and said, “hi”. After a short introduction he asked me where I was from>>>

Art for Free

what music or musicians are worth for people! And in specific; for Iranians! Are Iranians art lovers or are they art owners? In order to answer this question, let’s study the generations. The generation that has grown up with Internet and is familiar with the accessibility it brought with itself, is generally unfamiliar with the concept of paying for music. It is not only not paying attitude for music that is important but also the culture this generation brought with itself>>>

روزها بلند بود و دیوارها کوتاه

مدرسه که تعطیل میشد و تابستانِ زودرس نَفَس بهار را می گرفت دیگه ول بودیم توی «لین» (کوچه) تا اول مهر و باز شدن دوباره مدرسه. روزها بلند بود و گرما کافر و مسلمون نمی شناخت! پدر و مادرها نهار را که میخوردند دراز می کشیدند توی اتاق نیمه تاریک زیر پنکه سقفی. بادبزن حصیری هم کنار دستشان بود و تنگ پلاستیکی آب یخ بالای سرشان. میخوابیدند تا کمر روز بشکند و زهر گرما گرفته شود. سکوتِ در و دیوار، دین آدم را درمیآورد! >>>

Disney's Shahnameh

Persia is one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known, so it give me a sense of its vast history, the magnificence of its architecture and design, literary heritage and imagination... "Prince of Persia" is a fantasy based upon history, so we hired an amazing team of designers who did an enormous amount of cultural research into Persia and its vast empire at that time. But at the same time, we gave them the freedom to invent a world especially designed for the film>>>

Religion of Love

There has been a lot of historic debate about the religious affiliations of Shams-i Tabrizi and Mowlana Jallallud’in Rumi. Much of the conjecture about whether or not Shams-i Tabrizi or Rumi were Shi'a, Sunni, Shafe'i, Hannafi or Ismaili is just that, pure speculation. Shams-i Tabrizi did not belong to any specific denomination or sect, and if he did, nobody really knows; all scholars agree that history is not clear about the life and works of Shams-Tabrizi. The only text ascribed to him, "Maqalaat-e Shams" was compiled by others who attributed certain words to him, and they are not written in stone by Shams-i Tabrizi himself>>>

I am stronger than my fears

There are so many things in life that scare me. I am extremely afraid of heights, not a fan of diving, and also dislike small tight places. There are few more on my list that I won’t share but amongst them are also the fear of swimming in the ocean and speed. You might ask yourself how did I pick Triathlon as my favorite sport if I am afraid of swimming in the open water and speed. Well, I didn’t pick the sport. It picked me :o) Many years back a coworker mentioned his son-in-law was doing an Ironman event. At that time the word "Ironman" to me was the ultimate!>>>