Life

Frankly, I do give a damn

British Iranian Darius Danesh has been cast as Rhett Butler in Trevor Nunn’s musical production of Margaret Mitchell’s classic novel, Gone With The Wind, which opens at the New London Theatre 22 April 2008, following previews from 4 April – booking (*) to 27 Sep 2008. He joins Jill Paice (Scarlett O'Hara), Madeleine Worrall (Melanie), and Edward Baker-Duly (Ashley Wilkes). Danesh was born in Glasgow and educated at Glasgow Academy. He then went on to study English and Philosophy at Edinburgh University. His father, Dr. Booth Danesh, is Iranian and his mother, Dr. Avril Danesh, is Scottish. He has two younger brothers; all three were named after Persian Kings.>>>

How the sun came to be

Long, long ago, before time began, before you or I were in the world yet, before your parent’s, parent’s parents were born, in the deep forest Foofoo, in the heart of New Zealand, there was quarrel between the lion, the zebra, the kangaroo, the elephant, and all the other animals in the deep forest Foofoo. It was all about the sun, they didn’t have on. Mind you, they didn’t even know what it was, until the lion declared: “Why can’t I see my beautiful feathers, it’s no good having no light.”>>>

در فرودگاه

قرار است سوار هواپیما شوید. در نتیجه باید از قسمت بازدید بدنی امنیتی و دستگاه‌های بمب‌یاب و فلزیاب فرودگاه رد شوید. همه‌چیزتان را درمی‌آورید و در دستگاه اشعه ایکس می‌گذارید و از زیر دروازه‌ی آهنی فلزیاب رد می‌شوید. موفقیت آمیز است و چراغ سبز به شما می‌دهد. ولی یک مامور لباس‌شخصی از دور یک دفعه می‌آید و نمی‌گذارد ماموران عادی امنیت فرودگاه به شما اجازه بدهند بروید به طرف گیت‌تان. می‌گوید که این کافی نیست و شما باید ثابت کنید که اسلحه با خودتان ندارید. می‌گویید: بابا، دستگاه خودتان چک کرد و گفت من هیچ فلزی با خودم ندارم. تو دیگر چه می‌گویی؟ او اصرار دارد که شما باید لخت شوید و تنها با شورت دوباره از زیر دروازه‌ی فلزیاب رد شوید.>>>

فرهنگ شخصی : ج

جهنم : محلی در آن دنیا خیلی گرم که آدم را شکنجه میدهند و بر گفته ادیان همه آدمهای گناهکار به آنجا میروند. مشکل این است که در این دنیا هم همچنین محلها وجود دارد ولی برای آدمهای بیگناه و اگر برگفته ادیان هر کس که میرقصد و آواز میخواند گناهکار است و به جهنم میروند . من ترجیح میدهم برم آنجا که همه آدمهای با حال هستند. جمهوری: حکومتی که در آن همه مردم حق و حقوق برابری دارند. معمولآ بهترین رژیم است ولی اگر به آن یک صفت اضافه کنند مثل جمهوری اسلامی منظور این است که همه با هم برابرند ولی مسلمانان برابر ترند و اینجاست که خراب میشود. >>>

Emissary of Love

There once was one; and then there were none. Under the blue dome of the evening sky, apart from the presence of God, there was absolutely no one…. Nestled between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz Mountains, in the city of wolves, lived a little boy with his grandfather. The little boy loved to hear stories and his grandfather had many to tell, and so they spent most of their days together. Years passed; the boy grew up and left home to live adventures of his own; chasing legends and dreaming of giants. Along his journey, he spent many nights under the blue dome of foreign skies, far from his city and far from anyone to guide him.>>>

The First Crime

No one has ever been sentenced to a sever punishment called education as young as I was. “I don’t know how to punish him anymore, I ran out of ideas, I’ve tried everything.” I heard my mother saying this with tears in her eyes to my father the night before my sentence was carried out. I was three years old then. The next morning I was trailing my father with a gloomy face to the Mactab (Those days in our town, house-wives who had some education thought neighboring children under school age for a small fee in their homes. The curriculum was learning alphabets and listening to the teacher reciting Koran)>>>

Shaherezad in Santa Monica

This play is about the love relationship between Shahram, an Iranian poet living in exile, and Shaherezad, an Iranian activist who had been in prison for 11 years during both the Shah and Khomeini's regimes. They both had lost their partners, Ezzat and Hamid, in Tehran execution fields in the 1980's. In Act I, they meet in Santa Monica, California, and fall in love. But in Act II, difficulties arise and in Act III, Shahram has to accept the fact that Shaherezad has begun to date an American professor, Sean >>>

شیر آزادی

مرحوم احمد بورقانی که البته من توفیق اندکی در هم صحبتی با ایشان داشتم اما با کارها و زحمت ها و خدمت های او آشنایی داشتم. به خصوص از وقتی که گشایش پس از انسدادی در جامعه ما رخ داد و مردم با آرای خود مردی را بر مصدر ریاست جمهوری نشاندند که از او توقعات بلند و بزرگی داشتند، علی الخصوص برداشتن قدم هایی استوار در راه آزادی و ایجاد جامعه مدنی. وعده های بزرگی هم از او شنیدند. ملموس ترین و دیدنی ترین بهره و بخش آن وعده ها، آزادی مطبوعات و مطبوعات آزاد بود. البته وزارت ارشاد در این امر مسیولیت اول و اهم و احسن را داشت. مرحوم بورقانی چنان چه همه ما اینک می دانیم به سمت معاون وزیر در امور مطبوعات در آن وزارت خانه مشغول به کار شد و آن چه که ما از جنس شکوفایی مطبوعات در دوران ریاست جمهوری آقای خاتمی می دانیم تا حدود بسیار زیادی مرهون دلیری های این از دست رفته عزیز است.>>>

My hero in the dark

We lived in a small town in Mazandaran and my father was respected and well known. He was a busy man and I, as a little girl, craved to spend more time with him. My father took me every Thursday night to the only movie theater of the town. Our family had its own special reserved seats. Row nine, seats 10 to 14. Every time we drove down the main street, I looked for that place. The brown brick building with an orange fluorescent sign at its side. I would stare at the letters forming the word “Cinema.” I could find it from afar, could recognize its shape, and I envied anyone standing in the black line waiting to buy a ticket. I would gaze at the colorful posters of actors and picture their adventures in my daydreams>>>

We live in a different age

We cannot judge the past from the standards of the present. Everyone will willingly admit this. But every one will not admit the equally absurd habit of judging the present by the standards of the past. The various religions have especially helped in petrifying old beliefs and faiths and customs, which may have had some use in the age and country of their birth, but which are singularly unsuitable in our present age. The past brings us many gifts; indeed, all that we have today of culture, civilization, science, or knowledge of some aspects of the truth, is a gift of the distant or recent past to us. It is right that we acknowledge our obligation to the past>>>

Ladies first

1350 - 1300 BC. Politically Influential Queen Napir Asu, Elam, Khuzistan: Wife of King Untash-Napirasha who built many great buildings and temples in the area including, the Choga Zanbil near Sush (Susa). Her well preserved and headless status was discovered at Susa and is currently at the Louvre Museum in Paris. She is dressed in the same outfit as the Elamite goddess Pinikir and very likely served and represented this divinity at the temple of Ninhursag where she was discovered>>>

Funny Persian

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Language of Terror

It was only later, long after the events of 9/11, that I finally realised I was a terrorist. The realization did not come easily, or all at once. After all, I had not planted any bombs or hurt anyone (not even verbally). I had not visited secret training camps in Pakistan . I had not even done anything as rash as Samina Malik, who was convicted of Terrorism recently by a British court for writng Poetry about Jihad. (Poetry has always been a dangerous activity, as all tyrants know). No. It was something far more insidious. >>>