NOROOZ

In October 2003, I wrote an article about how the world is changing, how the information era is making what we perceived as normal life become obsolete. No more walks to the grocery store, online shopping has taken over Mr Petal shops and Amazon is the way to go, (oh hell where I am they deliver a can of coke with a phone call…for Free!).

The change is so vast that we are seeing classic symptoms; regimes collapsing; Old orders retreating; Essential commodity costs rocketing, and earthquakes telling us as men we are certainly not the super power. By the time we reach the equinox, on March 21 god knows where we maybe!

Radio Pasfarda was going in the background something about spring cleaning and splashed my train of thoughts and made me smile as I was preparing the lentils for the Sabzeh, and thinking to myself how Eid has changed for us through years.

As children we got excited about Norouz, schools were out; we got to go shopping for new cloths and of course all that Eidy and shirini. The few days of eid didani and the journey to the seaside, the damp air and the green mountains….

As we grow older, we got excited about Norouz, outside of Iran, as it was the one thing that was a constant reminder of who we are and where we came from. The moment of ‘Sal Tahvil’, the family around the 7sin, the radio and the wispers of my mother as she was quietly reading ‘ Ya Moghaleb al Gholoob’… as I came to this thought I felt a drop of tear dropped the lentils, I realized how Eid has changed and how I will miss those cherished moments…

As I wiped my tears away, I ran to answer the laptop ringing….. Skype…. and I had a missed call from my sister-in-law..... as I was about to call her back.... the ringing went on again...... Dad was on other side smiling like always and not letting the distance ruin the moment…. he was telling me how they started the spring cleaning and how mum is giving him a hard time and I laughed as I told him about what Farshid Manafi was saying about spring cleaning on radio farda and he loved it….he told me about the gardening and how he is planting different colour hyacinth this years…. and mum was telling me how he is not listening to him and not doing it the right way….. and I loved every moment of it….. and although  I couldn’t touch them at that moment but the warmth in my heart gave me a good feeling of Eid…. and then the pain of the distance…..

It's getting better every day. No, really, it is. It's just that, well, that's a bit like saying that one is getting closer to their destination with every step. Comforting, until you realize that you still have several thousand miles to go, and walking there will take ages. Then again, at least, if you are walking, you are on the road. That puts you in the best possible position from which you can hitch a ride or catch a bus. That is improvement… right?. No matter how slow progress seems to be, it has the potential to speed up….

I called my sister inlaw back and there it was…. cute face of our nephew … going ‘hiya’…… were we this clever and witty when we were 18 months old….. it is amazing how the world has changed the way we interact and in this little kids life, Skype is a norm and he tells me about his ‘Upsy daisy’ and what he is watching or eating and getting excited and asking after his uncle ….

As I got back to the Sabzeh, I thought March is due to be a very good month. Not, perhaps, for everyone. But, that’s not to say, though, that we can’t enjoy every moment of it while we can. There's sometimes a big difference between something that feels good and something that does you good. Indeed, things that feel good at first can sometimes end up making us feel rather bad. We all go through experiences that are difficult. Tense; Challenging; But it may be the only way to arrive at an outcome that's much desired and that generates a long-lasting glow of delight, relief and inspiration.

I put the Lentils by the window, watered the roses and turned radio farad off... had a look around room to see where is the best location for 7sin this year and where to position the laptop with the skype on…. as I certainly plan to sit around the 7sin with my family and start 1390 as it should be, feeling loved and cherished.