in need of an eye examination

while icwa is over for now it did make me send a hilarious email to someone that i totally don’t know (my theory re: icwa making me blind turned out to be completely true). in a moment of blindness, i totally misread the name of the person i responded to, but he was kind enough to not take it personally.

in non-icwa related news, the april showers have come early to nyc... i like to think of it as washing away the winter or something poetic like that. besides its supposed to be more conducive to studying which is what i should be doing... yeah right. more like spending hours staring at the page and dreaming of fabulous summer trips. good thoughts like these can almost make me forget its raining outside.

the river's end

i almost forgot to report back on last night which was anything but a disappointment. at least not in terms of “the river’s end” . it was a fantastic experience and quite refreshing given the artistic risk taking that i think definitely paid off... iranian cinema has produced quite a few gems in recent years, many of which have been recognized and honored in the international arena. and this one was no exception. filled with beautiful images of esfahan, a beautiful city in central iran and formally the capital of the persian empire, the innovative camera shots and continuous narrative made for a truly unique movie experience.

the movie was a poignant tale of a son “haunted” by dreams of his father… and i think the director’s choice of shooting the movie solely from the main protagonists perspective added to the audience’s general reaction. a number of people voiced their unease at the end of the movie and seemed to write it off because it did not have much action or a specific story. they had paid good money for entertainment and felt short-changed when they had to watch an artistic tale that had no clear conclusion (they were obviously not the art house crowd or in the mood to do any serious thinking about the movie). but i think the audience was more profoundly affected by the subject matter and the images than they were willing to admit. i think for many it presented the kinds of life altering questions that we often dare not ask for fear that the answers we find will have to be acted upon... for the kind of community stuck in a non-existent world of nostalgia, i guess being reminded of our own everyday problems can be a painful experience.

for me that’s what made the movie so beautiful. a movie’s ability to provoke emotions and thoughts that we would otherwise refuse to think about is a magical power… pain is a part of life that at times needs to be embraced (i’m not advocating self-harm here or anything, but just supporting the idea that pain is not necessarily a bad thing).

all that said, there was a comment made last night that i find very difficult to comprehend. the river in the movie is the zayandehrood, a river that meanders through the city of esfahan and ends by disappearing in a marsh (hence the name of the movie). at the end of the movie one of the commentators drew an analogy between the movie’s stagnant marshland and current iranian society. i guess that can be one take on things but if the society is really as dead and stagnating as such commentators choose to believe then how is it possible for such amazing works of art to emerge? similarly, following the previous movie (shah-re ziba) one of the commentators casually claimed that love is dead in iran. how is that possible? we had just finished watching a movie about love – how does it make sense to say that “love is dead” in a society that is able to produce such an exquisite work??

small steps...

so i finally have the preliminary statement and facts down on paper. i'm sure no one in the world needs to know this but i'm writing it anyway since this has consumed so much of my time that i feel entitled to blogging abt it. i still have to work through the arguments section and figure out the citations. i'm sure chris (my awesome prof) will be disappointed with it... and that's the only thing i care abt and the thing that keeps me going right now. the only thing worse than him being disappointed with the work product is not getting any work product so i really have to finish this thing.

another day in the life of...

to be inside on a beautiful day like today surely sucks.
to lack the requisite creativity to make this brief shine sucks even more.
to know that i’m losing my eyesight working on a fake case is a very depressing thought indeed.

the only redeeming thing about this day is the thought of watching “river’s end” tonight. it better be good. i think it will be. i think it will be great.
and now i’ve set myself up for disappointment. way to go kid.

another spectacular win!!

iran won their latest qualifying game for the world cup in style before a stadium packed with 100,000 roaring fans. i don't know why i like this game so much given that i'm not even allowed to go to the stadium to watch the game... but it's the national passtime. i can't wait till next summer when they play on the world stage in germany... if the team keeps playing the way they have in the last year or two then they may advance to the second round, and perhaps even beyond. wishful thinking is a great pleasure...

you can see a hundred pictures from today's festivities here: http://www.tehran24.com/photos/index-gameIJ.html

a long night of icwa

the indian child welfare act is going to be the death of me... or i'm going to turn in a sub-standard paper and do a crap job in my oral argument. through out the year i've loved lawyering unconditionally, but i think this latest assignment has been very trying on our relationship. let's see if we can get through it without any blood or tears.

end of melodramatic transmission.

helping out where i can...

we have unlimited access to westlaw and lexis – two online databases chocked full of legal resources. so i didn’t mind helping out a lawyer who came to the library today and asked me to pull up some cases for him. i was working on my own petty brief for lawyering and he showed me his judgment that he had just received from the appeal court where he had successfully had over $11,000,000 worth of damages against his client dismissed. what’s most impressive is that he’s just the “little guy” working on his own... so printing out a couple of articles for him didn’t seem like a big deal at all, although the girl sitting across from me was more royally pissed off by him and said i should never have complied with his request.

on a totally different note, more and more of my peers and friends are turning out to be “adults”, with lives that entail responsibilities, spouses/fiancés, and children/children-to-be. i guess i shouldn’t be daunted by this but somehow i am… it’s not that i’m afraid of growing up (okay, so i’m a little scared), but somehow i think i must be missing out on a lot. i know in the game of life you can’t have everything you want but i reckon this is a time to get my priorities straight... if only i could reproduce my own idyllic childhood for my children i would be more than happy.

happy, happy new year!

sal-e noo mobarak!!

as we all sat around our haft-sin i realized that it was the first year that we actually counted down the seconds with everyone who celebrates norooz around the world. it was an awesome feeling being surrounded by people i love, facing a future full of possibility and giving thanks for all our blessings. the year is 365 days and 4 hours long so the start of the new year changes every year, but the unique thing is that everyone who celebrates norooz does so at the same point in time…

there is a great deal of respect for elders in the iranian tradition and it takes many forms. it manifested itself this morning in the time we spent on the phone to our “elders” and also receiving calls from our “youngers” (and of course by “our” i really mean my parents). the next week is booked off for receiving guests… at least it is for my parents :)

and now it’s time for mahee-polo. here’s to a wonderful, prosperous and joyous new year.

i did it again…

sprained my back.
sound painful?
it feels even worse.
i’m limping around.
should be in bed.
actually should be out enjoying the last days of the year.
had a fantastic lunch with my mum’s friend who is a lawyer and i spent the entire time trying to figure out how she manages to work no more than 40 hours a week. she’s all into rumi which makes her an even cooler person.
dad wants me to go to the computer store with him now… more hi-tech gadgetry needed.
as strange as it sounds i wish i was in ny now in my own “space”. of course i wish my family was just a subway ride away, not a plane ride.

satellite tv

oh. my. gosh.
so much bullshit packed into hundreds and hundreds of channels!
my parents finally installed satellite tv today (i don’t understand why because no one in our house ever has time to watch any tv). so i spent an hour or two perusing through the channels this afternoon. my assessment thus far: there are a lot of talentless people out there wasting their money by creating more and more and more channels... i doubt that the theory that more variety is always good holds true when you go beyond a saturation point. the sad thing is that people probably watch these channels, have their favorites “shows” and “presenter” in satellite-land. what a waste of resources...

dispatch 1: old watering holes

today i was loitering at my old alma mater and it’s certainly not as much fun as it once was. i’m very much aware of the fact that everyone around here is younger than i am (apart from the grad students and the large number of people who’ve stayed on to take a fifth year). but it feels like i’ve outgrown the place.

when i first moved to nyc, i thought it was a great choice. but after a few weeks i was really homesick and i remember thinking about possibly transferring to uoft in spite of the debt load i’d undertaken... but now i couldn’t imagine doing anything of the kind. i spent some of the best years of my life here and i cherish the memories but i don’t think i necessarily want to come back here for more school. there’s just so much of the world left to see and so living left to be done that i don’t want to tie myself down to any one place.

homeward bound

i’m sitting in the airport right now and although i won’t actually be able to post this entry until i get to toronto i’m writing it anyway because i’m seriously bored out of my head. that’s why i always love having travel buddies to fill in the waiting hours with good conversation. apparently there is wireless access here but i’m too much of a bum to figure it out right now…

the flight to arizona taking off from the gate next to mine just announced that they oversold their tickets and they are offering to pay some volunteers $200 plus pay for meals and a hotel room to stay here for an extra night. that doesn’t sound like such a bad deal.

random act of kindness: i’m sooooo grateful to the japanese man who helped me carry my suitcase up the stairs this morning. i’m not a weakling per se but i was being a real ‘girl’ as i tried to lug the darned thing up a flight of stairs so i didn’t hesitate to take the offer of help. so, this is my anonymous thank you to the random generous person.

*i have obviously managed to make it home and am able to access the internet... the descent into toronto airport was amazing: this city is so beautiful and well laid out... it's going to be a great week:)

arghhhhh

i was having a wonderful day. absolutely wonderful. couldn't be better for the last day of classes before spring break.
and then life decided to intervene: i can't find my id card - what the ...? i used it to swipe into the library at 1:30pm and when could not find it when i left class at 4. so i reckon it must be in the building SOMEWHERE. i wish someone would turn it in.
not having my id certainly foils my well laid plans for the afternoon. and it will be hassle to replace when i get back next year (think persian new year). and i even liked my picture :(

burning the keyboard

this blog is fueling my procrastination. or more accurately it’s turning out to be a perfect way for me to avoid doing any real work while camped out at the library. it’s so easily to fool people into thinking that i’m actually being productive when i’m burning up the keyboard.

and after having spent most of the day trying to figure out the intricacies of preliminary injunctions and the indian child welfare act i feel like i have little to show for it (other than the dead trees for which i still feel very guilty). but i can confidently say that my plans for next year’s ilsa symposium are coming along nicely – yes i know it’s totally unrelated and way too early to be thinking about it but i just can’t help it. impending work and looming deadlines always gets my creative juices flowing...

saving trees

the wild wind howling prevented me from falling asleep as quickly as desired last night. living on the 10th floor certainly has it’s advantages (ability to watch beautiful sunsets on a regular basis) but the wind thing was a total bummer. so i used the time as productively as possible by figuring out some of the as yet undiscovered features of my phone. turns out i can draw on this thing and compose music!!! freakin’ awesome.

and now its time for the drudgery that is legal research. with only two days left before i leave for home i have to do a load of research, and kill a bunch of trees and in the process destroy my eyesight some more. i think i wouldn’t mind legal research so much if i actually knew how to effectively use westlaw or lexis... but for now i stumble across things haphazardly and the free printing at school certainly doesn’t help me narrow things down and before i know it i’ve accumulated an impenetrable pile of cases, law review articles and stuff that i don’t know what to do with. if i were in the supreme court i think i would consider the option of limiting court decisions to 5 pages or something more manageable... at least it would go a long way in saving the world's forests.

but right now i’m meeting m for lunch which should be fun as always.

endless bounties

i got a job! and they really really really want me!!
turns out that my potential-future-boss had called and left a message on my home number earlier today and having received no response she decided to email me about it. wow. coming down from my ecstatic high i realized that now i have to choose between some really amazing options. and if the law firm calls with an offer by the end of the week things will just get all the more interesting.

the return of winter

today’s snow storm seemed so surreal. perhaps storm is too strong a word but it did look pretty crazy as i stared out of the window during class this afternoon. after the gorgeous day we had yesterday i didn’t want to believe the weather channel’s predictions of snow. but it was true. as i was walking down broadway on my way back from my interview, i was totally consumed by thoughts of grandeur and whatnot and hence totally oblivious to the fat flakes falling down around me. i didn’t even see t as i walked by and was totally startled when i heard my name called out.

you’d think that after a couple of crazy canadian winters i’d be used to it all by now... but to be honest there’s nothing romantic about the prospects of slush-filled roads and cold snow blown in your face. i need to find a warmer climate.

sensory overload: persian masters

classical persian music is exquisite. watching it live is unbelievable. more than anything, it transplanted me to a world that i think is mainly imaginary, an iran that only exists in my mind. but it’s a beautiful journey nonetheless. a world filled with poetry, love and history, colored by a trace of sadness. i’m grateful to shajarian and his fellow master’s* for taking me to places that are otherwise so very very very hard to reach.

*this is a reference to the ensemble’s official name: masters of persian music. and if you missed them last night its not too late – they have another show in nyc next sunday. check out the world music institute for tickets.

material obsessions

i would never describe myself as a materialist person and would like to think that i can resist the brand marketing pretty well. hmm, well it's true for the most part... but there are two brands that i just luv! pumas, my oldest obsession, began when with the purchase of my first pair of suades back in the late 90s when pumas were actually hard to come by. i remember being inspired by a picture of tommy smith and john carlos, two african-american athletes at the 1968 olympics, taking off their pumas and giving the black power salute to protest racism as they received their medals. my other obsession, mountain equipment coop, better known as mec makes the best bags ever. i already have a bunch but while perusing their site today i came across a few more that i would like to acquire. the desire is sooo strong. what can i do? i’m tempted to set up a “wish list” but i know it will simply encourage my materialistic tendencies. but in my defense, i haven’t drank coke in over 4 years as a sign of protest so i’m not a lost cause yet.

brooklyn highlights

brooklyn’s growing on me… like a fungus it’s spreading pretty fast. we went out to a friend’s house last night and he showed us around his ‘hood and cooked up a storm on our return. i guess i can say that i was pleasantly surprised by the part of town where he lives... it certainly had “character”: old houses, terrific grocery stores and even a quintessential bookstore. all that being said, i still can forget about my dream of living in a manhattan loft. something about the unconventional design, high ceilings and an exposed brick interior gets me very excited. but i’ll have to hold off for a while... in the meantime, brooklyn may end up being an uber-cool experience.

the magic of kleenex

the tissues came in very handy.
and i had a glimpse of the idealism that propelled me to come here in the first place.
whether my client wins her case or not, the fact that we were there with her made a huge difference. she finally had people on her side who helped her get her story out.

today there are a bunch of “admitted students” around school asking the typical questions that they do. it’s strange on some level because although they may be deciding before different schools i doubt anyone will take advice my advice on thinking long and hard about whether this is what you really want to do and whether you want to do it now. i wish someone had sat me down last year and explained the virtues of taking a year or two off... as my experience yesterday reaffirmed this is something that i want to do but perhaps coming to it all with a bit more experience would allow me to get more out of the process. too late for that now but the way things have been going recently i can't really complain...

real lawyering

I love the lawyering class we have here at NYU. It’s real and interesting albeit a lot of work. We interact with pseudo-clients and work on real legal problems. The mediation we had last week was a terrific example: we had to deal with distressed clients, a demanding mediator and some hostile opposing counsel. And I’m even more glad for it now that I’ve signed up to represent a real live client before an administrative law judge at the dept of labor. When your client starts crying and tells you how the system has screwed her for the last 10 months and you are in a position to help her, then you begin to appreciate your role in the grand scheme of things. It reminded me of the reason why I’m here right now. The hearing is tomorrow and I’ve got to put everything together and hope that the client pulls through. One thing is certain – I’ll be taking a box of tissues with me just in case.