a link

because i'm obsessed (just a little bit).

remembering

i like to pinpoint the first instance when/where i met people who have played an imp part in my life. these instances involving some of my fav people were special and out-of-the-ordinary in their nature (at least that’s how i like to think about it). the first moment might not even have been a time when we spoke but that’s besides the point. for the sake of self-indulgence i’ll recall a few:
a. next door neighbor and culture guru... i ran into him, quite literally, on the first night, which was comical to say the least. so greatful for the introduction of chekhov’s shorts and for always being a source of great conversation.
a. i refused to shake hands at our first encounter and well, the blue suade shoes have kept us connected over the last couple of years.
h/s. i think the email i received as part of the ilsa recruitment drive from h/s was a deciding factor in choosing nyc... and super s has been a source of good times (or at least good food) ever since.
a. our shared shajarian moment will remain forever etched in my memory.
m. i remember wondering why one of the nicest and most stylish girls in class had bothered to come along and watch a persian flick (an oscar winning persian flick, but persian none-the-less). it took a while for her glow to warm my life, but she’s an awesome source of inspiration and fellow lost-soul.
i. first day of law school and i swear he must have been the first person i met. his first two words shaped a whole year of my life.
p. sitting in some kind of mandatory meeting, i spied the beard across the room. months later, sans beard, a new smile was added to my favorites.
k. a thoughtful contributor in my favorite philosophy class i knew the iranian features were unmistakable... and thanks to the internet and the web of blogs i realized i was so very right (even if it took a whole year).
j. i plucked up the courage to talk to the most interesting person on a panel on summer public interest work, and well i’ve never regretted it since.
c. first day introductions in class were fun cos i knew that my partner was going to be a class act to follow for the rest of the year (and probably career/life).
t. smart and brash and totally honest. i can’t believe i didn’t see him around res at all for a whole friggin year but end of year parties are really great for new beginnings.
t. unraveling the kifayah mystery was a joyous time and well, i’ll just leave it at that.
d. inspired from the first minute by d’s dedication and ability to juggle so much and still read a million blogs a day. a future judge of some kind (s.c.? who knows...)
z. there’s one first glimpse that i can’t remember but that’s cos i was 2 and well i don’t remember anything from those days.

for once...

i'm glad i'm not in nyc.

i get the regular emails from school as i’m still technically enrolled. so there was a somewhat evil smile on my face as i scanned over an email today regarding more study spaces for this weekend. oh, the joy of exams! haha.

i think that the high associated with being “free” from academic exams probably only lasts a year or two, but it is really wonderful nonetheless.

best of luck to those poor souls currently in exam hell. i’ll eventually be back for more in-class-horror-sessions, but for now i point and laugh:)

peace and rain

the massive raindrops pelted against the windows, seeping in through the cracks in today’s torrential downpour. it lasted a mere 20 minutes but i felt like washed away the sins of the city for a little while. i should be out taking pictures and frolicking in the spring weather. instead i’m inside, working on two files that are important to me and worrying about the management decision i made today. i had no idea it would be so hard to deal with human beings in the work place, especially when you have to manage them!

i’ve been grappling with the idea of the interaction of the individual and society a lot and especially in the current context that i am in. the most frustrating thing about being here is the people and their attitudes and well co-existing means that my sphere of existence has to overlap with many other spheres of existence and at times it really becomes a little too much to handle.

so, in short the new assistant that i was training and had such high hopes for is really falling short of the mark and i’m lost. really lost. she wanted to bite my head off during our meeting and it made me a little nausaus. but i surprised my self. my voice was calm and confident despite myself and i made the situation very clear... so sad that she’ll be missing out on so much but that’s her decision reflective of her disposition and (lack of) ambition. not unlike a lot of other people here (and elsewhere).

flavors (aka flavours)

i’ve switched my drinks.
the energy drinks were certainly not a wise choice in hindsight.
the current fruit drinks flowing through my veins are the highlight of living here. so every morning i end up buying a carton of yummy juice to be consumed with great pleasure. from pomegranates to sour cherries, they are treating me a lot better. they’re a little preview of the summer flavors to come. peaches and cherries, watermelons and apricots… so much fruity goodness to offset the dripping heat of the place.

so i'm really missing a couple of things in my life, one of which is stability.

being born in "interesting times" is certainly a double-edge sword... wavering either way threatens to push me into an abyss.

kafka inspired

i watched no man’s land last night. i still cannot move beyond the final scene. haunting. it keeps replaying in my mind. seriously. why is it that we are so attached to our own material existence? why can we not act for a better future in spite of ourselves?

the movie won best foreign film at the 2001 oscars... but what’s the point? isn’t the story essentially being repeated over and over again all over the world?

anyway, looking up the reviews after, this one struck me as somewhat comical: "...[laced] with the kind of dark humor that eastern europeans have been specializing in since kafka." – premiere [glenn kenny].

what lies ahead...

babylon.

trip shots

apparently i have a flikr acct so i've put a couple of recent pics up. there's also some old pics from shiraz (summer 04) and i'll eventually get round to putting up some more.

thanks to flikr

tehran’s dinosaurs

the tiny "village" of tehran must have been a beautiful place to live 200 years ago. located in a valley with spectacular views of the alborz mountains. the clean air. surrounded by arable land and blessed with a temperate climate. and let’s not forget the fresh feeling that accompanies a spring that arrives with a blanket of green covering everything in sight. some of that remains as every single tree within sight is in bloom, and i guess for a couple of weeks i’ll be able to enjoy this beautiful shade of green before things are covered and consumed by the smog and chemical build up.

if we took out 75% of the people and cars at this point, it still has a chance. nature rejuvenates. while some scars will remain but i’m sure given time, even those will disappear. as khayam says, we are all food for the soil, so why fight it so hard?

i’m sure that had the dinosaurs known all those years ago, that their pressurized remains would someday cause such plastic-driven progress and pain, they may have fought a little harder before letting us take over.

all in a days work

so it probably took just a few minutes for the alignment of the planets to change and today the aftermath was becoming apparent as the dust settled. i really have no idea what will happen, and what's worse is that i know it shouldn't bother me so much. it can't be too good for my heart to fret and scoff and...
it doesn't exactly feel like i just got back from a vacation.

sick of crack

as i heard the latest crack pot shit spewing out of the tv i really couldn’t stand it anymore.
where is the joy?
where is the justice?
where is the sanity?

i felt the wave of nausea take over.
i don’t know why i ever missed this place.

paris in springtime

is absolutely gorgeous.
and grand.
and well, very french.

thanks so much to m for her generosity.
there’s no way we could have known a year ago that in contrast to the admin law that we were studying, just 12 months later we would be walking the cobbled streets of paris together. life, the unpredictable, strikes again.

despite the fear of crazy demonstrations, most of paris was tranquil.
i guess that’s the take-away lesson: don’t believe everything to hear cos almost everywhere i go these days has bad reviews but in fact they’ve all turned out to be quite nice (thankfully).

more on this when i get over jet lag and recover from the crazy backlog here.

toronto tales ii

my beautifully crafted to-do-list continues to grow. i’m adding things to it much faster than i’m ticking things off.
i’ve come to realize that condensed trips are really exhausting. so i’ve taken to drinking fuji water and energy drinks (all of which taste pretty much the same despite coming in different colours) to get me through it. can’t wait till things settle down but that’s not going to happen as there are major things happening every week from now till august. i’m sure there are major things happening after august too but i don’t know them yet. and i have the decision lingering over me which complicates things a great deal.