Prolific Living

iran

Reflections on Iran: A Letter and A Conversation

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Letter_Farsi_IranAmerica

When I was 7 years old, I wrote a letter and mailed it to America to a cousin that I adored who was now living in a country that I only dreamt about.

What I would give to enter the world of the 7-year old me writing this letter from Iran during the worst revolution of my country’s history? What I would experience if I could behold her composing these simple Farsi words in an elementary style Persian handwriting? What I would say if I could only engage in one conversation with her? [Read more…] about Reflections on Iran: A Letter and A Conversation

Someday I Will Go Back to Iran

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Going back to Iran

Someday I will go back to Iran. It will be summertime so the roses will be in full bloom, the air will be full of optimism, tinged with a trace of nostalgia, and the warm Tehran sun can quickly dry my tears to save my lush eye makeup, just in case.

My life revolves around a sense of urgency today. It is a reality I have created for myself and would not trade for the world. Yet I accept that some dreams cannot afford the luxury of immediacy in this life. They cannot happen just yet. The right stars have to align and the right circumstances have to emerge first.

The time for some dreams has not yet come.

Hence the word: someday.

Someday, I will go back to Iran. [Read more…] about Someday I Will Go Back to Iran

The Path to Fulfillment: To Have or Not to Have Children

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The Utter Lack of Desire to Have Children

In my life, I have wished for a million things, I have dreamt a thousand dreams; I have pursued hundreds of passions and goals and yet, never for a serious minute in all of my fantastic 30 plus years have I wished to have a child.

Children in Singapore

That’s me. I must be strange. I must be seriously out of the ordinary. I must be an aberration to the norm.

Yet, I am perfectly normal.

I am awfully feminine. I love all things girlish. I love traditions. I am crazy about my husband. I have a great relationship with my family. I had a happy childhood. I have cried at every single movie to ever involve a child and parent tragedy. I adore little baby animals. I like most children and I fall in love with a few. I have all the usual desires and needs of a woman — except the desire to mother a child. [Read more…] about The Path to Fulfillment: To Have or Not to Have Children

A Transfer of Passion: How I Fell in Love with French

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French Dictionary Quote
Sometimes, a small action on the part of one can instill a lifetime of pursuit and passion on the part of another. The occasion may come about as ordinarily as is passing of the hours in a day and this transformation of grand measures may be as transparent as shining glass between the two people in question. Yet the powerful impact of this small action is undiminished. The small action on my mind is my grandfather’s last conversations with me in Turkey and this gift of a lifetime was the transfer of his love of that most exquisite language of all, French, to me.

During Iran’s better days, I had been admitted to the L’École Française in Tehran at the ripe age of 3 but then the 1979 Iranian revolution came about and put a damper on my education by shutting down anything foreign, civilized and educational. Revolutions of this kind are a master at ruining dreams and plans. It is thus that my mom’s dream of me learning to speak French early on with a Parisienne accent went up in flames overnight.

She may have managed to get over it. I did not. [Read more…] about A Transfer of Passion: How I Fell in Love with French

The Power of Traditions, Iranian Culture and Stories from a Cup

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If you ever leave your home country for another, you will no doubt gain a world of experience and adventure but you will still have to make some sacrifices, no matter who you are and whence you come. Let giving up your traditions not be one of those sacrifices!

Japanese coffee cup

Ah traditions! It may be the one thing of which Iranians have no shortage.

There is a tradition surrounding nearly every act and way of performing the ordinary stuff in life. There is a tradition on how to handle a compliment so as not to be jinxed yet remain polite and gracious in the process.

There is a tradition on how to accept food offered to you as a guest by resisting it the first 3 times you are offered, only to politely accept on the 4th occasion. There are no less than 200 traditions [Read more…] about The Power of Traditions, Iranian Culture and Stories from a Cup