ASHEYAN’S SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

I’m so glad to see that the U.S. is finally engaging in direct communication with my beloved country and that there is some degree of cultural engagement going on. I would love to read your opinions about this:

After hearing about how great a movie ‘Slumdog Millionare’ was, my husband and I decided we had to see it for ourselves. Yes, it’s a good movie and if you have the chance to see it, you will enjoy it. As we left the theatre, those around us were whispering how wonderful a movie it was and people were filing out with lingering smiles on their faces. But other than the main story line, we wondered how much of the subtlety the general english-speaking and American audience would understand. Could you understand what it meant for those children to live in a slum if you have never smelled the stench? Or to understand the ultimate achievement of Jamal if you have not witnessed how the impoverished are abused? Could they understand how cruel the child begger mobs are until a legless child holds out his hand to you for change?

In three days, a new president will be inaugurated into the White House and America will never be the same again. Or will it? With all the excitement surrounding what has been coined as “black Camelot”, it is easy to get washed over by the wave of optimism and promises of change. But how will America really look in another four years? Will unemployed fathers finally find a sustainable job to support their families? Will sick grandparents finally be able to go to the doctor without having to worry about paying medical expenses? Will a struggling family of five finally be able to afford to put enough nutritious food on the table so that their young children can go to sleep with full bellies? Will individuals who have been wronged by decades of prejudice and hatred finally receive solace? Will the world really be a better place?

A testament to humankind, kindness and compassion.  This is what life is all about. With best wishes to all of you for the new year:

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to share a story and recipe from my part of the world (Iran), both of which have been taken from a worn and beloved cookbook of mine. I would love to read your stories and recipes.

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If a Pot Can Multiply

One day Mulla lent his cooking pots to a neighbor, who was giving a feast. The neighbor returned them, together with an extra one-a very tiny pot.

“What is this?” asked Mulla.

“According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,” said the joker.

Shortly afterwards Mulla borrowed his neighbor’s pots, but did not return them.

The man came round to get them back.

“Alas!” said Mulla Nasruddin, “They are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?”

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Butternut Squash and Prune Khoresh*

2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced                            

1 pound stew meat (lamb or beef), cut up, or 2 pounds veal shanks, or 2 pounds chicken legs, cut up  

1/3 cup oil

1 teaspoon salt                                                                               

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups pitted dried prunes or dried golden plums

2 pounds fresh butternut squash

2-4 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon ground saffron dissolved in 1                                                                                             tablespoon hot water

*Khoresh is a delicate and refined stew. It is a combination of either meats, poultry, or fish with vegetables; fresh or dried fruits; and beans, grains, and sometimes nuts. It is seasoned subtly with fresh herbs and spices, then simmered for a long time over low heat.

1. In a heavy stew pot, brown onions and meat or chicken in 3 tablespoons oil. Add salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Pour in water-2 cups for meat, 1 1/2 cups for chicken. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 55 minutes for meat or 30 minutes for chicken, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, peel and cut the squash into 3-inch cubes. In the remaining oil brown squash in a skillet on all sides for 15-20 minutes over medium heat.

3. When the meat or chicken is tender, add the sugar, lime juice, saffron water, prunes or plums, and butternut squash cubes. Cover and simmer 30-55 minutes over low heat.

4. Check the taste of the stew and adjust seasoning. Add more lime juice or sugar according to your taste.

5. Transfer the khoresh to a deep casserole, carefully arrange first the butternut squash, then the meat, and spoon in the broth. Cover and place in a warm oven until ready to serve. Serve hot from the same dish with rice.

As I was walking home from campus the other night, the beautiful sound of the Islamic call to prayer, the Azan, filled the entire UC Berkeley plaza. Surprise gave way to happiness as I the entire campus scene before me changed with the rhythm of the prayer. Couples holding hands, undergraduates passing out flyers, the movement of the leaves of the trees all seemed to be in harmony with the music. As a practicing Muslim, there have been many times in my life where the true depth of Islam and its protective embrace have really touched my soul. That night was perhaps the most mystical and beautiful of them all. 

As I continued on my home and as the prayer gradually faded away, I slowly began to become aware of the fact that there are very few, if any, places on this earth where religions, races, and beliefs of all kinds are not only tolerated, but embraced whole-heartedly. While the call to prayer may certainly have not been welcomed by many individuals on the UC Berkeley campus, it did increase awareness and knowledge of the faith. The recent election of a black man as the President of the United States, while too certainly not embraced by all, has defied stereotypes, opened new spaces for dialogue, and renewed hope for those marginalized individuals who believed that they could never make it. Yes, it is a time of hope here, a time of prayer for better things to come. What are your thoughts?

Happy Halloween to all!

This is going to be a particularly exciting Halloween here in America, 4 days before the presidential elections. I suspect many will dress as one of the candidates. The talk of the town is who to vote for and what to do if the other gets elected. Here in California, many are wondering if they want to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the state and argue about details of the existing abortion laws. We are going to have a highly political Halloween this year as we fasten our seatbelts and impatiently wait for the outcome on November 4^th.

Photo courtesy of happyhalloween

We had a football game between UC Berkeley and UCLA today.  Typically, these games have quite an impact on everything in town, most importantly transportation and parking become almost impossible.  How lively it is to fight for winning, to have a favorite team, and to show your support for something you relate to.  Today, while I work at a café next to the football stadium in Berkeley, I am witnessing hundreds of students and alumni from both universities walk by wearing UCLA or Berkeley shirts, hats, or shorts.  Many have brought their children, and of course the children are wearing shirts with the name and colors of their parents’ favorite school.  As I write, Berkeley’s marching band passes by with the loudest drums and a few hundred uniformed students marching Bancroft Avenue while the crowd waves at them with open smiles.  I am automatically a part of the excitement as I hear that Berkeley has won the game: 41 by 22.  Why do I care? What is it that is so exciting about being a part of a community united for a purpose, a community that has a team and is relating to that team to feel better or to fight against something in common?  Would I be disappointed in Berkeley if she had lost the game? Perhaps but I think not for long; I would probably continue smiling and congratulate the UCLA folks passing by.

 Photo courtesy of nybox6

I recently had a job interview in England and did not get the job.  When I was invited to interview for a faculty position that seemed to be a dream job at the time, I remember getting extremely nervous to even attend the interview fearing for the outcome.  I wished I had not applied for the job at all and thought it was too early for me to do this as I was not prepared and not even close to graduating.  My father told me something that completely changed my attitude, which is why I want to talk about sports.  He said: “this interview is like a football match of your dream.  You are invited to play in your national team against another excellent team.  What matters is that you play for the sake of playing, the excitement, the glory of the game in itself – pay no attention to the results.  Life is not about the outcome, it’s about the game.  You will go and you will play your best and will enjoy the game regardless of the results. Do not pre-judge, judge, or post-judge the outcome.  Just play…”

I spent a week in the UK and returned a few days ago.  I got to travel around a bit and see London, Cambridge, and Oxford.  It was a lovely trip and I had a wonderful time, ignoring the incredibly high cost of everything in Europe.  London is a crowded city which reminded me of some areas of New York City but much older.  It was nice to see so many old structures throughout the country and not fear what would happen to them in the case of an earthquake.  Earthquakes are not a big threat to England and you can see many old (as old as about 600-800 years) structures everywhere. 

The architecture was breathtaking in many areas.  I can say confidently that Cambridge is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to.  While walking in narrow streets with old buildings, restaurants, and coffee shops you might see a door open to something that looks like a regular building. But once you look through the opened door, you see a beautiful garden behind the wall and a huge castle-like structure far away, all hidden when you walk through these lovely streets. Another amazing part of this trip was the opportunity to dine at one of the colleges in Cambridge with the department of engineering.  Harry Potter is real in Cambridge and Oxford.  They have kept most of the traditions alive, dining in gowns, a drum to start, words in Latin by the master to start the feast, professors sitting higher than the students, it’s all real.

Cambridge, UK — Photo courtesy of bugbog.com

Playing ping-pong in South Tehran. All rights reserved.

“Manata, tell me, where do you like more, Iran or America?”
“I like both the same.”
“Yes, but where would you rather live?”

As an Iranian who has lived the majority of her life in America, I have been asked this question more times than I can recount by family and friends in Iran. It is not a simple question and the answer entails a deeper understanding of the concepts of home, location, and identity. These motifs are interwoven in the daily lives of those Iranian émigrés too assimilated in the host country to return to the land of their birth, too “foreign” to ever feel at “home”. Further embedded in this question are the intricacies associated with a life in exile. Feelings of nostalgia, marginality, and longing for return often characterize such persons who leave their homelands by force, voluntarily, or by necessity of circumstance.

As a second generation Iranian who has experienced such feelings without ever having lived for a substantial amount of time in Iran, I live my life in a continuous attempt to honor, respect, assist, and learn more of the country of which I am from. While I may not be fluent in Iranian cultural nuances and may not know the inner workings of Iranian society, I am an Iranian and I can nevertheless attempt to learn and bring my own unique experiences into the broader “Iranian” milieu. Indeed, my unique Iranian lifestyle at home as a young child provided me with a lens with which to view and analyze my dominant American surroundings. It was my good fortune to be immersed in two antithetical traditions and to be able to merge the lessons learned from both into a type of “hybrid” Iranian culture that was uniquely my own and that continues to shape my life to this day.

Identifying oneself as an “Iranian” (as I have done) has different connotations that depend on both context and circumstances. There is no one “true” Iranian, one rigid definition that encompasses what being “Iranian” means. Being Iranian, as being any other ethnicity, is relational and is constantly negotiated, defined, and redefined through contact with an other - whether this other is a person, one’s ethnic group, a nation, or even the media. Thus, when we ask questions of “authenticity” we must consider who is “checking our credentials”. Our claim of authenticity is subjective and is influenced by our own location and our own perceptions of what is and what is not “Iran”.

As such, it is vital for Iranians, regardless of their country of residence, to realize that while “Iranian”, “American”, “French” and the like are cultural placeholders, they are not defining markers of an individual’s identity. Our relations with others, our perceptions of other peoples from varying nations and ethnicities are what contour and give shape to their own sense of identity. Similarly, the forging of relationships with different peoples of the world, the continuous back and forth tug-of-war of ideas and opinions is what makes us into unique individuals and further reinforces our own sense of cultural identity. These interactions are a needed, if not necessary prerequisite in creating a globally aware society that is attuned to the needs of others and that can forgo bias in favor of mutual aid and understanding. Cultures, just as homes, live in the minds and souls of those who create and nurture them; living in and interacting with a national culture distinct from that of our own does not make us into lesser forms of “Iranians”. Indeed, it provides the skeletal framework for a more peaceful and just world order and enables us to find a space, no matter how abstract, which we can call “home” and to which we can all belong.

-”Reflections of an Iranian in America”, Oct. 2006, tehranavenue.com

Eid ul-Fitr mubarak to those of you who observe Ramadan. Happy Rosh Hashanah to those starting the Jewish New Year today. Happy Navratri to those of you who are Hindu. And a blessed and happy Wednesday to everyone. Please take today to observe the common threads that runs through us all.

A beautiful song to the end of a beautiful day. I came across this soulful song by the young Iranian artist, Mohsen Namjoo, a few days ago and have not been able to stop listening to it since. In the most humble of settings, Namjoo sings directly to you and although you may not understand his words, you cannot help but feel the depth of the emotion behind each word.

Mother and daughter preparing tea in Lavasan, Iran. All rights reserved.

He let his mind drift as he stared at the city, half slum, half paradise.  How could a place be so ugly and violent, yet beautiful at the same time?

-Chris Abani, Graceland

I came across this quote tonight while reading a book on poverty and the growth of slums worldwide. The quote really struck me because it reminded me of how much we judge people and places by their external appearances.  It has always been a (optimistic) belief of mine that in order to appreciate the beauty of anything, we have to take time to really see. But it seems that as we mature, it becomes more and more difficult to see the good. We start to lose a little bit of the optimism that we had when we were young when we see that despite our best efforts, we are powerless to bring an end to the bad: poverty, violence, death, cruelty, and struggles for money and power.

But reading this quote has reminded me yet again that the ugliness of life is a part of life itself, and it may even be this very ugliness of life that helps create life’s beauty. I saw a lot of the ugly life during my research this summer. But within the slums and villages that I went to, I also had the blessing to see the simple acts of kindness and love that make it all worthwhile: mothers and daughters preparing afternoon tea together, young cherry pickers laughing and working together, keeping each other company on a hot summer day, and strangers preparing sweet sherbets and desserts for visiting researchers that stumble upon their tiny homes embedded deep within the hillsides of Tehran.

An interesting article for Asheyan …