Entry 50

I really love reading, from the time I was a kid , I enjoyed reading ...I remember the day when we went to " SHEMSHAK " on a picnic with my aunt and her children who were my age ...While everyone was barbecuing and having fun , I was sitting on a big stone and reading a story eagerly ...Years ago I read more than now ...Looking at my bookcase nowadays, I become badly depressed ...I'd like to take the books one by one and read them, but I can't ... just because I'm so busy... esp. from the time I've started working ...I HAVE time, but not as much as I had before... Sometimes I think it's not just MY fault; these days there are many things to read: books, magazines , newspapers ... & they can be found on paper, on sites ... Internet has doubled them ...I think at this period whatever one can read , they are still behind ... & this is one way of looking at this matter , i.e. being pessimistic ...But I've decided to be optimistic by spending at least 30 minutes everyday on reading ...

Entry 49

Watching Pope's funeral ceremony, my father said, " I'm glad that great men and men of God are still respected around this world in which there is cruelty every where ..."
I, myself, enjoyed people's emotions as well as religious songs , but I think the ceremonies and formalities were too much ...

Entry 48

Norooz ( I mean the 13 days holiday and its ceremonies _ visiting relatives, ... ) came to an end ...
Time passed by reallyyyyyyyyyyyy fast !!!
Thank God !
Everything was great and I really enjoyed my time ...
I just wonder whether time passes by so fast for everyone these days ... !
Everyone says " Yes " ...
I've thought a lot about it ...
I think one reason is living at the time of " industrialization " ...
Everyone is soooo engaged in everyday life that don't find out how their time passes by...
If we still lived in and with nature , we might have this problem less ...

Entry 47

In Norooz we ( Iranians ) spread a tablecloth and put something on it as a tradition every year ...
There are SEVEN things on our tablecloth which have " S " at the begining in their Farsi terms ...
In Farsi we call this tablecloth "Haft Sin " :



" Haft " in Farsi is " Seven " and " Sin " is a letter in Farsi alphabet which has " S " sound ...
Anyway , we put the following things on our " Haft Sin Tablecloth " :

" Serkeh " = Vinegar

" Samanoo " which is a kind of dish with juice of germinating wheat or malt mixed with flour :



" Sekeh " = Coin



" Somagh " = Sumac



" Sib " = Apple



" Senjed " : A kind of tree and its fruit which resembles the mountain-ash ( rowan tree )



" Sonbol " = Hyacinth : A kind of flower



" Siir " = Garlic



" Sabzeh " = A kind of green grass



Of course they are more than seven; it's ok, but they shouldn't be less than seven ...
We put some other things:

" A bowl of gold fish "



" The Koran "



and " The collection of the great lyrics of our gret poet : Haafez "



At the beginning of Norooz we sit in front of this table cloth and say the following prayers in Arabics :

Entry 46

Happy Norooz !

Entry 45

Today I watched one of Oprah Winfrey's shows ...



I didn't watch it from the beginning ...
I started watching in the middle of it ...
There were lots of people ( I think all women ) ... she was talking about a car ... its make was G6 (or something like this ) ...
Then some girls came with a lot of boxes ...
Oprah told the audience that they would have a box ... she told them there was the key of a car in ONE of those boxes ... she kept telling , " Don't open your boxes ... don't shake your boxes ... don't open ... don't open ... don't shake them until I tell you ... !!! "
Everyone was excited to see who the lucky one was !
I was excited too !
Then she asked them to open their boxes ...
I couldn't believe what I saw!
Neither could everyone ...
Everyone had a key in their box ... there were about 500 people!
Oprah had given everyone a car ... it was unbelievable ...!!!
They cried & hugged one another as well as Oprah and thanked her ...
Analyzing later what she had done , my brother said that it was her business: one way to become richer...
Whatever it had been I admire her...
There are lots of rich people like her in thworld , but not all of them have this generosity to spend their wealth like this ...
I admire her !

Entry 44

It's about one month I've decided seriously to begin to play a musical instrument ...
During this time I've become depressed a lot & have reproached myself for not beginning it many years ago ...
Well ... it's not late ...
By the way, I started thinking about playing the violin. My supervisor who has an MA in music besides everybody else told me it's very difficult , then I changed it to piano which I knew is very expensive, then I said ok : I'll play the organ ...
When my supervisor who plays as well as teaches the piano heard what I said , dissuaded me in a way that I'm afraid talking about it with him again ...
Anyway , I became so depressed that I took my "SE-TAAR " _ an Iranian musical instrument _ which was hanging on my wall and started to play it ...
This is " SE-TAAR" ...



I used to play it about 14 years ago , and I learned it just for 6 months ... then I put it away ( I really don't know why ) until last week when I thought I loved it and started to play it for myself ...I've decided to continue learning it , provided that I exchange it with " TAAR " _ which is a little different from " SE-TAAR " : when one learns "SE- TAAR" , she can play " TAAR " as well ; the instructions are the same ...And this is " TAAR " ...

Entry 43

I've started reading "Sophie's World " by: Jostein Gaarder - a Norwegian writer ...



It's my birthday present ...
My best friends gave it to me as well as three other books ...
As it's been mentioned in the book , it's a novel about the history of philosophy ...
It's a great work of art and I'm really enjoying reading it ...
The author tries to teach his readers philosophy through a novel using a veryyyyyyy beautiful , sweet and simple language ...
I congratulate "Jostein Gaarder" on this great work ...

Entry 42

Arthur Miller died...
Hearing this news I remembered the time when I studied his masterpiece " Death of a Salesman" in university ...
It's a modern play describing the life in the US today ...
A few days ago I watched " Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner " _ an old film of the 1960's ...
I enjoyed watching it a lot: true love was pictured in it verrrrrrry beautifully ...
It also showed the American people's lives at that time which was completely different from what it is now ...
There was no trace of the chaos which now exists in families, society and especially in LOVE ...enjoy both old and modern works of art, but this time this old film had a great impression on me ...
I envied the life and the LOVE of that time ...

Entry 41

After a long time, 7 or 8 years I suppose ,we had really SNOW inTehran today !
It was beautiful as it always is ...
My brother and I ran in and played a lot with snow and made a short funny snowman in the yard ...
I filched two plums from the freezer and used them for its eyes, used some straws for its nose & mouth and put one of my mom's old scarves on its head ...
It's really niceeeeeeee ... standing still within the snow and looking at the beautiful view in front of it !
It'll be awake the whole night to tell us tomorrow about the news of what has made its body ...