Skip to main content

Posts

I was never known for my beautiful handwriting and the many “S-satisfactory” marks I got on my handwriting assignments confirmed this. Even so, every now and then I would perhaps inadvertently turn out a brilliantly written handwriting assignment for which my usual satisfactory comment would be replaced with “O-outstanding”. Heading towards the end of the year, I had accumulated three of such scores. Alex, who at that point sat next to me and was equally horrible when it came to legible writing, somehow went through a metamorphosis. Almost as if a switch had been flicked on, his handwriting tremendously improved and it did not go unnoticed by Mr. Yowell. When he received his first outstanding mark I simply shrugged it off. With his second one I wondered if he was going to catch up with me. His third one, which also included a footnote of “excellent” had him bragging that he would beat me with our last assignment. I hardly doubted his prediction. Our notebooks were distributed bac...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts
It’s 9 p.m. on a Sunday evening. Westwood Boulevard is quiet, the hustle and bustle of the day a distant memory. At first glance, the Naab Café – a popular hotspot with the locals – seems equally desolate. But walk through the terrace, and the air comes alive with laughter, smoke and drifts of Farsi-laden conversation. There isn’t a single non-Persian in the place. “It’s like a scene from Iran,” Anahita Aminpour says. “Or at least, how I imagine it.” At 25 years old, Aminpour belongs to a new generation of L.A.’s Persians. Her parents, like many of those from the community, made the move from Iran to Los Angeles in the 1970s following the Islamic Revolution of Iran. L.A. is now home to around 600,000 Persians, the largest diaspora in the world. In 2010, the city of Los Angeles officially designated Westwood Boulevard as “Persian Square.” It’s also known as “Tehrangeles” on Google Maps – a portmanteau of Tehran and Los Angeles. “I’m definitely Persian.” Aminpour says...
Post a Comment
Read more
The year 1995 was truly horrendous. So many awful things had happened, particularly at the end of the year, and as such I was looking forward to 1996. On New Year's eve, I sat in my room listening to the radio and the New Year's countdown and when the year changed I literally got up, jumped up and down and celebrated 1995 ending. Little did I know that every horrible thing that happened in 1995 would present its consequences in 1996.  
Post a Comment
Read more
On March 15, 1981, Ali Limonadi launched the first television broadcast representing the Iranian diaspora from a small Los Angeles studio. He named the station IRTV, short for Iranian Television. In a recent conversation, Limonadi described the feelings of the newly arrived Iranians in Los Angeles: "At that time, we thought we would return to Iran after six months. We thought the situation would settle and that people could resume their lives back home. Some of us did not even fully unpack our bags." Archived footage of the first broadcast validates his description. I watched an interview from that 1981 broadcast in which Limonadi spoke with an Iranian psychologist who provided advice to viewers on how to raise their children in the United States. The psychologist said, "Remember to speak Farsi in the home with your children. Do not speak English with them because they will have plenty of exposure to it in school or outside the house while in America. This ...
Post a Comment
Read more
During freshman year in high school a TV program urged everyone to cross a bridge while being careful not to fall down. It then praised us for our good aiming skills. It would then recommend that during play we be strong while at the same time we also be weak and as such we could achieve happiness while singing outloud. It was a very confusing program with mixed messages.
Post a Comment
Read more
Parisa Montazaran, noted for being the most level-headed and relatable by viewers, was The Real World’s first Iranian-American cast-member. Based in New York, Parisa has a degree in International Relations from NYU, flawless Persian-hair, an über-sexy physique, and a gift for music that’s bound to dishevel any rival. However, what made Parisa a fan-favorite by a landslide, is her ability to calmly overcome an excess of distasteful behavior exhibited towards her by a few of her housemates. This Persian beauty’s unmatched patience, became the hottest blog topic for the comment-obssessed as technology allows viewers to voice their opinions online, albeit anonymously at times.  "Being Iranian has awarded me a sense of humanity and culture that I don’t think I would possess if I grew up being like everyone else around me. It sparked curiosities in me that wouldn’t otherwise be provoked and gave me the opportunity to learn and want to learn more about people, the world, life. I’...
Post a Comment
Read more
When looking for a cat to adopt we came across one that had a black small mark under its nose similar to Hitler's mustache. The cat's name was appropriately Mustachio. While we ended up going with another cat, he reminded me of myself in the 4th grade. I used to constantly bite my upper lip and leave a red mark above it. While some people called me 3 lipped, a 3rd grader, whose class our 4th grade team was scrimmaging against, responded to my trash talking by calling me sibiloo. I chased him but he was too fast for me.  
Post a Comment
Read more
Parisa Tabriz used to be a hacker. Now she is a princess. Ms. Tabriz is a director of engineering at Google, where she oversees its Chrome web browser and a team of security investigators called Project Zero. Several years ago, when Google required her to get business cards, she picked the title “security princess” because it seemed less boring than “information security engineer,” her actual title at the time. As Ms. Tabriz climbed the ranks, the designation stuck — and reminded men in the cybersecurity field that women belonged there, too. “I want them to know that princesses can do engineering and STEM,” Ms. Tabriz said. Chrome is the world’s most widely used web browser — the window through which more than a billion people view the internet every day. Some days, Ms. Tabriz’s work at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., entails studying furniture design (rounded chairs and felt baskets, she said, helped inspire the curve of Chrome’s tabs); at other times, she studies wonk...
Post a Comment
Read more
During high school freshman year there was a student in my class who had this odd habit of winking instead of blinking. At first everyone thought he was intentionally doing so and it got him in trouble with teachers but eventually we realized it was not his own doing. He had a unique black jacket that had a horizontal red stripe that said "Buma" on it twice. It seemed like it was meant to be a Puma knockoff jacket and I always thought it would have looked cooler it they had instead written Burma Boy which would take up the same number of letters and in fact use most of the ones already there. His jacket enabled me to spot him on Shariati Street one day as I drove by him in a taxi after coming back from Tarh'e Kad.  
Post a Comment
Read more
“We’re kind of like UGG boots: brown, fury, and sweaty… and nobody can figure out why we’re so damn trendy,” quips the skiing/snowboarding Iranian comedienne and regular E! commentator Nadine Rajabi in a segment of her Showtime Comedy Special, Hot Tamales about being Persian. “I’m moving back home because my mom’s been having trouble paying both [of] our rents,” says the riotous and multitasking modern Persian-beauty. As the youngest paid “regular” at the Improv clubs – thanks to Improv manager Reeta Piazza who “found” her when she was only 19 years old, at a bar trying out jokes underage – the playful Rajabi, who tells us that she’s trying to be the “Iranian Seacrest”, can now add a “producer” title, for her work on MTV’s Daddy’s Girls (a spinoff from Run’s House), to her overflowing resume. This California-raised Persian girl, is not just hilariously funny, but she’s cool and smart. She’s the type of “Persian-chick” you want to be friends with, whether you’re female or male, Persian ...
Post a Comment
Read more