Margery

I announce with honor and happiness that I received an "A" for my final project, a documentary titled "Margery". I do appreciate all my tutors: Mike Wayne, Alisa Lebow, Julian Savage, Steve Stevenson, Donna White and technical staff like Malcolm Zammit and Paul Moody and others at Brunel for everything they did, for all their help and for many many things I learned from them during the one-year course. I'll write more later!

Here are youtube links to "Margery" (in two parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSjNyXJY-7I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp4nDIY_HoM

and this is a short description of what the documentary is about:
Margery has established a strong relation with nature including the sea. But like everything else, nature will one day remove all her signs. For Margery, the death is not strange! Her grave is already in her garden, waiting for her...

Iranian New Year, NowRooz

In harmony with the rebirth of nature, the Iranian New Year Celebration, NowRooz, always begins on the first day of spring (usually March 21). NowRooz ceremonies are symbolic representations of two ancient concepts - the End and the Rebirth; or Good and Evil. A few weeks before the New Year, Iranians clean and rearrange their homes. They make new clothes, bake pastries and germinate seeds as sign of renewal. The ceremonial cloth is set up in each household. Troubadours, referred to as Haji Firooz, disguise themselves with makeup and wear brightly colored outfits of satin.


These Haji Firooz, singing and dancing, parade as a carnival through the streets with tambourines, kettle drums, and trumpets to spread good cheer and the news of the coming new year.

The origins of NowRooz are unknown, but they go back several thousand years predating the Achaemenian Dynasty. The ancient Iranians had a festival called "Farvardgan" which lasted ten days, and took place at the end of the solar year. It appears that this was a festival of sorrow and mourning, signifying the end of life while the festival of NowRooz, at the beginning of spring signified rebirth, and was a time of great joy and celebration.

Haft Sin

Haft sin is a traditional table setting of Nowrooz. All seven items must be (1) Persian, (2) begin with SIN letter,(3) must have plant (or be plant originally ) , (4) must be edible , and (5)must be just one word not two like ( sir, not sir torshi ) . Surprisingly, among millions of words in Persian language you can find just seven words with these features.

The Haft Sin items are:

1. Sabzeh (سبزه) - wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth

2. Samanu (سمنو)- sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing affluence

3. Senjed (سنجد)- dried oleaster fruit - symbolizing love

4. Sir (سیر)- garlic - symbolizing medicine

5. Sib (سیب)- apples - symbolizing beauty and health

6. Somāq (سماغ)- sumac fruit - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise

7. Serkeh (سرکه)- vinegar - symbolizing old-age and patience

Happy NowRooz

Happy New Year!

How to dominate a nation!

Lord Macaulay's address to British Parliament 2 February, 1835

I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.

Portobello!

Last Saturday I was at one of London’s “most see”s: Portobello Market at Portobello Road in Kensington.

This is a wonderful place to spend a Saturday (if it is not rainy of course!)

The street market is only held every Saturday but the shops are open six days a week. Shopkeepers or people doing business in there call the place as the world’s largest antiques market. The claim might has been true before the financial crisis that led to the closure of many shops in the famous street, but not anymore..

Anyway, the street and the items you can find in there are still very interesting, varied, usually cheap, for all age-groups, beautiful and sometimes unexpected!

Me at Portobello! Isn’t it good and useful to be tall and to have long hands?! I don’t need anyone to take photos from me!

You can actually find a vast range of items from old and original cigarette cards to old aircraft speed indicators or Nikon cameras built in 1930s! a wide selection of country goods, old pop and rock music CDs and also antique silver items and traditional or new jewelry (many of them fake, by the way).

You will also see guitarists, violinist or folklore musicians at each corner of the crowded street.

Many other aspects of the street are just a wow..In one word, this is a street you must see, not a place to describe easily!

This house is the place where George Orwell lived for many years. I don’t know if Portobello market became Portobello because of him or He became such a famous writer because of the amazing place! Or neither!

Ahh, by the way, I could also spot the most beautiful hippopotamus on earth at Portobello.. wowww..

congratulations!

Congratulations to myself!
I am going to make two documentaries about the “current” student protests in the UK.

In fact, as an international student, the issue of the tuition fees and the UK government’s decision to cut the spending on higher education does not affect my life, or at least not directly, but for many reasons I feel sympathy with the students.
During my documentaries I will mainly show different aspects of the life of a British student and will try to find out how the coalition government’s measures in this regard will affect the prospect of the higher education and many other issues.

I didn’t want my weblog to become that political. No! But, let’s face it! That is a very important event happening around us! It does matter to everyone, local or international student and even other people who are not studying.

Your creative ideas regarding my documentaries are welcome!

Ahh, btw, before the recent rally on Saturday, I went to the UBS office at Brunel. I expected the guys at the office to help me find other students who are somehow actively following the protests or at least could find me a union representative to interview me in this regard. Their answer was simply NO. but I am wondering why!

earthquake

Back to January 2000, I had a mission as a reporter for Iranian TV, to cover the earthquake in Qazvin and Zanjan provinces in western Iran. Several villages had been hit and some had been severely destroyed. While walking near one of those villages at night, I heard unexpected sounds at a distance of around half a mile. Automatically I headed towards the sounds. The light was actually for some cars gathered at the village's cemetery where also an excavator was working. The huge machine was digging long holes to be used as the tombs for several dead people! The religious man of the village, totally covered with dust, was praying for the dead bodies put along the tombs.
While moving around, I noticed a 10 years old boy sitting at a corner. He did not react to me or anything else. He was just looking straight ahead without any movement in his eyes. After a while, I realized the reason! There were five cadavers put in front of him. I heard from the people around me that the first one was his father, the second his mother and the others were his two brothers and his small sister.
I sat beside the boy for about ten minutes. I tried to find something to say to him.

I could not.
I still clearly remember the boy's face and his eyes.

a purpose

A life without purpose is a languid, drifting thing; Every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let me make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught!

Thomas A. Kempis

Students' protests

Nobody expected so much people in central London on November 10th at the rally against the spending cuts to further education and an increase in tuition fees by the United Kingdom coalition government.

On that day, I was there with a friend among the protesters, but we were not there to “protest”. We just wanted to do a “documentary homework” that included interviews with students.

Among other questions, I asked students if they believed in this kind of demonstrations, or if they think the rally could affect or change the government's policy regarding spending cuts.

The reason why I chose this question was that personally I did not believe in that kind of protests. But the vast turnout changed my mind.

Even the organisers of the anti-cuts rally were surprised and the police were definitely shocked! But again many people, many students, especially those attending the demonstration did not want it to turn violent, or “that violent”. In fact, for many, the clashes with police, following which fourteen were injured and fifty arrested were not constructive.

The violence seen, especially what everybody saw at the Millbank Tower building, which contained the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party, leading to clashes with police, following which fourteen were injured and fifty arrested, gave a good excuse to British governing politicians and their media to turn the audience's attention towards other aspects of the protest.

Nobody knows exactly if the students who were seen breaking the glasses at the Millbank Tower or throwing a fire extinguisher from the top of the building were connected to the NUS or UCU or other unions, or if they were representative of many students that day, but in my opinion students did not have to let mindless “students” jump into their cause.

On the other hand, the vast protest had a clear message: The demonstration that was not seen for a decade, or as NUS claimed, "the biggest student demonstration in a generation", was only a beginning.

The protest, attended by tens of thousands of students, and followed by other rallies and demonstrations in November, changed my mind. Now, I believe these students CAN force the coalition government change its policy.