Prolific Living

For the Soul

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

Understanding the Invincible Bond of Childhood Friendships

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Searching the Ripples of my Mind for Childhood Memories

“Do you remember the time in school when…”

Childhood Friendship Bond

The place is Razi Elementary School in Iran. The time is in the early 1980s. The question is posed by a long lost childhood friend who found me by sheer accident on an otherwise ordinary Monday and has since turned my life inside out with indescribable joy and bliss. To my own disappointment, I did not have a clear memory of her and was sure she has the wrong person. Assured by the facts, she came back exploding with joy and stories and no sooner had I read the names of our mutual friends, names dearest to my heart, that tears were streaming down my cheeks. What unexpected happiness to find yourself instantly richer when the dearest childhood friendships resurface after 26 years of separation? [Read more…] about Understanding the Invincible Bond of Childhood Friendships

“The Last Station”: One year in the life of world’s beloved novelist – Leo Tolstoy

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Leo Tolstoy Quote | Everything I love

Reading Anna Karenina has been so overwhelming and gratifying that I chose to walk away from it for a short while. I decided to take time to digest the scope, the breadth, the depth in this masterpiece of a novel. It is of course an overly ambitious task to ever digest it all. This is only my first reading by the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, but most definitely not my last. So it was especially fortuitous when we chose to watch “The Last Station” about his life on a girls’ night out celebrating Russia’s International Women Day on Monday, March the 8th. [Read more…] about “The Last Station”: One year in the life of world’s beloved novelist – Leo Tolstoy

Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

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Aside from a handful of reading assignments in high school and a few beloved thick classics which slipped through, I turned my back to literature and the classics for the sake of science, engineering, and a career in technology.

“How on earth would English Literature or any other classic help me toward excelling in grad school or getting the next promotion?”, I thought, tossing aside even the remote possibility of engaging in such an activity. Quite rightly, it probably would not have helped me. Jane Austen or Emily Brontë would have never been instrumental in writing my thesis on “Effects of pulse shape on performance of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Multiple Access communication systems“! Or in getting that next promotion, for that matter. [Read more…] about Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

From One Unforgettable Tenor to 3 Sublime Operas

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Our experiences are not only made up of what we have lived through. Sometimes, experience stems from that which we did not do.

Pavarotti wax statue at Madame Tussaud

I never had the chance to watch Luciano Pavarottiperform live. I regret that bitterly. The immaculate voice of this opera tenor was a gift to this world and who knows when, if ever, another one like him will raise our spirits and touch our senses as deeply, as easily, and as unforgettably as the phenomenal Pavarotti. It is through this regret, this missed opportunity for not knowing how much time I had with to see the unforgettable tenor live someday, that my appreciation and curiosity for the opera has stemmed. [Read more…] about From One Unforgettable Tenor to 3 Sublime Operas

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