No longer a Mirror Polisher

Today marks the 18 month-and- 20 day anniversary of when I wrote my first post (don’t look at me like that, I’m sure there's some tribe some where in the world that actually celebrates an 18 month and 20 day anniversary).

I was in the middle of writing a post on “The Five people I will meet in Heaven” when I realize that the phase of being a “Mirror Polisher” is completed. Here’s an excerpt from the post I explain the story behind the name:

Why Mirror Polisher? Coz I used to dread mirrors. I would only look into one in the mornings when brushing my hair, and even then only at my hair, never into my eyes. For some reason, staring straight into my own eyes wasn’t too comfortable for me. Maybe it was because our eyes are mirrors of our souls; if you look deep enough you can see the essence of one’s soul. For me a Mirror Polisher is a person who is not afraid of seeking self-awareness, who polishes the mirror to get a clear reflection of their soul.

Well, people, I am done polishing. I now know who I am. I am now happy with who I am. I now love having mirrors all over the house…and these mirrors are so well polished that the eyes that stare back at me no longer intimidate me.

So, it’s time I left this blog.

Just like I left Magical Droplets.

But who am I going to be now?

……

……

……

……

……

Hmmmmmmm…..

I’ll be me.

No nicknames, no words that best describe me, no symbols of what defines me, just me…

Actually scratch what I just said…I can't use my real real name!!! Not that I write anything I wouldn't want anyone who knows me in real life to read, but still...it would be creepy knowing that they know about my blog but I don't know they know

Hmmmmm, give me time to think of a new nickname.

*goes to think*

Shoo, shoo be gone you pesky conscience!!

I need a new conscience; I’m fed up with the one I currently have; it’s way too loud, obnoxious and never ever shuts up…oh and the stupid thing never takes my side!!! Seriously, anyone knows where I can get a new ‘inner voice’ or better yet interested in exchanging yours with mine :D

[Background to my plea]

So around 7:00 pm I logged onto Facebook and I see that there’s a lecture by DADI JANKI on “Secrets For True Wealth” at Salwa Al Sabah Hall at 8:00.

Me: Mom get dressed; we’re going go to a lecture on spirituality

Mom: Ahhhhh what’s the point? They don’t say anything I don’t already know. If you are in the mood to be lectured I can go on the mambar for ya. Here we go: Be good, be nice, be honest, let go of the past, be forgiving, be satisfied, be…

Me: Hahahaha very funny…come on… it starts in an hour.

[Blank look from my mom]

Me: Well, Dadi kinda looks like Lata Mangeshkar

So 30 minutes later we walk into the Hall, and who do I see sitting right on a couch as I enter—the only person I have ever treated not so nicely in my whole life and never apologized to. The same dude I was talking about in this post.

Me: Why, oh why God? Why do I have to see him here..and tonight of all nights.? Is this a sign?

Inner Voice: Yep, come on, this is your chance to be good again.

Me: I ain’t walking over to him…no way!!...and you have been seeing “The Kite Runner” way too many times!! WTH is with “you can be good again”?!!

Inner Voice: Fine, have it your way.

[A few minutes later]

Dadi: Honesty…I myself have never lied…why should I? What’s the point of lying? What are you afraid of?

Inner Voice: See? What are you afraid of?

Me: Shh…I’m trying to listen…hey hold on. I NEVER lied to him.

Inner Voice: Nope you didn’t lie; but you weren’t completely honest with him either.

Me: Huh? Look what I did wasn’t all that bad. Besides I don’t owe him any explanation for my action.

Dadi: Parents have to spend time with their kids to teach them morals

Inner Voice: See, your parents taught you better than this.

Me: Would you please Shhhhhhh. Seriously get off my back. Look this story goes back to my ‘dark’ days, and anything I did during those months cannot be held against me now.

Inner Voice: Do you think you ran into him here by accident? Why of all the nights, do you think you saw him tonight?

Me: Seriously, bug off….I'm trying to listen...ok fine…I’ll talk to him later.

Inner Voice: No you are not. At least be honest with your own inner voice. You never do the things you say you will do later.

Dadi: We have 3 enemies: carelessness, procrastination, and…

Me: ok, that’s it. I am out of here.

Inner Voice: Hehehehe…see I told ya so.

Here a video clip of Dadi...not the lecture she gave in Kuwait though

UPDATE: Thank you Grey for pointing out that I misspelled "conscience" :D :D ...opps

The Tour Guide

This post was written a week ago when I was still in Iran

Ever had a feeling like…well like…like you are walking with…yourself. Several times during this trip to Iran I felt this way. Those times that I floated through familiar streets, streets whose walls were like a photo album …with each brick bringing back memories…memories that though you created no longer feel like yours…not the new you anyway. Ever heard your old self talking to you while going down these streets?

Today I went to Payetakht—a mall in northern Tehran that is the center of computers. I used to come here at least twice a week years ago. It had somehow changed now. Those days it was mostly bootlegged CDs, now it’s laptops, digital cameras, plasma TVs, iphones, mobiles, macs, etc. Just like those days I stopped at each shop studying the variety of models. Before I knew it I slipped into a conversation with myself.

“Now that’s a beautiful Sony Vaio…hey I haven’t seen that model in Kuwait…why do some companies export certain models to only certain countries…oh look there is the official agency of Panasonic…let me check out their camera….”

“Hey remember this shop? This was the shop that you got that SPSS CD, remember? Remember you needed that statistics application CD for your thesis but it was difficult to get hold of the latest version? This shop promised to bring it for you? Remember?”

The memory was mine, but this wasn’t me talking to myself anymore… I almost felt her presence walking next to me…like a guide, a tour guide, guiding me through ‘my’ memories…distance memories. She also stopped with me at each shop, with each shop she painted a vision in me of the shop as it was years ago…just like a tour guide.

Ever felt this way?

Goodbye 2007

I just realized that I never published this on this blog. So before publishing my next post, gotta go with this one first:






Most people fall in love with their soul mates, children, pets, jobs, hobbies, or countries. Moi? What did I fall in love with this year? Here it is: This was my beloved:
The year 2007

Yep, the whole year itself. I LOVED 2007. This was the year of rude awakening for me. The year “I” became “me”.


What did I learn this year:

1. Being happy is easy. If you want to be happy, you will be.
2. Most people are good at heart. True once in while everyone will say or do something that ‘hurts’ but one wrong deed doesn’t make the whole world a hurtful place.
3. Life is all about striving to achieve inner peace. We are emotional beings, if we can take care of our emotions, we would be happy. The way to inner peace is to create the person you want to be.
4. There are no problems in life, only challenges and lessons to be learnt.
5. Clear communication not only solves problems, it also prevents misunderstandings.
6. Blood is thicker than water.
7. Savior the moment: When eating close your eyes and feel the ‘heaven’ with every taste bud in you, when listening to music, close your eyes and ‘feel’ the beat with every dancing muscle in you
8. From time to time compliment people to their faces not just behind their backs. I was shocked that the other day a co-worker came up to me and thanked me for the good word I had put in for her 2 years ago. She had just heard it!!! I used to believe that real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not--true, but not all the time.
9. Stop living on autopilot. Life is all about creating memories. Don’t let a month go by in which you could tell yourself, hmmm I wish I had done so and so. If you are not truly happy with your life make that change TODAY. Never say, “Soon, I’ll do it.” If you really want to get up and DO IT NOW.
10. True friends and dear ones are the ones who bring out the best in you.
11. Not all relationships are supposed to last. Some people step into your life to teach you something about yourself.
12. Get a daily dose of dark chocolate
13. Karma does exist (scares me how many times I have seen proof of this)
14. Pampering yourself is essential for your spiritual growth.
15. Get out of your comfort zone and try on that dress, dye your hair that color, dance in public, sing in public; DO IT

What else I learnt
16. I love the Baby Blues comic strips
17. I love Subway
18. I love Sudoku
19. I love Jeff Dunham
20. I love Maz Jobrani

What I did do for the first time in 2007 (or after a long time)
21. Smoked
22. Quit smoking
23. [hehehe, tell ya later about this one]
24. Listened to a rock and roll song (‘Radio Nowhere’ by Springsteen) and actually liked it (thanks to Sh.M)
25. Treated a nice dude in a mean bitchy way [stoneface]
26. Went fishing (didn’t enjoy it, way too boring and the dude I went with kept telling me to stop talking I’m scaring the fish away )
27. Walked under the rain (hadn’t done that in 6 years)
28. Jumped in puddles and splash water around (hadn’t done that in ohhhh ages)
29. Resigned (I did that 5 times this year :D)
30. Fixed my most diabolic vice
31. Believed that true love could exist
32. Joined a gym and actually lost 5 KG …in the right places *evil grin*
33. Started reading again (after what I think was a ten year hiatus)
34. Became a believer of the effect of positive energy, ESP, supernatural phenomena. Like a friend put it: I stopped being a “Sculy” and started to be a little bit of “Mulder”
35. Accepted a compliment with grace and patted myself on the back several times
36. Threw away some memorabilia I had been clinging on for over 20 years
37. Made a decision without thinking it over 200 hundred times
38. Got one of my pictures published in a French book about the Safavid period
39. Found inner peace



That's all i can think of for now. Goodbye 2007 and thank you

My journey on this foggy day

This pic is temporary; till i get off my (beep) and go out and take a pic of the fog)

When I left the house this morning and was greeted by the light morning breeze and the magical foggy weather, I knew that something uplifting will happen today.

On the car drive over to work, I heard a spiritual Hayedeh song I haven't heard in a long time; and when I came to work I took a trip into Hamad's World.

His world is beautiful, his world is enlightening, his world is sincere. His world is the message the morning breeze was sending me this morning.

His world is here

Liberating Tears

Today I shed a couple of tears, silent tears, light tears, liberating tears.

Sometimes the traffic light takes longer than usual to turn green, you mind wonders, again the same old question is posed, again the long sought answer is not found.

You sigh, your head tilts slightly to the left; then all of a sudden your eyes become entrapped by what it sees.

This pic was not taken on the same day.

The side mirror reflects an image: A vast canvas of soothing blueness with strokes of whiteness brushed across the sky in message-like patterns. It talks to you. You listen. You feel the message. That feeling throws you into a whirlpool of answers.

The honking pulls you out of the whirlpool, the light has turned green. Unwilling you are torn away from that moment, the dialogue is lost, your soul was snatched back by reality.

Your are lost, your are numb, you are dangling in between…in between what you don’t know? Where was your soul heading? What was it leaving behind? You don’t know. All you know is that it is ‘in-between’ and this half-way world is peaceful.

Baraka: A Spritual Film

What a magical night it was last night! The soothing breeze didn’t let go of its embrace all night. With my mind clear, my heart light, my soul at ease it was the perfect night to watch “Baraka”.

Baraka is the first film of a “3 Evening Events” that ‘The Culture Sector Office’ of The Grand Mosque of Kuwait is hosting to promote inter cultural understanding.

And Baraka did exactly that. With no narration, no dialogue, no words, mere images choreographed with an enchanting music, it took your mind on a sensual journey in and out of people’s beliefs, rituals, and vices. Unlike other films where one passively takes in the storyline as it is dictated to them, with Baraka one has to connect to their personal soul, cultural knowledge, and openness to interpret the mélange of the audiovisual messages.

I’m still lost in my interpretation; still mesmerized by the beauty and the “Baraka” of our world, still at awe at our lost souls dwelling in coffin-like “homes”; still perplexed by the skull-museum of genocide victims, still at awe by the connectedness of world rituals-of our collective conscious; still trying to figure out the messages in the eyes of the snow monkey in the hot springs of Japan, in the eyes of the aborigine in Australia, , in eyes of the 3 kids of Yanomami Tribe, in the eyes of the girl from Iran, in the eyes of the monk…and in my eyes.

Still have 1 question in mind: Are we losing God’s Baraka?

More Info about the film:

Baraka was shot in the following countries: Alaska, Arizona, Australia, Brazil, California, Cambodia, Colorado, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kina, Kuwait, Mexico, Nepal, New Mexico, Peru, Poland, Thailand, Turkey & USA.

PLOT SYNOPSIS (taken from ALLMovie)

Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as "breath of life" or "blessing," Baraka is Ron Fricke's impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio's non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio's film, and for Baraka he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on Koyaanisqatsi. The result is a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic "guided meditation" (Fricke's own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature, and man's own destructive powers into a web of moving images. Fricke's camera ranges, in meditative slow motion or bewildering time-lapse, over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smoldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations of the Masai in Kenya, chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling monastery...and on and on, through locales across the globe. To execute the film's time-lapse sequences, Fricke had a special camera built that combined time-lapse photography with perfectly controlled movements of the camera. In one evening sequence a desert sky turns black, and the stars roll by, as the camera moves slowly forward under the trees. The feeling is like that of viewing the universe through a powerful telescope: that we are indeed on a tiny orb hurtling through a star-filled void. The film is complemented by the hybrid world-music of Michael Stearns.

Images from the film (taken from Spirit of Baraka)


Video Clips from the film (From YouTube)


1. The Kecak Dance of Bali Indonesia



2. A snow monkey (at peace)



3. Modern life (maybe why we aren't at peace)

I am thankful for

The day is looming, the eye spots the pen, the hand picks up the pen, the heart writes:

Thank you for bringing down my wall

I’m no longer a prisoner of my own

Thank you for glorifying the magic of life

I now savor the divinity of it all

Thank you for injecting the zest for living in me

Reality is now more welcoming than my dreams

Thank you for rekindling the bond with my dear ones

My soul has reached the haven it so longed for

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Iman Maleki's Omens of Hafez

I love the emails forwarded from my friends. One particular email that I have received numerous times from various people is the paintings of Iman Maleki.

First time I saw his painting entitled “Omen of Hafiz” I froze--there was something in there that took me far away. Away to an era lost somewhere in the back alleys of my memories, away to a land my soul longed to connect… but never did—it never could---a fantom force held it back.

I saved that painting as my wallpaper...but only for a moment…I had to change it quickly, the emotions it provoked were too strong for me.

Yesterday, another friend forwarded another email of his paintings. My soul is at rest now. It's connecting :)

Here’s the painting

Here's a slide show of his other paintings:

Iman Maleki's Site

Attan: updated

About the video:

"Attan is a traditional Afghan dance. It is said to be one of oldest Afghan Pagan dance, some identify Attan as an a religious ceremony of early Zoroastrians placing it 2000 BCE, and some have placed even older going back to King Yama's celebration of Nowroz and warriors dancing and circling around the fire. King Yama was the first Afghan king dating back to 3500 BCE. This was later modified into an Islamic dance to allow the dancers to get 'closer to God' this virtual Attan practised by many Afghan poets and mystics had even reached to corners of Turkey, Europe known as the Rumi Dance. It is performed usually with a Dhol, which is a double-headed barrel drum. The dance can be anywhere from 5 minute to 30 minutes long. There are many different kinds of Attan most famous are Kabuli, Mazari, Kandahari, Sistani, Herati, Pashayi, and Nuristani."

UPDATE:
Intlxpatr asked:

1. Is this dance related to the dance of the whirling dirvishes of Konya?

I just came to know about it, and based on what I have read so far the dance dates back to early Zoroastrians so I wouldn't say it stems from Sufism. However, with the coming of Islam, it was modified by Islamic mysticism. The dance involves "rapid circular motion, dancers perform until no one is left dancing in a fashion similar to sufi whirling dervishes." SOURCE

2. Women are allowed to dance this dance? Are they permitted to dance it publicly?


Based on this site, I would say yes they are. Of course, whether they still perform publicly in present day Afghanistan is another story.