Adventures of Mr.Behi

Moving Right

It was a while ago when I stumbled upon an audio book that became my companion for a month and I could not stop talking about it with friends. "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink talks about aspects of human intellect that have been under the shadow of ever praised analytical skills.The enthusiastic narration of the author in the audio version was an extra delight for itself.

The book is talking about the emergence of a new age when the skills acquired via classical academic curriculum (left brain skills) will not be enough to give individuals the necessary edge for success. They are only good if merged with right brain skills and what the author calls "High concept and High touch". He encourages us to learn about good design and get acquainted with symphonies or study the art of story telling. I was thinking about this and realized how much these "touchy/feely" stuff (Right brain skills) can leverage the life of people who are mainly involved with hardcore science and engineering tasks.

No matter how much your work is about numbers, the better you can present the results to your boss with a good story, the better the result. I am sure many have seen presentations and reports with terrible designs not only in font selection and typography but also in coloring and composition. No matter how number oriented your client, you still have a better chance of success if you can convey your message with a good story via a well designed presentation that talks about the relationships, the big picture and how they relates to sneaky little details.
I started buying books and magazines that the author recommended and "A Whole New Mind" will remain among my top list of gifts for friends.

Drift

I went out this afternoon for a quick grocery shopping and headed for the supermarket a few blocks away. Winter is already here with a thin ice sheet on cars and a crisp frost on grass. It was snowing but it could well be just a windblown snow, already plundered, shattered and drifted away.

Walking past the small gardens in the neighborhood and in the ordinary of all things covered in frost, I was gazing at needle shaped complex of ice crystals branching out of objects or swinging along spider webs. I was looking with a broad smile on my face. Some minutes later, that smile met with the smile of the man playing new year themes on his accordion. His brown hat in front of him as he was pressing the keys with fingers of same shade, resting the accordion on his conspicuously large belly. A few meters away by the door of the supermarket, was the regular girl who sells magazines, very pale and skinny by contrast.

On the way back, As the sound of accordion faded, I reviewed 2008 that ends tonight. It was yet another year with lots of changes and new adventures and here I am again, drifting off for yet another year.

Dance with the sand

Tripoli weather  is very notorious during first half of spring for its unpredicted behavior and for the dust. Any wind coming from south or west, blows sand upon us. Yesterday I was going to the parking to drive home, the western winds were coming strong. I stood there and looked at waves of sand hovering on the surface of the paved road, a mysterious fractal pattern....if I was believing in these things I would have said like ghosts running around. Then I would wonder how the wind could happily do the cha cha with the palm trees, chase the sand to where it destined and at the same time spare time to make me miserable by blowing dust in my eyes :)

Third World

Tonight I heard a quote that I keep wondering about its intellectual spirit since. It was a story from notes written by one of the Iranian most famous scholars in recent years, Professor M. Hesabi. A man with multiple scientific and engineering majors who pioneered a lot of scientific activities and founded various academic institutions. The story is about the time he used to teach in Norway and once was asked by one of his students: "The third world where you came from, how do you define it?" and he apparently came up with an spontaneous answer which he said in his memoirs that as years passed he appeared to become more certain about it. The answer was this: "Third world is the place where your house will be destroyed if you try to build your country and if you try to build your house you shall try to destroy your country".

Link: Prof. Hesabi in Wikipedia

Winds

You work overseas and try to find out how to transfer money to your country. You wonder how to do this as your country is embargoed by many European banks. You search google to find a way and this is the result page...my fingers resisted typing again as if they sensed the bitterness of the answer.

It is a very windy night in Tripoli, there has been a big storm since evening...the sound of the wind that sneaks through the window hinge is more mysterious than the noise of the storm outside. From where these strong winds are coming...have they passed through Iran? Are they so frustrated and restless by the things they saw? Are they also showing that good days of that land are blowing away? Why they rush so much to go to the south? Are they escaping the sea in search for a  dream of a better place? Do they know that they are moving to an endless desert? or maybe they are already aiming for the lush of the equator. Stronger winds are coming from the east, will they stop smelling like blood?

Peace

I wish I had my camera with me....this morning was a windless one along Tripoli coastline. My office is overlooking the sea and the shore is just a few hundred meters away...not even a small wave nor a tiny ripple on the water so much so that I could see the reflection of a big boat in the sea and it was at least a kilometer or two from the shore...and then I watched a small motor boat sailing from far western part of my view towards the east, opening the water like a zipper or perhaps like a very skillful tailor...two wave fronts started drifting so slowly from each other, so quietly and gently as if they did not want to disturb the nap of the coast, generating a wedge of slightly darker colour...the boat was long gone off from sight on the east side of my view and the small front wave has still not reached the shore...

Now it is around sunset and I am writing to cool my head off a little after a long day...the sea..still peaceful although there are some small ripples here and there...seems that water drops are trying to compete to reach the part of the sea that is coloured by the dusk...it might as well be like a red -orange- carpet for the waves..they know well that people will look mainly towards the sun as she goes down and will say..how beautiful!...only if the waves knew that they are the main source of beauty for the sun as she goes down beyond them...they show the sun plain and simple...like a drifting boat...like a traveller...and we all get the feeling that we shall wave her good by as she is all alone...leaving us once again...

I'm doing good...

From Mrs.Behi : During the last three months my mind was busy with different things like being apart from Mr.Behi every now and then, trying to concentrate and do the stuff that I’ve been supposed to do because of the whole moving to another country’s matter, trying to find the best perspective on the subject of being apart from my family in near future in which, I would avoid myself from the negative thoughts and manage the sad feelings and trying to find out what can I do to make the most of staying in Libya and what are my responsibilities as an individual person for my inside world and as a person who is the wife of our small family and also a little friend of Mr.Behi.

Now I can open my eyes to the coming world full of new adventures, people and cultures which is really exciting. I have my new plans; I cannot explain how much I am eager to see them to be made. I wish I could spread the exact joy that I’m feeling right now to all people, no matter I know them or not...

From now on, NO fear

From Mrs.Behi: Every time I look at one experience that happened in my educational life, I can understand why sometimes I concern too much about the consequences of my plans so that I stop myself from moving furthers, I think the main reason for being such a conservative person in some areas is the fear of not doing things perfectly and this eventually prevents me to welcome "change"  Now I just know that the most important action to me is to minimize my fears so I can actually see my plans that have been hidden sometimes behind them. I’ve been always interested in knowing my true self but when you try to be honest with yourself as well; it’s time to smash the destructive routines.

Well, today after a kind of long break that I gave to myself, I had the story of fear to share with you; I took a little courage to confess about it, it could be the sign of  starting "my smash" ;-).

The precious moments

From Mrs.Behi: My favorite moments are:
When I find the meaningful words that come from the cheerful people, they inspire every part of me and the depth of excitement that I feel in these moments is unbelievable.
When I am at home with my husband and we are watching some good movies from the collection that we made or a number of episodes from some comic series (like Friends) or listening to the new or our favorite songs or telling each other about some new things that we’ve just found out or talking and talking in which we forget about the stuff we were supposed to do.
When my husband and I unconsciously create some new words and gestures that they make our routine chat to amusing and funny one; Sometimes we wonder which one of us was the creator of each of them.
When I have an arrangement to get together with Mr.Behi, it still brings me the exact joy and pleasure that I felt when we used to date about 6 years ago.
When I talk or share my deepest feelings and thoughts with my dearest friend who doesn’t live in Iran anymore. We laugh at unique, funny and unforgettable memories which still are as fresh as their own times.
When I am with my family or talk to them. Sometimes I try to  make sure that all of them are safe and sound especially my parents, I think I try to be assured in order to be able to enjoy my personal life. This could be in favor of myself, I’m wondering if it comes from my selfishness.
And so many other things…, I promise it’s really good to make a list of all the beautiful things that you already have.
I know I should be more appreciative of all these things. As a matter of fact they are my biggest possessions.

I Love to be alive!

From Mrs.Behi: I remember Long time ago I read a book entitled “Emotional Intelligence” by "Daniel Goleman",  while reading, I was amazed by the magnificent power of our brain but after finishing it, one question came to my mind, what is the role of our spirit when the fact is that our reflections, emotions and analyses are the result of chemical reactions in our brain.
I do love immortality; maybe it sounds egotistic. People die as if they’ve never been alive :-(.

Anyway, I'm all alone at the moment and am waiting for Mr.Behi to come. He has done his job successfully as always and I'm so happy for him :-).