There are a few buildings in the world that touch the soul and spirit of the people who walk in them.  Mastery in architecture is when you create spaces that meet their function and comfort the user while achieving the highest form of beauty.

Der Beitrag louvre in Abu Dhabi erschien zuerst auf Azita Lashgari.

Holi festival Mauritius

I put on my painting clothes just in case I would get attacked by people with bags of color that I had seen in the market in Port Louis. I had no idea what I should expect or how it is done. A taxi driver had told that I should go to the temple in the afternoon when people come back from work. So I got ready and headed to the big temple in Grand Baie. To my surprise there was nothing going on there, the usual quiet peaceful temple with the scent of sandalwood . A few flowers and offerings in different places next to the sculptures. The three other temples I searched at were just as quiet. Finally someone led me to the back alleys where people were celebrating.

I could hear music and singing and laughter down the alley. The closer I got the more colors and smells appeared. Young teenagers running with all colors of the rainbow on their faces and on their clothes throwing water and colors at each other.  I got to the garden where the musicians were sitting on the floor with instruments I had never seen in my life. Women in their festive Sari and bags of colors in their hands going around the big circle of people singing around the musician, and rubbing the colors on faces of young and old as if blessing them with good fortune and good wishes.

A man walking around throwing the colors in the air that had a scent of orange blossoms mixed in them  asked me if he could throw some on me. I was ready and happy to be blessed in my painting clothes. On the corner of the garden the smell  of a special curry and rice being cooked in a big pot over a wood fire. I was so happy to have found my private holi festival in Mauritius.

Der Beitrag holi festival Mauritius erschien zuerst auf Azita Lashgari.

Recently after a long discussion on the virtues of knowledge, and validity of inspiration behind opinions about art and music with a friend, I thought maybe they’ll come a day that we would all be grateful to NSA (National Security Agency), for having have kept a record of our very ephemeral discussions online. In a way what revealed so much of the history of discourse among intellectuals of various epochs was their epistolary communications. In our time the only place where there is a record of any communication is in the hands of NSA. Many of our young aspiring intellectual who might change the world with their views and inspiration, may be having some incredible conversations online with some equally wise unknown thinker right this minute. We will sadly, never be able to read those exchanged thoughts. Or is it that thoughts, like luxury brands have lost their luster. In a world where every question can be googled and every thought can be put down immediately on facebook, does curiosity have any value in deepening thoughts and do thoughts themselves have any value.
The moral question in this ephemeral times of thought and knowledge should be is there any value in either one of those two?

Our mind becomes that quiet platform after  the passengers are all aboard and the train whistles as it leaves the station. There is no sign of the passengers or the train.

Der Beitrag NSA and records of thoughts erschien zuerst auf Azita Lashgari.

A train ride through Germany in December, from the north to the south. The sky changes various shades of gray, from dark to silver gray. The forest has hues of brown gray, to deep dark green gray. At times when the mulch of the fallen leaves is still yellow and brown the gray has a golden hue to it. I know I am in Germany when I am surrounded with gray. Gray in every aspect, in ambivalence and uncertainty caused by events that promise warmth and deliver an unpleasant chill. Everything that is hope becomes a struggle and everything that is a challenge clarifies itself into a new spectacle of light.

The gray zones, I have always disliked the gray zones and here I have learned that  black and white are seldom part of reality. Everything that is real has a gray tone, because it holds in itself its ambiguity. It hold both sides within, like a seed that holds all the leaves of the tree it will someday become and the darkness of the earth it needs to grow from to reach the sky.

Is accepting gray a part of growing up? By accepting that things are gray do we acknowledge the dissemination of uncertainties? Do we see uncertainties as possibilities therefore a positive thing for expansion? Or is our association with gray negative, because uncertainties are cause for fear and concern?

Black and white have clarity and we seek clarity to be righteous. In order to judge a situation we need to decide which side we are on, black or white. In gray there is no judgment, it holds equally black and white within. All my stereotypes of Germany falls apart as I find myself growing in this beautiful country, and realizing that tolerance requires an adaptation of gray zones. That uneasy feeling of accepting that all is within one universe, and is in constant pendulum between black and white, in the gray zone.

Der Beitrag a trip through Germany erschien zuerst auf Azita Lashgari.

Der Beitrag Hallo Welt! erschien zuerst auf Azita Lashgari.