Persian

Energetic, funny and unashamedly sentimental, this is a warm-hearted comedy written and directed by Iranian-American film-maker Maryam Keshavarz, even if her semi-autobiographical story about life in a traditional Iranian family in New Jersey feels more than a little familiar from past movies about second-generation growing pains. But Keshavarz cranks up the charm, and the feelgood factor makes it an easy watch – despite some of the gags feeling more suited to a TV sitcom.New York in the 00s; Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a…

Mufti Syed Waliullah Farrukhabadi’s Tarikh-i-Farrukhabad is written in Persian, a language I do not know. But I made up my mind to read it when I found it being referenced in historical accounts of the decline of the Mughal dynasty – and in some detail in British historian William Irvine’s account of The Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhabad. Local histories of little-known provinces and sketches of its people are fascinating but hard to come by (Courtesy Lamat R Hasan) As a civil servant in India, Irvine learnt to…

Ongoing Series Columnist Jenn Harris joins your favorite celebrities to explore their go-to cuisines and restaurants in Los Angeles. Spending an afternoon with Shohreh Aghdashloo is what I imagine hanging out with the president of the United States is like. There are selfies with fans, calls of adoration from across the street and even a photo opp with a smiling baby.As soon as the actor walks through the door of Toranj restaurant in Westwood, a small frenzy erupts in the dining room. It’s…

PUBG maker Krafton launched a new mobile game named Road To Valor: Empires in March for both Android and iPhone users. This title claims to offer “stunning graphics, captivating music, and intuitive controls”. This new player vs player strategy game pits gamers against players from across the globe. Players who have played the game already know that the title includes Roman, Persian, Norman and Japanese factions, from which players have to choose from multiple gods, beasts, and mythical heroes to design their armies.…

The Swahili coast, stretching more than 3000 kilometers from southern Ethiopia to Tanzania, was a hub of medieval trade, exporting ivory and other resources from the African interior to South Asia, the Arab world, and Persia. Its cultural legacy remains potent: Swahili is now spoken across large parts of Africa, and the ruins of ancient towns, many with mosques and other buildings cut from shoreline coral deposits, record the coast’s heyday. But whether Swahili…

Spring’s green shades were a tonic saturating the dishes served at the Azizam pop-up dinner on Monday night, held in the space recently vacated by Konbi in Echo Park.The meal began with sabzi khordan, a platter full of basil and other bunches of herbs with walnuts, radishes and a small rectangle of feta; deputy Food editor Betty Hallock and I snacked on them alongside freshly shelled fava beans and crusty barbari still warm from the oven.Two triangles of baked kuku sabzi, one of my favorite Persian egg dishes, popped…

On March 21, today, Google has revealed a stunning floral art to celebrate the ancient festival of Nowruz, the start of the Iranian or Persian New Year. The Google Doodle features elements of spring to highlight the festival including spring flowers and bees. It is because the Persian new year is celebrated during the month of March according to the Gregorian calendar. The festival is celebrated by millions of people across the world. And Google has come up with a brilliant artwork to commemorate Nowruz 2023.The Google…

Tell us a bit about your journey with Persian. Why, how and when did you start learning? I learnt Persian formally during my MA days from the Iran Culture House in Delhi but I had been interested in Mirza Ghalib from childhood and Urdu is my mother tongue. Urdu traces the etymology for many of its words to Persian and Arabic. Ghalib’s Urdu poetry employs a more Persianized register than most poets. With Ghalib as my favourite Urdu poet, I felt pushed towards Persian to read even his Urdu poetry and eventually started…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Some people have strong reactions to art and music, others hardly any. In 2020, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, developed a method that scientists can use to predict the general receptivity of potential study participants to aesthetic stimuli. Initially, the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment (AReA) was available only in…

Photo: Oliver Douliery (Getty Images)An international alliance representing six Persian Gulf countries lashed out at Netflix this week demanding the streaming platform remove content they claim, “contradict Islamic and societal values ​​and principles,” according to NBC News. Though exact programs under question remain unclear, previous types of takedown requests and recent clips on Saudi state media spotted by The Guardian suggest the states likely take issue with programs featuring LGBTQ characters.The Gulf Cooperation…