Best of Iranain.com: Work

The first installment of the “Best of Iranian.com” project was published in Dec. 07. as the article “Being Iranian.com”. Through a series of blogs I will publish the “best of…” selections under different thematic categories. Here is the selection for the theme “Work”.

In love with work
I could offer a woman a fancy life style, money, cars but not love
By TJ Jamshidi
February 27, 2002
Have you ever felt that you are just not happy? Well if so, welcome to my club. I am a physician -- a trauma surgeon to be exact. I just found your wonderful website, have a forty minute break and want to tell you about me during this limited time >>>

Five minutes
"How can the idiot not take care of such a beautiful girl?"
By TJ Jamshidi
April 25, 2002
Yesterday, I had the day off. The definition of day off in my case means I have eight hours off but can still be paged at any time. I decide to go to a coffee shop near my apartment. I order my favorite espresso, I grab a newspaper and start to read >>>

I cut out dead tissue
Then I go home and look forward to my date
By TJ Jamshidi
May 13, 2002
I start my Friday morning with a cup of my favourite espresso. Today feels a bit different from the usually days. Maybe because after a long time, I am going on a date>>>

Salam Aghaye Mohandes!
My childhood images of engineers were totally off
By Ali Khalili
May 6, 2002
The other day I was at a mehmooni. Minoo Khanoom who is super keen to call everyone by their job title, approached a group of us entering the house and said "Salam Aghaye Mohandes." Having been away from Iranian formalities lately, I was taken a bit by surprise. I looked around and indeed, I was the only engineer amongst the group, so it had to be me!>>>

This isn't my real job
Tehran's real estate agents are hated by larger society
By Naghmeh Sohrabi
January 2, 2002
The sight that now rivals the snow-covered mountains as you travel north in Tehran is that of construction sites, rows and rows of unfinished buildings rising not-so-proudly from amongst the rectangular concrete houses jam-packed into Tehran's skyline. These half finished buildings occupied by construction workers of various ethnicities are everywhere, a reminder (as if you needed one) of Tehran's frightening rising population>>>

A knack with a view
I looked in the mirror the person opposite was not really fit for work
By Peyvand Khorsandi
May 20, 2005
Glasses don't stay clean for long. I always have to wipe them. I need them to stare at the computer all day. If they are muggy they hurt my eyes. The only problem is you need a clean cloth to keep the lenses transparent. And I either lose mine or if I don't it will be too dirty for the job>>>

Doctor... Doctor...
Dude! Eeverybody is a doctor here
By Siamack Baniameri
September 19, 2000
I was in Los Angles attending a seminar. It was a week-long event which ended at in the early afternoon on a Friday. Maziyar, my old high school buddy lives in Los Angles. I always get in touch with him when I'm in the neighborhood>>>

Anything but you
United Nations High Commission for Ghorbuneh Cheshaat Beram
By Alidad Vassigh
May 14, 2002
Certain readers may have seen, aghast, that I was called a madar-qahbeh [can be literally confused with "your mother is coffee", although it means "son of a whore"] for denouncing the Tehran mob and their feet [Plight of fashion]. I am abandoning politics as a result, not before condemning my critic, indeed any critic of mine, as a communist agitator, or simply mad>>>

First time
California fires and smoking habits
Written by AF
Photographed by Kambiz Kashani
October 28, 2003
Saturday night I came home from a night of drinking and mind altering from a gathering of so-called "pimps and ho's." Got home around 3 am. As I walked to the balcony to open the second pack of the night's cigarrettes I noticed the red sky and the heavy air to breathe. I soon found out that there was a fire raging in San Diego. Went to bed at 6 am>>>

Turning point
I knew there had to be more to life than teeth
October 26, 2004
I have never forgiven Bernard Shaw for saying, "Girls are either beautiful, or go to the university." Not only did he make the teenage me more self conscious, he turned my success into more of a second best>>>

Since there is no help
The sound of a muted but crescendoing chord slowly reaches my ears. It is a harmonica
February 3, 2006
By Sima Nahan
I walk down two levels to catch the #2 train to Manhattan at the Grand Concourse subway station. A group of hollering teenage boys storm up the stairs, taking three at a time. I flatten myself against the railing to get out of their way. On their trail a very young mother with carefully painted lips and a far-away look in her eyes slowly makes her way up the stairs. She pulls a child behind her by the forearm -- the little boy has to climb the stairs sideways not to fall backwards>>>

First week of medical school
This doctor shit is still hard
By Maziar Shirazi
August 21, 2006
I should be studying right now. But it’s been a long week and I’m tired, so I’m sprawled out in a room with a blasting AC unit and no furniture -- my room -- and decompressing. Steely Dan is playing over the sound of the AC, and I am typing with hands that smell of formaldehyde and will continue to do so until the end of the semester. The first week of medical school is almost over >>> Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3

Dubai's downside
UAE society is completely stratified with every inhabitant categorized
By Rachel Cerbone
February 28, 2005
A significant challenge that I have faced would be the enslavement of the non-locals in the United Arab Emirates. I can't speak for all Arab states in the Persian Gulf , but my experience is the UAE is quite disturbing. I decided to go to the UAE because I wanted to work whilst traveling abroad. My friend boasted of a thriving metropolis that has anything and everything you could want from a typical Western country; she also explained how easy it would be to find a job in this budding city of Dubai>>>

What's up, Tech?
Technical advice column
By Tourang Birangi
April 2005

Two worlds
My "dual life" as a stand-up comic and over-educated secretary
By Tissa Hami
May 24, 2005
I have two Ivy League degrees and I'm a part-time secretary. It's something I try not to focus on, but it's hard to ignore. I tell myself I've made a good decision for the time being, taking a lesser job to devote more time to comedy and writing. I think of the prestigious, well-paying jobs I had on Wall Street, and though I had no taste for them, at least I could justify my career choices. Now the odds are stacked wildly against me, and the knowledge that everything could unravel tomorrow gnaws at me. You're only as good as your last show, goes the saying among comedians>>>

Amazing ambassador
She walked in and I could feel the cloud of despair lift from the room
Courtney Susemiehl
January 6, 2006
My stepdad is a diabetic who kept himself very active in his retirement. Last June, my stepdad suddenly became very ill... He became weak, lost his appetite, lost weight, and, very quickly started losing hope>>>

Since there is no help
The sound of a muted but crescendoing chord slowly reaches my ears. It is a harmonica
Sima Nahan
February 3, 2006
I walk down two levels to catch the #2 train to Manhattan at the Grand Concourse subway station. A group of hollering teenage boys storm up the stairs, taking three at a time. I flatten myself against the railing to get out of their way. On their trail a very young mother with carefully painted lips and a far-away look in her eyes slowly makes her way up the stairs. She pulls a child behind her by the forearm -- the little boy has to climb the stairs sideways not to fall backwards>>>

CTRL+ALT+DEL
There one day, gone the next
By Saman Ahmadi
March 30, 2006
It was about 10 AM on Thursday March 29, 2001. The night before was my first really late day at the office - I had to help one of the new employees install XSS on his computer. Microsoft Outlook alerted an incoming email: “Emergency GIS on Third Floor”>>>

The belly dance diaries
Part 1: The belly dancers' guide to Persian culture (or, "All I really need to know I learned at Chatanoga")
By Zari
April 11, 2006
Relocating to the west coast was a big leap for me. A young belly dancer from New England, I wanted to move where the weather was gorgeous, and the stakes were high. I had heard there were a lot of people from Iran in California. This gave me respect for the culture>>>

Among rogue scholars
Inside the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS), a Tehran research institute: 1993-1995
By Azadeh Azad
December 18, 2006
In 1992, the publication of a new women's magazine, Zanan, was a first clear sign that there was a rift within the ranks of the Islamic phalanx in Iran, creating a narrow crevice for uttering slightly different opinions without being immediately executed. So, having worked for many years as a social scientist with La Federation des Femmes du Quebec in Montreal, I decided to return to Tehran at the end of that year, to live and work in my birthplace for a few years>>>

Kaffash
Shorts
Layla Khamoushian
December 17, 2006
There is something about them, all of them... the entire act of polishing and shining people's old shoes... all day long, day after day just amazes me. Then there is the whole key making situation. Who in the world came up with the idea that a shoe repair guy should also make keys? I mean, maybe they (not sure who) thought it was so demeaning to just make keys that you also had to shine shoes to feel better about yourself?>>>