I never claimed to be a great writer, but I have always written. In the hindsight, my writings over the years were always a form of expression. Blogs came to life when I was in my early 20s and I started one like all my peers. Like any 20-something year old, the subject usually revolved around the future and the questions people ask when their entire lives are in front of them. What do I do with my engineering degree? Do I remain a civil engineer or continue my studies? What do I do with the random skills that I learned in the first 20 years of life?
Then life took an interesting turn: I moved to the United States to be part of a doctoral program. I started writing as an immigrant to connect to my friends in the motherland. To make sense of life and where I stood, with everything was unknown. Everything was different and writing was my way of analyzing the new world.
Work started afterward. I am a consultant – Every word that comes out of my mouth must be accurate, precise, and to the point. Leveraging my engineering skills is a must, but I also have to build relationships and explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical crowd. I read, attended classes, and learned on the job. Writing became the medium that allowed me to combine the new knowledge with past experiences. The writings focused on personal and professional development, about making decisions in times of uncertainty, but also about my roots as a kid growing up on the Coast of the Caspian. This time the blog exploded and there were thousands of readers but after the mental storm was over, so was the blog. I kept reciting the great Hemingway, that “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now.” but one can’t write without the internal drive.
One of my blog readers was my father. He passed me a handwritten note in 2016 advising me to always write but when COVID started, I expressed myself in ways that were apropos of the times. I started cooking gourmet food and picked up the Nikon camera to record the surroundings. I started with nature photography and gradually started portraiture. When my father passed away at the very end of 2021, I rued the fact that I did not possess the proper skills yet to capture a few portraits of him. In the ten days of contemplation it took me to write him an obituary, I had ample time to think about his letter. Then last night as I was reading “The Everything Essential Buddhism” by Arnie Kozak, I ran upon this quote that Dr. Kozak had cited as the summary of Buddhism: “Everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.” The thought about the continuously changing life became the basis for this blog – A place to record my snapshots of the changing world, my view of different places, and my encounters with others. And to my father: May the Farnoudian Chronicles be a sign that I have listened.