Who are you? What have you sacrificed?

Barda, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Caucasian Albania. The kingdom does not exist, but Barda is still there as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is a lot about the ancient kingdom in Greek, Latin, Armenian and Arabic sources. Some of these sources also talk about Prince Juansher, the ruler of the kingdom who apparently fought Persians and Arabs. The figure of Juansher looms large in the works of Azeri historians and some have even produced maps like this (how cool is that?!): 

But what do we actually know about Juansher? I am going to have to find out in 2015! 

Happy New Year! 

Mangalyaan

On September 24th an Indian spacecraft, Mangalyaan, flew to Mars. To be more specific, it flew into orbit just above Mars. Below is the first photo it captured:

'We have achieved near the impossible' says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, puffed with pride for his country. Mr. Modi's twitter followers have now reached 6.6 followers which makes him second after President Barack Obama. The Economist reports that Prime Minister Modi communicates with everyone through twitter himself and sees no need for journalists. 

Modi said: 'Today, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has met Mangal (Mars). Today Mangal has got Mom. The time this mission was short named as Mom, I am sure that Mom won't disappoint us.'

It's a good thing to have a mother, everyone needs one, and Mars has one too now. The Earth is not just our mother after all. 

Insights from Baku

I spent the last two months in Baku. To be more precise it was in the outskirts of Baku that I spent hours watering our little garden of roses, grapes and figs that we grow there.

Being in such close contact with the earth is an interesting feeling. As you are under 50 degrees heat and you water your plants, you can't help but feel their thirst and enjoy the watering emotionally. Then every morning, at dawn, you wake up to see these beauties grow bigger and more beautiful. It is incredibly inspiring to see the earth give birth to so much goodness...

Then at some point, as you enjoy the beauty of these creations, you can't help but think: how did evil come into this world? Did it grow from a seed? What seed did it grow from? Which plant brought it in? What root did it grow from? How did it find its way into our earth? Maybe it is the sky that is evil and the falling rain carries the evil on earth? These questions remain unanswered for me..And most importantly:  Did this evil sneak into me too?

I spent some time thinking about these questions and the only thing that helped ease my mind was to carry on watering and believing that my plants will only bring goodness to our earth.

Feeling 22 acting 17

Happiness is being almost 31, going to one of the best schools in the world with smartest people in the world, and dreaming like a little girl full of naivety!