A Piece of Coursework

I was looking through my school folders, as you do when you're not at school anymore, and came across a piece of coursework I had done for English Literature in year 12. We read The Color Purple by Alice Walker and then had to decide whether to write a transformational or interpretational piece of coursework based on it. I chose transformational. So I was reading over this piece of text and was quite proud of it, so I decided I'll share it.
(It would help if you've read the book first.)

A Dramatic Monologue in the Voice of Mr.___

[The setting is as described in the book. Albert is sitting in front of his property looking out towards his land looking melancholic.]

Oh, how I miss her. My Celie, though she ain’t my Celie no more. I don’t think she ever was. But, oh how I wanted her to be though. She knew that. I knew it. Maybe a bit too much. I needed me a woman and Shug weren’t gonna be it. Then Nettie. I had my eyes on Nettie first. She was so beautiful and smart. But I couldn’t git her. Her nigger father was too much a fool to give her to me. I woulda loved her. Maybe even more than Shug. In the end I only got me Celie ‘cause I git me a cow with her. I had a woman and I ruined it. Just like I did with Shug.

Ever since she been gone…it’s like I, it’s like I can’t feel nothing greater. Does that even make sense? Oh well, it does to me. I feel this thing sometimes. [He walks to the bathroom] I don’t know what it is, but every time I feel it, I git this thing in my head; it’s like I’m Celie, ‘n’ I’m seein’ through her eyes. I’m in the bathroom ‘n’ I’m looking down into the sink with the water runnin’ and it a bit red. There’s a damp cloth in my hand and I look up to the mirror and dab the cloth on my cut forehead.

I don’t know why it keeps comin’ up in my head but it’s kinda weird. I wonder how she got them c-.

[He starts to walk around, trying to get the battered image of Celie out of his head.  He goes to the living room and looks out the window to where he was sitting at the beginning.]

I remember them days when Celie ‘n’ Shug sat there making them quilts. They were so good at it. I could never get my head round it. Or the cooking either. Or anything for that matter. It don’t really make sense how she did all them things and never got tired.

[He goes to the bedroom he shared with Celie] But she did get tired didn’t she. I just didn’t wanna know it. Too busy being guided by my own – [He looks towards his crotch area and looks disappointed with himself]. I mean when I was in my room by Ma ‘n’ Pa’s I always used to hear them same sounds. I musta been doin’ it right. She didn’t complain much so I musta. But then whenever she was in that room with Shug she always used to make a different noise.

[He walks back to his room, sits on the bed, and looks into the cupboard.]

Them goddamn letters. It’s all Nettie’s fault. If she had never written to Celie none of this would of happened and Celie would still be here. With me. But then if Celie stayed I woulda stayed the same too. I wouldn’t have known to change. And if Celie stayed I probably woulda beat her even more! She may have deserv- [he stops what he is saying realising he is lying only to himself.]

Everyone knows that women belong to men though. Everyone went by going on doing them things and they had no such trouble. [With slight hesitation] and they love them deep down, don’t they? I put Celie in her place because I loved her. I don’t give no damn ‘bout much others. I wanted to make sure that she would one day know the right path to take. Yeah. That’s it.

I was by Shug’s side when she was ill, day in day out. She called Celie ugly the first time she saw her. I just stood there. I boiled up so much inside though. But I couldn’t show it, not infront of Celie, I couldn’t let her know I loved her so.

[He walks back to the front of his house and stands at the very front, with a strong posture looking outwards.]

I need to get a look at myself. People be worried about gittin’ lynched and I’m here alone thinking about Celie. She left six months ago and she’s still on my mind, even if I have got me a new girl. She’s not the same though. I hope she’s well. My Celie.

[He says the last words as though he is slowly drifting off.]

[He snaps back to reality with more energy and walks back into the kitchen] Well, better get back to it, these dishes ain’t gone clean themselves.

A Dangerous Concoction

Procrastination. Laziness. They go hand in hand really, don't they? The moment their hands touch, is the beginning of the spiral into nothingness. And guilt. You always feel guilty when doing nothing.

So that concoction is the reason why I haven't posted in so long.  But I've become sick of doing nothing and as an aspiring writer I need to write. Even if no one reads it or even if it's plain old drivel. This is just a post to get me back into the flow of things.

Since I last posted, I did a few things. Here's a quick catch up.

September to October
I was still in Iran.

November
The beginning of procrastination in London.

December
I went to Iran again. That time by aeroplane and by myself. Stayed there for the whole of December and got back to London on NYE. I was making my way home from Stansted Airport when the clock struck midnight. Fun.

January
From the beginning of January I started rehearsals for a production of Romeo and Juliet. I played Benvolio and there were six performances at the end of the month. It went pretty well. I managed to cry on stage which I'm pretty proud of.
Saw Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse. Yes, the one with Tom Hiddleston in the titled role.

February (so far)
Went to see Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at the Koko with support acts Itch and Sarah Williams White.
Saw The Wolf of Wall Street and Twelve Years a Slave in the cinema. I would definitely recommend both films. The former being a good one if you want a fast paced, energetic, funny and well written film to watch. The latter being a good one if you want a more serious film to watch. The cinematography was beautiful, the screenplay was well written, the actors were superb, and certain scenes were very well executed. Definitely one of the most evocative films I've seen.


So what am I generally doing to fill my time these days? I'm applying for short film auditions and sales assistant jobs. Got an audition coming up soon but no luck with the job hunting yet.


Hopefully the next blog won't take too long to conjure.

The Custom of 'Taarof'

­­Having been with family in Shiraz for about a week now, I’ve noticed a custom which is used far too often. I mean, I noticed it the other times I’ve been here, but this time it just stands out so much more for some reason. It could be because I’m older now and I’m a lot more willing to challenge the use of it. The custom as you may have gathered from the title is called ‘taarof’ - تعارف. Google translates the word to ‘dating’, but that’s far from what it actually is.

Taarof is used everywhere and between everyone; from having dinner in the comfort of your own home, to buying something from a merchant. It seems to be a way of showing both hospitality and etiquette. However, I can only truly explain the custom through scenarios I’ve experienced or witnessed.

Buying Food

I sat and watched as my brother went to pay for a couple of pizzas we had ordered. He was accompanied by a family member. This family member refused to let my brother pay for it, wanting to pay for it himself. My brother literally had to hold him away from the till in order to pay for the meal but he still unwillingly caved in to the custom. Raised a westerner, this is all good. You get a free meal. Although, you may have side effects of guilt after a few free meals.

Eating Food

As I was eating a meal at my aunt’s house, her husband noticed my plate was nearly empty. A conversation occurred that went a little like this:

“Do you want more?”

“No I’m good thanks.”

“Are you sure?”

“No thanks, I’m full.”

“Have some more, it’s good for you.”

“No really, if I wanted more, I’ll take some myself. Don’t stress yourself.”

He went on to put more food on my plate. In a household, it seems polite to say no when offered something just so that you don’t put the other person through any trouble or put a burden on them,
however light it may be (taarof-ing). I was raised in London though. My no means no and my yes means yes. People here haven’t seemed to suss this out yet. This is the bad, annoying taarof.

Purchasing an Item In-Store

When buying anything from a shop, no matter the price, the shopkeeper/sales assistant will always say ‘ghabel nadare’ as you give them the money. Which practically means, ‘you don’t need to pay for what you’re buying’. It’s just polite to say. To my dismay, they never really mean it. Ever. This is the shortest of all taarof’s as you should know they don’t mean it. With the other two, the battle may go on for quite some time.

I have to go through the second scenario mostly. The annoying one. 

End of The Journey to Iran

I haven’t had access to wifi for some time so please excuse the delay of this post. I’ll just put everything that happened in the last few days into this one ‘brief’ post.

The morning after my last post we went to the embassy once again and this time sat there for a good two hours for them to give me my passport with the stamp. The person who was dealing with Going by the policy he showed us, it should have taken a week longer from the day we got the stamp.

Now that everything was ready, all we had left to do in Vienna was to have a shower, say goodbye to the kind family that practically adopted us for a few days and depart.

I forgot to mention who there was in that family. There was a mother and father with one boy aged 11, and one girl aged 2. The girl was quite possibly the cutest human being I have ever seen. She reminded me of Boo from Monsters Inc..

We set off from Vienna a bit late at around 17:30 and made it to the border of Hungary at 19:00. From Hungary we went to Croatia, from Croatia to Serbia, from Serbia to Bulgaria and from Bulgaria to Turkey. That journey took place mostly at night and took roughly 20 hours with a couple of naps here and there. It wasn’t the most interesting of journeys especially as it was happening at night but it may be worth mentioning that these countries are pretty damn poor. Well the places we passed through were, anyway. In Hungary we were greeted by prostitutes.

Auf wiedersehen, Wien!

Before we set off from Vienna we thought that the route would be through Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. Embarrassingly, when we got to the end border of Hungary, my father asked “we are now going into Serbia, right?” With a chuckle they replied “No. Croatia.” Never have I felt so stupid in my life.

We drove through to Kumburgaz, near Istanbul in Turkey by the following night, where we slept in a hotel. The sleeping pattern throughout the journey has pretty much been one day hotel, one day car. Discounting the time we were in Vienna of course. We weren't going to sleep in a car when there was a perfectly good living room to be slept in.

The car we're using.

It was roughly 1600 km from Kumburgaz to the border of Iran and we managed to get there once again within 20 hours, excluding a nap in the car. During this nap, I couldn't fall asleep because I was asleep for most of the driving part. So luckily, we had stopped at a service station where there was a strong wifi signal so I just watched Kevin Hart and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for a good four hours.

We passed through the border of Iran on the 25^th of August in the evening. We had to stop at a city nearby called Khoy in order to get our number plate changed as the alphabet and number system is different here.

It is now the 26^th of August, we've got the plate and we’re now going to make our way to Shiraz. I’m not sure what my posts are going to be like when I’m there, or how frequently I’ll post due to the fact that this site is blocked in Iran, but I guess it’ll soon be revealed.

Journey to Iran: Day 2/3

My first impression of Vienna was wrong. Kind of.

On the 19^th of August, after going to the embassy, we decided to have a little rest and wait for the weather to cool down so we could go out in the evening and have a stroll. We firstly went to Schrönbrunn Palace. I thought it was going to be a quick look like how you would at Buckingham Palace, but no, this place was huge and beautiful. I’m not entirely sure what it was/is being used for, but my God. No amount of pictures will do this place justice. Probably spent a good couple of hours there until it was getting dark.

I am neither of the two people you see.

Not sure if you can make it out, but check the pose on the right.

Beautiful.

Jay Z totally should have used this for MCHG.

"Welcome to my humble abode. Oh, the woman's head in my hand? That's nothing to worry about."

GAH IT'S SO AMAZING.

Afterwards, we decided to go get desserts in the city centre. I would tell you what I had, but I don’t even know. I just asked the waiter what he thought was best and trusted him in bringing me a slice of a cake. Twas pretty damn good. Had a quick coffee to warm me up after and we headed back “home”.

I’ve got to say, people here are much more warm and friendly than they are in England. Not one dodgy look has been received. If I could learn German I would love to live here but someone said that it’s far too complicated which was rather demotivating. Although, I probably could get by with English.

On the 20^th of August we returned to the embassy to find out my passport had been produced! However, due to the fact that Iran requires a two year military service for all males within certain criteria, I need a stamp in my passport to allow me to exit the country within three months without having to take part in the service. It was just my luck that the two people who have the authority to sign the documents for the stamp, weren’t present, and so we were told to come back the following day.

Having left the embassy, we decided to walk around the area to see what we could find out of luck. We came across a place called Belvedere-Garten, where once again pictures will not do it justice, but I’ll try to give you a sense of the place with one picture I took with my phone because I stupidly forgot my SLR.

For now the waiting game must be continued.

P.S. I feel like the quality of my writing was slightly poor in this but I know that if I don’t upload this, I’ll procrastinate my next post to never. I do hope you’ll find some pleasure in reading this though.

Journey to Iran: Day 2

Before continuing to blog about this current journey, I should probably mention now that the sole driver of this journey is my father. What a lad.  

On the ferry from Dover, we were unsuccessful in finding a row of seats available to sleep on. In fact, the only free place left was a corner table, opposite the kids play area. Subsequently my father and I did not manage to get any sleep. Though to be fair, we weren't that tired.  

We got off the ferry at roughly 02:30 and started driving towards Vienna. We were only in France for about half an hour before we entered Belgium. From Belgium, we entered Germany at roughly 07:00. Never is the choice of music so important than when you’re in a car, driving at night, on a motorway with no speed limit. Classical Iranian music doesn’t really cut it. A bit of Foals here, a bit of Flux Pavilion there. Not what my parents would choose, but the iPod was in my hands.

Here's a generic image. And no, that isn't our car. 

After hours of driving now, a nap was calling. My father and mother don’t really tend to sleep more than a couple of hours when we’ve stopped at a service station. I on the other hand, can sleep to no end when sitting at the back of the car whilst moving. Which I did for most of Germany.

One thing that blew my mind when washing my hands at a service station was that the soap dispenser automatically dropped soap on your hand when you put them under it. Don’t get that in England, do you?

Yes, my mind is easily blown. Hehe. Blown.

[I've now been told there are such dispensers in England. Where have I been all my life? Not at a service station, evidently.]

The car rides generally aren’t that exciting seeing as they’re mostly on the motorway so I’ll skip ahead to where we get to Vienna. First impressions at around 22:00 were that the city looked like something out of the film District 13. 

There is a fair amount of graffiti around. 

Why have we come to Vienna in particular, I hear you so curiously ask? Well, first of all I currently do not have an Iranian passport. There’s no official embassy in London for Iran so we have to get it from another country in Europe. The reason for Vienna in particular is because my father has a cousin who lives here so we’ve hijacked the living room until we get my passport.

A building. Like you've never, ever seen before.

Today, the 19^th of August, we went to the embassy to see if we can get the passport by tomorrow morning. Different people said different things so the waiting game is what must be played. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long, but while we do wait, we should be checking out the city. So pictures will inevitably follow. Unless my battery dies. Or my camera is stolen. Or if I just generally can’t be bothered. 

A Journey Begins: Day 1

So it begins. An over three thousand mile journey to Iran. By Car.

You're probably already thinking: "great, a fun road trip across Europe!" Not really. My father, mother and I are in a large car filled as much as it can be with luggage, and on top of that, there's a roof box (excuse the pun). Imagine being in the back of an old Corsa with three other people. That's the maximum level of comfort we generally have.

We set off from London on the 17th of August to get to the Port of Dover by 23:00, an hour before the departure of our ferry. Driving through the suburbs was to say the very least, discomforting. With all that excess weight in the car, each swerve added to a newly formed motion sickness. Not the greatest way to start a week long car journey, but hey ho, with the help of a tablet, I got used to it and was put to ease.

I write this now on the ferry with one more hour to go until we get to Dunkirk where the aim is to get to Vienna by evening. Though it's worth noting, with limited access to wi-fi, this will probably be uploaded a few days later.

Watch this space!