In an Eastern Frame

Along with much of my love of Middle Eastern esthetic, I find myself drawn to lanterns and candle holders with ornate cutouts, the sort that bring to mind the jaali, the fancy wooden shutters and screens of the Mughals. Oh, I'm mixing my cultures here, but between the Mughals, the Persians, and the Armenians, I find much to delight and entrance. One night this week, I read some Hafiz, he of the ghazal form of poem:

"If the scent of her hair were to blow across my dust when I had been dead a hundred years, my mouldering bones would rise and come dancing out of the tomb."

I lit my lanterns, I filmed my lanterns, I listened to the Armenian duduk. Of course, I ate some wonderful new biblical treats: dates rolled in pistachios.