Okay, where to start. We need at least one goldfish for haft-sin. And we wanted to visit China town and then go for the fish in the Iranaian shop, but unexpectedly we ran into this fish shop in China town with all possible brands and sizes and colors of fish. After we made our aesthetic decision, the sweet Chinese shopkeepers refused to sell it! After decades of easy gold fish shopping for Norouz, for the first time Sahar confronted the challenge of fish RIGHTS… and she was lost… So in the middle of China town we found ourselves up against the Animal Liberation Front, disguished as fish shop keepers. The man, so friendly and entirely dedicated, explained to us, the ignorant, that the cute little bowl we wanted to buy would make the tiny fish we wanted dizzy and frantic. Mind you, we were having this conversation in a small shop that looked like an aquarium à nd was filled with aquariums overpopulated with fish. But of course we didn’t want to make our tiny fish dizzy and anxious. As we were thinking about the possibility to get a bigger fish bowl, the man kept on discouraging us: we would need de-clorinated water or the fish would die, and a water warmer cause we didn’t want to put the fish in cold water, and… Sarah had no clue that preparing the whole haft-sin business would be so difficult and ethically challenging… And if you’re still a bit lost by now with what exactely we are doing in New York these days: in a few days it is Norouz, Iranian new year, and to celebrate we need to set haft-sin which means a gathering a number of things on the table which symbolise all things good for the new year.
So in the end the Chinese man and woman, who were such sweet-hearts, flatly refused to sell us the fish, reluctantly sold us an (empty) bowl, and advised us to go home and think about it a bit better, taking a lot of pride in their dedication not to sell fish to the ignorant. Our New York haft-sin adventure continues… sahar & sarah
