News Archive

Hassan Alebouyeh is 79

حسن جان، زادروزت خسجته باد

Happy Birthday Hassan Jaan

June 9, 2005 - Last week, Capt. Hassan Alebouyeh turned 79, but it was not one of his usual birthdays. A group of fellow captains and friends from all over had come to Raleigh, NC, to celebrate his birthday together. Originally, this was Amir Kasravi's initiative and when we were talking on the phone on Monday, after his return, I asked him to send me a story and some pictures and here it is, his side of the story, as he called it. Amir said, Hassan was so delightfully appreciative of this event that told Amir, he felt thirty years younger.

We paid tribute to Hassan at EXIR 1997, our 2nd world reunion,  appreciating his services to Iran's aviation and Homa. 

At Hassan Alebouyeh's birthday gathering

From right: Nasser Garrousi, Rahim Sheikhan, Amir Kasravi, Ardeshir Dadsetan, Khosrow Bidhendi, Fred Aryan and Ali Mahdaviani

 

To see other photos, please click HERE, and select slideshow

 

One year older, thirty younger!

By: Amir Kasravi

 

People socialize for their own reasons. What was ours? Two simple ones:

* Pay our respect to our mentor "MORSHED", Hassan Alebouyeh at his 79th birthday.
* Revisit our own past in each other, and, temporarily, allow ourselves to dwell on the glories of our old days.

You may rightfully say that dwelling too long in the past, deprives us from living at present. And on the other side of the spectrum, total disregard of our personal history, is sort of a denial of our own being at a definite time and definite space. So where is the balance?

In my view, it's healthy and logical to re-evaluate our values by reminding ourselves who we were and who we are now, and why. My solution is learning and re-learns from people around me. I think what made me "me", is an accumulation of my learning from my friends (you), my parents, colleagues (you), teachers, books that I read (someone's mentally in the form of written words), we also learn a lot from our unfriendly associates. We learn from each other and form our values. So revisiting friends and colleagues is a refresher course and sometime very pleasant. And by all means, our gathering served all the purposes.

In this trip no one was in-charge, no invitation extended to anyone, everyone had to work hard to make it through their busy schedule, no one offered anyone any reward for participation, no patting on the back for attending, no hard feeling for not attending, no net working, no expectation, no "POOL-O-PALE-EE" in the work and no distribution of SHOUGHL-O-MA-GHAAMI. Nothing but pure longing to see each other, share our aging, feel good about our wrinkles that we earned, gray hairs if any, and laugh our previous laughter again, laugh our pants out. Laughter, we did a lot.

We shared our seriousness, our new/old philosophical views, recalled our memories, observed the character changes, enjoyed our funny jokes and tolerated the dump ones, we met the additions/new wives, and lived our past lives again and again whether, during breakfast at Hassan's house, or at dinner tables with Morteza Vakilian's new line of democracy of forcing us to swallow tequila/wine/beer to HIS liking and HIS choice of brand and amounts. Some of us proudly woke up with hang over (or hung start).

We dissected Iran-Air, our colleagues and tried not to talk behind absentees. I confess that at some moments we were unsuccessful.

In the evening of June 1st 2005, we did our "KORNESH" to our mentor, our PEER-EH-DAIR, Hassan Alebouyeh. Had the honour to visit his wife Parvaneh, his loving family, taste of those delicious cooking of Simin, nights after nights, and hospitality of Ali Regimand (Hassan's daughter and her husband).

Khosrow Bidhendi's sense of humour and laughter of his wife Haleh filled the space all the times. We experienced new concept of Ray Sheikhan's gentleness, we witnessed Ardeshir Dadsetan's sage look again and Sori's bright, beautiful eyes as they always have been, Fereydoun Aryan's calms and politeness and his wife, Laleh's warmth. We enjoyed Ali Mahdaviani's excitements during his conversation, And Nasser Garroussi's respectful look; he showed again that he is "BAA MA-REFAT" and "LOOTI-MANESH". Farjad Taghikhani's pleasant presence and his PAA MAMBARYs were always an added value to any conversation.

Presence and mingling of Parisa Kasravi, Kiavash Kasravi and his wife,Connie Kasravi with the group, added to my pleasant moments. Connie's attendance was an extra effort, because she is heaver than normal these days, soon she'll be adding another male to Kasravi's collection.

We laughed together at the good memories as much as our embarrassing ones. There were several suggestions to repeat this gathering. Some suggested every six months or one year. I suggested one year from now and thereafter every two years, in combination with EXIR. What do you think?

Our day trip to Kitty Hawk was as historic as the Kill Devil Hill. We stepped on exactly the same soil as Wright Brothers flew their Flyers 102 years ago. This has always been my dream to walk the very 120 feet that Orville flew on Dec 17, 1903 for 12 seconds.

We missed Majid Afkhami that cancelled at the last moment due to schedule problem (once pilot you are always a pilot with all the scheduling problem and/or broken airplane at very last moment). Two other last minutes cancellation were Homayoun Lahiji and Amir Malek, I hope everything is OK for them now.

We really and truly missed everyone who was unable to attend. Your place was empty "JAAYEH SHOOMA KHAALEE BOOD". We missed all the colleagues that we had
memories with.

This was my side of the story from our trip to Raleigh.

_________________________________________________________________________

 

We also received this note in connection with the same event:

 

Reconnecting in Raleigh

June 1, 2005

It would be dishonest not to admit that the June 2005 Raleigh event did not elicit profound sensations of varying degree, and kind, in each and everyone of us.

We have each followed a different path these last years and therefore have evolved, or to say it more objectively, matured in a different way.

But in addition to being countrymen, colleagues and friends, all participants had two more distinct things in common, First was to have recognised an inner need to reconnect with their past. Second was to have acted in responding to this need. Such need may be present in a lot of people. What makes this need so special in our group is the brutal interruption of the connection to our past, the uprooting of our professional, cultural and social milieu, brought about by the events following the change of regime in our beloved motherland, Iran.

 

This explains the hunger we all had for this reunion. In responding to this need, all took a further step toward wholeness, a little closer to that unattainable complete serenity. Touching a part of our distant roots is an enriching life experience, especially when visible signs of these roots have all but vanished. As Rumi says:

چون که گل رفت و گلستان شد خراب           بوی گل را از که  گیریم از گلاب

 Hassan Albouyeh’s birthday provided the most legitimate catalyst for this happening to take place. He is the symbol of our stolen past, a connection to what was, and is no longer, the perfect prototype of our ideals in this profession. His open arms and hospitality of himself, his wife, Parvaneh, and their daughter, Simin, all bear witness to the authenticity of his feelings. Thank you Hassan.

May future events make it possible for another reunion to take place, soon.

Fereydoon Aryan

Brussels

Nasser Garroussi at Narita

Wasn't it a matter of pride that the people who represented your organization, were of outstanding personality,

talented, expert, knowledgeable and had the look of a movie star? Nasser Garroussi, as the station manager

at Narita airport and later Iran Air manager for Japan, was an excellent example of that.

No wonder Nasser was named manager of the year during first year of his Japan management.

Ahmad Shafii 62nd birthday

Does he really look 62? No way....!!!

Ahmad jaan, we wish you a very happy birthday and

many prosperous years to come. Oct 5/04

 

 

Homaie Capt. Moniri is

Senator John Kerry's personal pilot

Few days ago the following picture of Ex-Iran Air Capt. Nasser Moniri sent by Ambassador Farhad Sepahbody, was published on Iranian.com, and today another picture of him with Senator Kerry was published in the same medium.

My last communication with Nasser was before EXIR 2002, when he called to reconfirm his contact details and say he would be attending our next gathering.

Nasser jaan, if you ever see this please advise your email.

September 2004

Just few days after this news went on line, I was delighted to have a call from Nasser, who so humbly said, "all I have is from Iran Air and Homaiyan" and then I received the following email from him:

Salam,

I am so happy to get hold of you, hope you and family doing fine. I am sending you a few pictures to show my appreciations to all of you, for the last 36 years of flying. When I started flying with my father (Mehdi Hajimoniri) I was fourteen years old, but my best time was in Iran Air, 1968-1980, when I flew with DC6, B737, 727,707,747 and then in the USA with B737, 757, 767, A-320. Now that I am flying with Senator Kerry as his personal pilot, I have achieved my goal and that is because of my best training with a group of Ace instructor-pilots in Iran Air, I salute them and thank them for those wonderful years.

 

Nasser H Moniri

       
 

Nasser Moniri with Senator John Kerry

پریا پیشوا

در سن ١٨ سالگی قدم در راهی گدشته است که بزودی افتخارات بزرگی را به ارمغان خواهد آورد.

او دختر ناصر پیشوا عضو تیم ملی والیبال ایران و هم آهنگ کننده تیم های وزشی افتخار آفرین هما است.

ناصر سهم بزرگی در به شهرت رسیدن تیم های ورزشی هما  داشت که بزودی مشروح آنرا در آینده در مقاله ای

در باره فعالیت های ورزشی هما خواهید خواند.

توجه شمارا به مقاله ی روزنامه بزرگ انگلیسی  زبان شهر تورونتو  در باره پریا جلب میکنیم:  

Dec 2004

First Iranian FAA employee is EXIR

Jan2003 Did you know our Homaie friend, Khalil Boini, is the first Iranian who has been employed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA.) For many years, Khalil was a director with Iran Air Engineering & Maintenance and other airlines, after he left Iran. He is now working with the FAA aircraft evaluation group which is the liaison between the flight standards and aircraft certifications.   Mansour Rafat was the second Iranian who joined the agency.   Mansour was managing director of Pars Air, Iran's domestic airline until he left Iran.   We wish both friends best of luck in their career.

Ali Boubari turned 80

Feb2003

Mary and Liza are celebrating Alex's 80th birthday on February 21, 2003 in Glendale, California. They have called the event the "80 years of history, friendship and accomplishment." 

 

You deserve it Ali Jan. You had a resourceful and productive life. Your friends and colleagues, will always remember your superb work and outstanding dedication and valuable contribution to Iran Air, during your 40 years of service with Iranian airline industry. We wish you a happy a 80th birthday and many prosperous years to follow. Thanks to Mary and Liza for upholding your friendship and achievements.  

Bada bada mobark bada

Mar2003

Capt. Amir Kasravi's son Kiavash is getting married in March 2003. Do you want to know more? Vistit  www.kasravi.us. Our best wishes for the young couple.

 

Amir jaan many congratulations to you and Parisa. You certainly deserve a big BRAVO for bringing up two marvellous children.