Friday, August 5, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
NEWSLETTER
ՀԱՅ
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
ՀԱՅ
No Result
View All Result

Home, Sweet Home, Sweetest Home

by Asbarez Staff
May 14, 2010
in Columns, Heghinar's Corner
11
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BY HEGHINAR MELKOM MELKOMIAN
The streets are empty; the city is asleep. Sitting in a cab, on my way home from my friend’s place, I look around Tumanian Street and think to myself, “The most beautiful city in the world.” Immediately, my next thought opposes the first one. “The most beautiful? You can’t be serious! Maybe beautiful, but definitely not the most beautiful.” While debating with myself, a light bulb turns on in my head.
I once told my aunt that she was beautiful and she smiled and said, “I’m glad you think I’m beautiful. It means you love me.” At that time I tried to convince her that the love I felt for her had nothing to do with her beautiful features; but in that cab, at that moment, Aunty Caroline’s remark finally made sense. None of the people I love are ugly. They are all beautiful, and that is because we search for, and always find, beauty in the things and people we sincerely love.
My debate is over and it is merely a thought, but a true fact: Yerevan is the most beautiful city in the world and Armenia is the most beautiful country in the world, even if it is only so because of my love for it. Once my debate is over I begin recalling so many stories and so many incidents. My 10 minute drive home stretches out over 19 years. I recall the first time I met Armenia and then Yerevan and then my life in this country.
When we came to Armenia I was only 7, but still, I faced many cultural clashes. On my first day at school my teacher, unger Hayrapetian, sat me down next to a boy. In Iran during my one year at preliminary school and first grade I sat in a girls-only classroom. My teacher’s request shocked me. I resisted in the beginning, but had to give up eventually. For many days I sat at the edge of the chair, in an effort to sit as far away from Gevork as possible.
I remember the first time I attended a birthday party and saw boys and girls dancing tango. I refused every boy who asked me to dance. After many hours of persistence, my friend finally convinced me to give them a chance and I did.
My name was different and my surname too, but being teased about it didn’t last too long. Kids get tired of things easily. I was called a Persian in the beginning, because my classmates had no comprehension of the large Armenian community in Iran or elsewhere. It was either my stories or their relatives’ emigration at that time that made them realize that Armenians could also live abroad.
My first Russian language class was a nightmare. Kids my age were reading, writing and talking in a language I had never heard before. I learned that language and began to love it. I had short hair and wore jeans, which was unseen for girls at that time, but by that time I had already made friends with them and I was simply their weird walking, talking, dressing friend from abroad. They got used to me and I got used to them.
I have experienced so many first times in Armenia. Yes, it was here that I learned that just because you turn on the red faucet, it doesn’t mean hot water will pour out. For many years I only used my right hand to shower; my left hand was my douche, pouring water on me.
I learned how to get in and out of spider-webbed manholes twice my height in order to collect water from the water mains. I learned how to worship a stick of gum, a piece of chocolate, and candy, and that bread could also be blue. I learned that the dead are kept at home for two days with the lid of the coffin open; I also saw one for the first time in my life in Armenia.
There are many other things that I saw, heard, learned and became used to. Together with my family upbringing, all those experiences have turned me into the person I am today. All these experiences have instilled love in me. It is because of all this that today I am proud of being an Armenian, proud of living in Armenia, and thankful to my parents for bringing me here. They knew this day would come. They saw the light at the end of that dark tunnel, and today I am standing in that light. I see the light.
The cab stops and only then do I realize that the light from the street lamp in front of our building is glaring in my eyes. I get out of the taxi, and the after-rain, chilly fresh air hits my face. In that split second of absolute happiness and satisfaction, I thank everything and everybody for contributing to the constantly growing immense love inside me. This makes Yerevan the most beautiful city in the world and Armenia, the most beautiful country in the world.

Asbarez Staff

Asbarez Staff

Next Post

George Jamgochian Named Honorary President for Homenetmen’s 35th Annual Navasartian Games

Comments 11

  1. Gayaneh M says:
    12 years ago

    Wow!! I have no words! Very very well written Heghinar. Thank you, I feel a part of your story. It is also my story…

    Reply
  2. Shogh says:
    12 years ago

    I like the way you wrote the story. I like the idea to find beautiful whoever and whatever we love. It makes me revive and reminisce the good days. I had lived there to complete my studies. It was wonderful to be there. Beginning with the clean dry air, up to the natural fruits and vegetable, organic milk and food, the very tasty bread, and many other good things to remember. Thanks for the story.

    Reply
  3. Vahé A. says:
    12 years ago

    Great!
    I loved the optimism and the rising interest upon Armenia-Yerevan that grown deep within, among those 19 years of your resident in Armenia…& I remember your way to school here in Iran when you were 6 or 7…let’s say I’m impressed! Thanks Heghinar.

    Reply
  4. raffi n says:
    12 years ago

    great job – it compliments my blog about searching for my HOME : http://midk.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-constant-search-of-my-home.html

    Reply
  5. Anna Astvatsatryan says:
    12 years ago

    I’m in love with this article!
    I had that same thought in my head about how beautiful Yerevan is….And your aunt Caroline was absolutely right 😀
    Thanx for warming my heart and bringing back all those memories.

    Reply
  6. Laura says:
    12 years ago

    Love it,especially now that i’m back to Canada. I love your country and i love Yerevan

    Reply
  7. Teny says:
    12 years ago

    You never fail you make my day just a little bit brighter. Your writing is soooo postitive that i can’t help but have a smile on my face.

    Reply
  8. Zaruhi says:
    12 years ago

    nice, sweet and so much sincere..

    Reply
  9. Hovsep K says:
    12 years ago

    bravo heghinar…while i was reading this i almost remembered all the time that i was there and spesially with u guys and i remembered when Nairi used to told me that Yerevan is the best place to leave and i was objecting all the time..wow..almost 8 years,,,after all these years i saw and felt and learnd the same things heghinar ,when i left my lovely Yerevan i felt something wierd inside my chest hearting me even when i was reading ur story i felt the same, i wish i was there in this very moment ,i wish i was in that 06 taxi ,i wish i could feel the fresh air ,i wish i could drink water from pulpulag ,i wish i could walk from Tumanian to Mashtots…i wish i was home,,,sweet home my beautifull Yerevan…love u and yes you are the most beatifull country in the world ARMENIA…

    Reply
  10. kamelia says:
    12 years ago

    Very good Hegho jan,
    You are honest and I love it. That is simple and mean time hard for some people to understand

    Reply
  11. Arpineh-Apo says:
    12 years ago

    Heghinar, thank you! Thank you for your writings. You say things that I would say as well but words fail me! You say it just the way I want it to be said. The examples and comparisons you bring are brilliantly chosen and balanced with the thoughts to be followed.
    Yerevan is indeed beautiful and you, my friend are just as beautiful.
    Cary on writing and keep on talking from our hearts!
    Bless your pen and your muse.
    Apo

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Author Mark Arax to Speak at ‘William Saroyan – The Painted Word’ Exhibit at Saratoga Library

Author Mark Arax to Speak at ‘William Saroyan – The Painted Word’ Exhibit at Saratoga Library

5 hours ago
Family Whose Home Was Destroyed in 2020 War Gets Keys to Brand-New House 

Family Whose Home Was Destroyed in 2020 War Gets Keys to Brand-New House 

6 hours ago

Connect with us

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

    Readable Experience

    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned

    Visually Pleasing Experience

    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors

    Easy Orientation

    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Virtual Keyboard
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Navigation Keys

    Asbarez.com Accessibility Statement

    Accessibility Statement

    • www.asbarez.com
    • August 5, 2022

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
    3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to