About the Author: Ali Langroodi
My late parents were residing by the Caspian Sea when they met. My father was a teacher and later in his career he obtained an administrative job in the Department of Education. My mother was a housewife. I was born by the Caspian Sea and even to this day I have very fond and colorful memories from the beautiful scenery of that region, both the blue Caspian Sea and its surrounding green mountains. However, I did not have much exposure to arts when growing up, maybe except for some poetry.
I migrated to U.S.A. in 1985 and completed my M.S. and PhD in biology and microbiology. Later on, my interest shifted from studying molecular biology sciences to the field of medicine. I became very fascinated with understanding the complexity of human mind and interpersonal relationships. Thus, I went to medical school and became a psychiatrist.
In the U.S., I got exposure to a variety of art projects (painting, drawing, embroidery, poetry, song writing, and music). I also started to take notice of many great authors who made masterpieces in literature as well as fun and engaging novels such as John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and John Grisham.
At first, I found myself enjoying the mere participation in the art projects with almost no sense of direction. However, gradually, my love for travel and understanding other cultures and customs and my excitement for applying bright colors all coincided and I became very interested to draw flags of different countries as a way of expressing myself.
My message is simple. I draw and paint flags of different countries to express my appreciation of all cultures and customs. Also, I am hoping that by drawing flags I could bring people of different backgrounds closer to each other. I have started the Ali Baba's book series on artistic flags and hoping to publish several books in this series. Each book has its unique message of friendship and love. This is the book three in this series, celebrating 100 countries for their participation in the Olympic Games throughout the history. With respect to music, I like to consider myself a lyricist. I have published three songs in popular online music sites under my stage name Caspean and I am about to release the fourth one. Writing and publishing of my first novel is in its early stage of planning.
I would like to take this opportunity and express my sincere love and appreciation to my late mother, Maryam and my late grandmother, my dear nana, Rokeyah. Their genuine love and support and their sacrifices took me to where I am now. Also, I am very much influenced by their message of love, kindness, and friendship, both in practice and in preach. I am determined to continue their way of appreciating life through my paintings, music, and novels.
As I said, as a child, I never had a formal education in art. However, Googoosh, the Persian diva, used radio and TV and magazines ( the only tools available at that time) to open my eyes and many youths to the world of art. She allowed us to believe that there was hope and future. For that, I am forever indebted to her. She gracefully filled my heart and million others with her beauty, magical voice, and extraordinary choreography and dance. She continues to entertain millions of people around the world. She is simply the best and the only one.
This book is about celebrating so many beautiful cultures, customs, languages, and landscapes. As if over the years, all nations have collectively decided to display their flags as a way to mark their victory. Thus flags have been symbolically used to announce the victory of coexistence over war and defeat of obstacles and hardships. This collection of flags confirms that all countries have been succeeding. In this book, I have simply been attempting to capture these amazing displays of honor and proud.