I was born in the beautiful city of Tehran, Iran. My name comes from the lineage of Parthian kings mentioned in the Persian national epic Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. My paternal family is Azeri from Tabriz while my maternal family is Persian. I grew up in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I am interested in all aspects of computing and am a proponent of free culture and a user of GNU/Linux and open source software. In high school and college, I competed in numerous programming competitions and worked summer jobs doing web programming and software development.

One of my main passions is Japanese martial arts. I have been studying Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo since I was nine years old and currently train at the Kodokan Boston dojo. Okinawan karate is an ideal blend of Chinese kung-fu with emphasis on breathing & economy of movement combined with the rigor of Japanese body conditioning and attention to detail. I have a shodan from the Seibukan dojo in Canada where I also trained in aikido, jujitsu, and iaido. Aside from martial arts, my other principal interest is the piano which I have been studying since I was eleven - I particularly enjoy the keyboard repertoire of J.S. Bach. I also enjoy latin dancing and am a member of the MIT salsa club. And finally I like to read, especially books ranging from fiction to non-fiction and anything in between, to see a list of books I have read recently go here.

Currently, I live at the Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence where I used to organize the Sidney-Pacific Lecture Series as chair of the Commitee on Scholarly Interaction (CoSI).