Mojtaba Akhtari is an Iranian medical doctor living in London, from where he posts to his Letters from London blog hosted on Blogspot.
Mojtaba looks a lot out of some library window, where he spends many hours studying, and generally lets his eye wander over the London skyline. The scenery he sees is of course pure Londontown, the green dome of the Imperial War Museum near his flat being a prominent landmark (which places Mojtaba’s perch on good ol’ Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ).
Letters from London uses a simple template — one-column reading area with yellow background on a light gray page. There is only one very short archive, the blog being not even a month old. There are no links or any other distinguishing marks on the page.
Motjaba generally goes over his daily life, which evolves around reading, working in the hospital, performing procedures, planning for visits with friends and such. He seems to be happily married to a wife who treats him to delicious vegetarian dishes. He sounds quite at peace with what should be a hectic schedule, because apparently he is a junior doctor, maybe just a “houseman”, as the Brits call young doctors doing their specialty and working nonstop 130-hour weeks (including weekends of course).
The writing could use some polishing, but the tone is relaxed, attuned I guess to the pace of a daily routine well under control. Motjaba does not wrestle with existential dilemmas so prevalent in so many personal blogs. He’s not crying his heart out over lost or broken liaisons and he’s not hurling his whining and moaning upon readers, just like your average “I’m-here-to-tell-you-how-shitty-the-world-is” personal blogger. Letters from London is maybe unexciting, but steady and well-balanced.
Motjaba’s posts read like a short story. This is perhaps the blog’s strong point. On a technical note, the good doctor should get used to inserting a space after punctuation — space after a full stop, space after a comma or semicolon. This will make his page a lot clearer and easier to read.
I liked Letters from London. This is one honest, level-headed blog. Letters From London