hi! i'm Mehrad Rousta.
who dreams, lives, loves, learns, and creates.
Agentic Software Engineer · Istanbul
call the station: [email protected] or book a meeting
sign-on · tonight
radio shab boo
good evening, correct pipo. dis na radio shab boo, eighty-eight point seven. no licence, no budget, just one microphone and una. tonight, a botanist’s field notes about one specimen, Matthiola mehradis, which was discovered 27 years ago.
a seed splits open
tehran,
the first entry: tehran, 1999. a metaphorical boy is born in a metaphorical world.
- soil
- warm
- light
- sodium streetlight
- wind
- calm
germination: confirmed, a little early. already facing the window. n.b. i refuse to write "baby" in a field journal.
in khialchè, far past the crease
khialchè, the 2000s
the specimen grew up in khialchè: long nights, late lanterns, full of life, pomegranates and fantasy trips
- soil
- rich
- light
- lanterns
- supervision
- none
a wonderful childhood. growth: rapid, mostly unsupervised. one leaf lost to an accident; not mourned for long.
making & breaking
tehran,
the specimen discovers screwdrivers. radios opened, toys improved. then a beige pentium 4 that wheezed, with a blinking cursor.
- soil
- gravel and solder
- light
- one desk lamp
- noise
- considerable
took it apart “to see how it works.” put it back: mostly.
the first job
tehran,
and the first time the specimen was asked to bloom on a schedule. it learned what a standup is, and how to ship on a friday at 23:58 and call it agile.
- soil
- coffee
- light
- fluorescent
- humidity
- meetings
repotted into something labelled “employee”. soil: mostly coffee. leaf count: more than expected.
hostile soil
Evin,
in 2018 the ground the specimen grew in began to disagree with it: less water, harder stones, a wind that leans on everything. i won’t say more on air.
- soil
- hostile
- light
- thin
- wind
- leaning on everything
specimen: leaning, not breaking. roots: reconsidering the neighbourhood.
code crosses borders first
every time zone,
after dark, radio bounces off the sky and lands a continent away. from 2019 the specimen learned the same trick: international companies, late calls, code that crossed borders more easily than its author.
- ionosphere
- cooperative
- time zones
- several
- coffee
- yes
wanderlust
On The Road,
so the specimen keeps moving. on foot, by bike, on a skateboard, which the notebook calls “controlled falling with good posture.” 2025 was the best season yet: alive, loud, full of friends.
it ended, as it turned out, around a campfire in december.
- soil
- borrowed
- light
- whatever's ahead
- wind
- at our backs, for once
roots: shallow, by choice. a backpack is a pot that learned to walk.
dead air
Autumn & Winter,
i’ll be honest, which is rare on a pirate frequency. 2025 was a bad season, and the broadcast went quiet. that’s dead air. we don’t fill it with music. we let it be.
- soil
- cold
- light
- minimal
- roots
- holding
leaves: down. instruction to self: keep watering. nobody asking “how are you” in a hurry.
the move to istanbul
the botanist carries the specimen, root ball and all, to istanbul, to work and to study mathematics and computing. ferries here run on time.
- soil
- new, salty
- light
- grey, then gold
- gulls
- many
transplant shock: brief. new soil: salt and a great deal of tea. first sign of recovery: it has started proving small things.
the journey is just getting started
istanbul, now
the sky is going pale: we’re nearly out of night. the specimen made it, roots in, head up. the journey is just getting started.
an idea, a talk, some work? reach out to me.
- sky
- pale green
- wind
- easterly
- fragrance
- full
full bloom, strongest at the very end of the night. to be continued.