hey! while i wait for adds, i figured i could start putting feelers out there for connections. syed rahaman is a 30 year old miami native and the oldest of three children of indian immigrants. he was a handful as a child, to say the least, and his overabundance of energy has stuck with him over the years. he has always been an animal lover, so he spent a fair chunk of his time growing up reading and watching everything he could get his hands on about animals. he decided he wanted to go to school for ecology and also learn more about conservation, so that brought him to duke in north carolina. he got to spend some time abroad in south africa, which really took his growing fascination with big cats and pushed it over the edge. after he finished school, he moved to tampa, where he got his foot in the door at a local zoo, and by 2011 he took up volunteering at the big cat rescue. in general, a lot of syed's volunteer work has been focused on working with animals at rehabs and sanctuaries/rescues, so that lent itself to getting into animal keeping at the zoo. he was with the lowry park zoo in tampa up until two years ago, actually. he was initially going to move to the city with his boyfriend at the time, but his s.o. got cold feet about the move plus moving in with one another so he pulled out of everything. syed already had a job offer lined up and was ready to go, so he moved to new york, anyway. he currently works as a keeper for the bronx zoo, meanwhile he lives in jackson heights, queens, with a couple of roommates. he also lives with two cats, amar and prem, and his bearded dragon, madeline. as far as lines go, i'm really open to everything - neighbors, people who've seen him give talks to visitors at bronx zoo's tiger mountain, hookups or guys he's briefly dated, other bookworms and museum nerds he's connected with, fellow employees at the bronx zoo or one of the other sister zoos/the aquarium if you're out there, etc. anyone willing to put up with or butt heads with his aquarius ass is more than welcome to come cook up some plots.