Anahid Hojjati

When I saw that I have a facebook message from my friend “Maryam Eshtehari”, I was very surprised. Even though, Maryam is a facebook friend, we had never exchanged messages or chatted. She had never once liked any of the pictures, articles, poems, songs that I had posted. Every once in a while, I had liked one of the pictures that she had posted. We grew up together and our families were friends. I knew Maryam from when we were both twelve year olds. Our moms taught in the same elementary school in majeedieh. Sometimes, after I was done with school in early June, my mom would take me to her school and Maryam’s mom would also bring her to school. Then we both helped our moms in the class and we would spend the break times together. Her mom was very beautiful. She was tall and had a curvy body. She was also very well dressed. In our family parties, Maryam’s mom used to sing for us Marzieh’s songs and we all agreed that she had a lovely voice.. In her facebook message, Maryam had written:

"«آناهید جان , سلام. امیدوارم که خوب باشی. دلم خیلی برایت تنگ شده. راستی هنوز پینگ پونگ بازی میکنی ؟ بای دِ وی , چند ویدئو از آهنگهای مامانم را در فیسبوک گذاشتم , حتمأ تماشا کن و لایک بزن .»

I became very intrigued. Ms. Farhadi did have a nice voice.  However, I never knew that she actually had done any singing in a formal way. I checked Maryam’s facebook page and realized that she had posted some videos of her mom. In one of them, there was a biography of her:

« ماهرخ فرهادی با نام هنری مهین متولد ١٣٢٢ بود . او در خانواده ای فرهنگی بزرگ شد و از نوادگان قاجار بود . از بچگی ماهرخ صدایی بسیار زیبا داشت و دلش می خواست که خواننده شود ولی خانواده او به شدت با فعالعیتهای هنری او مخالفت میکردند. پرویز یاحقی استعداد ماهرخ را کشف کرد .ماهرخ چندین ترانه خواند که مرحوم بیژن ترقی آنها را نوشته بود . ماهرخ با نام هنری مهین تمام فعالیتهای خوانندگی خود را در سال ١٣٥٢ و با تولد دختر دوم خود قطع کرد . آخرین ترانه مهین به نام  صبر افسانه ای بود .»

همراه با این جملات , ویديوی ازآهنگ صبر افسانه ای خانم فرهادی پست شده بود .ترانه زیبا و غم انگیزی بود به همراهی عکسهایی از زندگی خانم فرهادی در مقاطع مختلف تا به هنگامی که او را با یک دختر هفت هشت ساله کنارش  نشان می داد . در عکس آخری خانم فرهادی لباس سیاه به تن داشت .

I clicked Like under the video but I could not stop thinking about Ms. Farhadi. I only knew their family to have one child who was my friend, Maryam. I never knew about a second daughter. So they must have lost their second daughter before I met them. So why did they never speak about her? Why was there never any picture of her? She was simply erased as if she never existed. I just remembered how Maryam used to talk about having picnics in Behesht Zahra. That always sounded weird to have picnics in a cemetery. Now I was thinking that perhaps they were visiting the grave of their other daughter and just multi tasked and made it into a picnic also. Somehow as there is that Iranian expression, I did not have del va damagh to watch Ms. Farhadi or Mahin’s other videos. Instead, I picked up an old album of mine and started looking at pictures of their family in the parties we had together. Dad. Mother, and the only daughter. All happy and cheerful.

 Note: Above story is fictitious.