Thirty years after the revolution, there is one thing people have forgotten entirely: The kindness, that was there suddenly among the people. The little window of love that was open for some time before the nation fell into constant fight and bloodshed.
On the first day of Norouz in the year 1979, our family hit the road to see relatives at my grand mother’s place. My dad was driving the car correctly in the one-way street when he noticed another car was moving towards us from the opposite direction. My dad, who was badly fed with the daily revolutionary chaos, exploded all of a sudden and started to honk and shake his hands to show his complaint to the other driver who was doing something illegal and incorrect. The man stopped his car in front of ours, didn’t move even an eyelash, and stayed where he was. It made my dad very upset and he started screaming at the man. Then he turned the engine off and stepped out of the car. The man didn’t expect my dad’s seriousness and was totally surprised. A few seconds passed quietly. Finally he left his car and came to my dad. We all thought that both rivals were going to have a typical “get-out-of-the-car-and-punch-into-each-other’s-face” session.
“We got the revolution just recently but it doesn’t mean that we have to do anything illegal.” My dad politely said. It made the other man think for a few seconds.
“Are you a policeman? Because if you are the one, there are no police anymore!” He proudly replied.
“No, I’m not a policeman, but shouldn’t we be all policemen because there are no police anymore?!” My dad calmly said.
The other man stopped saying a word for some time.
“What you just said was so wise. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.” He answered nervously while moving his hands. Then he hugged my dad and two men started to kiss each other’s chicks, Persian style! When my dad came back to the car, he had tears in his eyes.
“Happy Norouz! Happy New Year!” The passengers of both cars said to each other loudly.
The two cars left the scene peacefully and everything came back to normal again in that tiny little one-way street.
Today when i look back, that day was one of the most beautiful first days of spring.
