The children of Iran
I was invited in a party; a friend of mine was graduated from the university. A lot of people were invited as this younger friend of mine was very intelligent and has finished his PhD with an honor. The father of one of my students came close to me. We have greeted each other and spoke with each other for a while. He was very upset and sad and I did not know why. The tears shine in his eyes and I was wonder why he in a party like this which is for joy as a man get his PhD , he was so sad. After a while he has separated from me and went to other friends for greeting.
In this time another friend of mine came closer to me. I asked him why Arman’s father was so sad and almost he was crying. He said do you know that Arman after finishing his PhD in engineering with a high honor from a very good German university has killed himself. I said, no I did not know this. So he said for this reason the father is so sad, especially in a party for graduating of PhD, he remembers his son very clearly in his mind. I asked him, do you know why he killed himself? He said no and nobody was willing to ask the father why his son has killed himself. I was very sad as Arman was a very good and nice student of mine.
It was very difficult for me to believe that the nice boy like Arman has killed himself. He was nice and very intelligent; and this is hard for me to believe that he has killed himself. I remember in the time; we had a very ugly friend in the six grade. As a child we were cruel and asked him you with an ugly face can you never marry? Nobody will marry you as you are ugly. He laughed and said I will marry an uglier girl than me. He was even not upset. Now Arman a nice handsome boy with a rich family and with PhD in the hand from one of the best university in Germany, why he should kill himself? How can a successful person so easily kill himself?
The poor father who has lost such a handsome and intelligent son. He has right to be so upset. It was two years ago that I have met the father of Arman in another meeting. He was so happy that his son had passed the PhD exams and researches. He said he can be easily professor in Germany and he can even continue his study for Habilitation or post doctorate in Germany. He has a golden future in Germany and I hope one day he will be back in Iran and can have a nice position. He said thank you as you have trained my son to be such a great scientist. You did the first step and trained him so good that he easily became what he is today. He appreciate so much that the tiredness of teaching for so many years left me and I was so happy that my work had such a good end and such a good fruits. But now the same handsome intelligent young man has killed himself. Why? I was also very curious to know why and how he has killed himself, but I knew that it was very hard to ask the father this matter.
I remember how nice he wrote compositions. He was may be 12 years old and he wrote such good compositions that all the children in the class were listening with interest to his compositions and they enjoyed themselves. Arman not only write good compositions, he could read them nicely also. He spoke very nice and in discussion he had always good arguments. As he has read a lot of books and so his general knowledge was very good, so in discussions he could bring nice example and nice logical matter and the other students liked his speaking also. His speech was heavy for his age and he had a lot of background of reading and for this reason he did not say only a lot of words and sentences, but a lot of knowledge and good arguments.
I remember that one day he has written a bout Moses a very nice composition and he wrote about all little things about Moses and with an interest he had investigated the life of Moses and wrote a complete biography of his life and his thinking and his difficulties and the detail of his life. That the emotions of all students moved and they were crying for the hero of his composition. He was actually Jewish background, but his family was Bahai. This young scientist man should not kill himself as he was not belonged to himself alone, he belonged to the society and the society could have benefit from him and his knowledge. Again I was moved in my thinking and wanted to go to his father and ask why this young scientist killed himself and again I thought in this moment with such upset father, how I can ask this. Even now after passing so many years I still do not know why my beloved student and my spiritual child has killed himself. I cannot even imagine and guess why he did this. A young man with good education, in a rich family, having young academic father and mother, a handsome person; why should kill himself? Many students even cannot dream of having PhD from an important German university. I never saw in the past that he fights with other children. He had may be not any problems with the other students. He was very confident student, he speaks politely and nicely, he was a good student. Why he did that? He was one of my best students in the north of Tehran. And the first year of my teaching in that school; he was my student. I was may be just few years older than him. I remember before coming to this high class school; I was teacher in a poor district school and the students were hunger and had a lot of financial problems and they fight with each other and they were angry, but here in this school the situation was different. The students came to school with a lot of food and money; they bought whatever they liked. But in both school the children were willing to learn.
In the poor district school, one of the major activities of the students was to tease the teacher. By putting water balloon on the top of the door and in the time that the poor teacher opens the door the balloon full of water came down on his/her face and head. And he would be upset and angry and the students would laugh loudly. And the other common thing was to put needle in his chair and when he sits; you can imagine the needles will go to his flash. Or break one of the leg of the chair and put it lose in its place in the time that the teacher sits, the leg will go away and the teacher will fell down on the floor and again the student would laugh loudly. Or connecting the handle of door with the electric power and the time the teach touch the handle the shook will bother him. Or to put the projector in his eyes. Or singing a song with the close mouths so the teacher cannot find who is singing. Or even showing the teacher the knives and treat him to tease him. They generally do not bring culture from home, as their parent is not academic.
The teacher does not like to go and teach in such school, they go there if there is a must. I was teacher in this type of the school for the first year of my employment. Without any experiences. But I was very serious and in the first time I asked the students about what they did learn last year. So they were happy to speak and so I explained them that I will try to teach as far as I can and that the knowledge is their future. They should save their future by learning. So it was clear that I will ask every day the students whom I thing they did not learn. So the students said to each other you have to learn, he does not let us to be in the class without learning. Most of my students in this school could not finish the school and they have to work in the ninth or tenth grade. As their parent had no money to pay their costs. But I tried to train them as much as possible. As about five year ago I was taking the entry exam of the university so I knew most of the questions by heart and I worked these questions with them. Even some of that class finished the high school and passed the entry exam of the university.
The year after that I transferred to the north and this time I had rich students. In the south the parent of students were worker, or little business people or without work or even addicted to the drugs, but here the parent were state secretary, generals, parliament representatives, high class government employees, or professors, directors of big companies, or even from the court. I had some students who their parents were relative to the king of Iran. These children have a nice comfortable life and in the summer holidays they went to Europe or USA to learn more and to have fun. And Arman was student in this type of school in Iran.
But one of my students named Mojtaba was from the south of Tehran. He was my student in that school. I do not know if he could get his diploma from high school or not; he was my student in the time that he was in seventh grade. One day I was passing the Bazaar of Tehran to buy something I saw a young a little fat man is running after me. I know him, he was Mojtaba. They fight with each other every day; I had no problems with them, but I knew that they have a lot of problems; I tried to solve some of their problems. I had as young students a lot of cold and indifferent teacher; they liked to fail the students and were happy if students fail. I remembered I said to myself, I will be teacher and will love my students and help them to be successful persons. Now the students feel this and for this reason I had a good time with them. Again I remember a teacher told me as I was also student, I gave him a bad score as he does not hello me in time and he delay to say hello to me. Or one time a student did not move from his sit and did not present his place to the teacher. So the teacher gave him a bad score. Or another teacher told me that boy always go to the bridge of Tajrish for fun and always speak with the girls, now I will give him a bad score so he know the power of the teacher.
Mojtaba that poor boy, who had not even enough bread to eat now was a big huge person and seems also rich as the clothes and the suite were not cheap. He runs with his huge body for a while until he could reach me and he seems to be very happy being with me. He said hello to me and tried to kiss my hand, that I did not let him to do that. He said he is a merchant and work in Bazaar and showed me some shops and said all of them are his properties. He had a lot of employees and he makes a lot of money. He continued that he is very successful in the business and all this success is because of me. I almost forced him to learn and be successful. I remembered that boy who was in trouble as a child. They told him that your father is epilepsy and your mother is stupid and very short like a Satan. Mojtaba had a father who was burn as a child and could not even sit properly. He could not speak and just made sounds. He could only look at the people and the people who passed his house gave some money to him. And his mother walk, but he was a little woman the size of a 8 years girl. So with this money the father and mother manage their life.
The mother was also sort of disable and retarded and had an ugly face. It is clear who can marry a man who cannot even sit and cannot speak and his business is bagging for the money. He could even not speak , only by looking and asking by looking the people feel that they should give him money. The mother may be married him, because she was so poor that even a bagger was rich for her. She put the man in front of the door of their house and bring him about night him back in the room. She helped him may be for washing and rest room also. They had two children one of them was Mojtaba and the girl, name was Fatima. Mojtaba has to fight every day with other boys as they tease him.
