5/16/2007

Identity--A Tale in Several Episodes-Episode One

I was born in Amirieh neighborhood of Tehran. Before my first birthday, my parents moved us into a huge villa style house in suburban Tehran. I grew up in that suburb of Tehran, attended schools nearby and eventually went to Kharazmi High School from which I graduated.
I was a typical Tehrani girl who knew the city like the back of her hand, and was nimble in moving from one point to another, claiming the big, beautiful, ugly Tehran as her hometown. My parents had come to Tehran from Hamadan in the 1940’s when they had been very young, and had later married and given birth to all my brothers and sisters in Tehran.
Our contact with Hamadan had been very limited and infrequent, limited for the most part to some relatives of my father’s visits to Tehran. I have vague recollections of trips to Hamadan when I was very young, and I didn’t really see Hamadan again until I was 16, when my parents took me and my sisters to stay at Bou Ali Hotel, very much like tourists. Though it was a memorable trip, I was not impressed by Hamadan. Feeling completely unattached to anywhere other than Tehran, if anybody ever asked me where I was from, I would say I was from Tehran, and refused to acknowledge any ties with Hamadan. Later, when I came to US to study, for more than a decade I intermittently and interchangeably forgot about my neighborhood, Tehran, Hamadan, and Iran. I will explain in the next installments how and when I remembered them again.
(To be continued...)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am biting my nails, waiting for the next segment!

Anonymous said...

Salam Assal Jan: Haha, it's not THAT exciting! But it just wrote itself and I'm glad it is done. It is a long piece, so I post it in several segments so it won't bore you guys out of your heads! Thanks for coming and for your sweet comments.

Anonymous said...

That's intersting because I have studied in Karazmi high school too.

Anonymous said...

That's great Karim! I now know that we have more than a few things in common! Have you seen this website?http://www.persepolis.com/programs/alumni-main.asp?id=33
There are some memorable pictures in there, to be sure. I actually worked with Dr. Araboff for a little while after graduating high school, and that was an interesting experience. One day I will also write my story about Mrs. Abaeeian, who managed Kharazmi Girls High School for a very long time. Be good.