Myopic View on Iran

Media always propagated that Iran should be among the last choice on your travel list. But when I realized that I had to make a visit to Iran to install and train researchers I was equally excited and bit nerved upon hearing the news. As the process of visa application began, I realized although Indian passport initially had visa on arrival for Indian citizens, but the previous Indian government had cancelled the same visa on arrival facility to Iranians despite the fact that more than 10,000 Iranian student come annually to India to pursue their studies. The next choice was to visit Kuala-Lumpur to get my Iran visa done. Imagine the scene when you visit the embassy/consular office and you notice nothing written in English, except Arabic. Even the list on the token machine was in Arabic. Then an old TV playing a movie/serial showing scene on wars/local fights and people only with AK-47, this visual can really spike you up. The refreshing part was when requested an Iranian to help me with the token machine and which counter to reach, he made it all easy for me.  With Iran visa on my passport, ready to travel to learn more about the new nation and culture. Although I'm not sure whether I will be black-listed to travel to any western nations. 

Landing at Khomeini International Airport at Tehran  in the early hours, it took me more than 1 hour to clear immigration despite being just over 20-30 international passengers(mostly Pakistanis and Arabs) never saw a single European/american passenger at the immigration and all the long hour just because they had only 1 counter for foreign passport holder and for every passenger they seem to have ask long list of questions on the reason for visiting Iran. As my turn came up, I feared using the word that I'm scientist (Atomic in general), but for luck, the guy just smiled and stamped my passport, after seeing more than 3/4 of passport filled with visa stamps across the globe.

The long drive to the hotel in early hours on empty roads felt good. City architecture, swathing gardens, colorful mosque and curvy highways glittering the city indeed separated it from many other capitals of the world. It was only in the morning, did I realize the city of Tehran was surrounded by mountain that gave it a historic modern look. My colleague came to pick me after which I visited the University for the training, following which in evening we went to Evin darake and climbed the mountains along the small creek and enjoyed the local fruits. Here the place was bustling with young couple seeking good and private time, old couples trying to keep fitness and local farmers with their horse/donkey selling their produce. In general, the view transported me to back to ancient days. On the way down we walked through the older part of city consisting of small bylanes with houses with high walls. The collection of recipe on most of the hotel menu reminded me of the famous dialogue from Kabul Express, 'You have kebab for breakfast, for lunch for snacks and for dinner, the only choice you are left is the meat.' 

Over the days as I went about travelling cities, along the different direction the general opinion I had about the country and its people surely took 180 degree turn. Iran might be called Islamic republic of Iran, but its majority people are Persian and their roots are still Zoroastrianism. Persian today due to conquest of their nation by Arabs by might have become Islamic, But they are just follower of Islam and not strong believers. Local dialect when merged with Hindi has given rise to Urdu and that was the reason I could understand when my colleagues spoke Persian. Cultural city of Ishefahan, Mashhad and Qom was rich experience and religious tourism in this cities was worth noting. Along with my colleagues I visited the shrine containing the tomb of Imam Reza and was a enthralling experience by itself. 

The view of  Mountain Damavand, an active volcano and hill with huge mythological bearing with Persian history.

Among all the non scientific discussion that I had with my new made friends and colleagues, I figured out that the local mullahs were the one who everyone hated and felt that they have made life miserable for all the Persians. Government propaganda to enforce strict religious dictum on locals was accepted with fear and not with the right spirit coupled with the economic sanctions by the west on Iran mostly due to oil-politics and have left the people filled with opposition against the government. Keeping the religious politics away, Persian were the most sweetest people I have ever come across during my globe trotting, they have raised the bar of what it means to be a good host. The language by itself sounded like poetry when I heard people speaking, In contrast to what I observed in West, where people hesitate to speak to strangers, here people love talking to strangers. Hesitation to capture everything on my camera due to some inherent fear, I restricted the photos taken on my mobile. The regret being not able to capture the beautiful city, the people and culture in my camera frame, but at-least I have carried back wonderful memory of the people.