The Experience

15th April, 2011 the D-day.

I call it the D-day because (to be honest), I did not wish to make this journey. It all started sometime in February 2011 when our Malaysian representative recommended our company for electrical and power electronics systems (no people, I am not going to explain as this is not a Tech blog) to an Iranian company. They decided to visit us and evaluate our systems. And they were very happy with what they saw. They were also impressed by a friend's Gas leakage detection solutions.

Shortly after they left, they informed us about an Oil and Gas Expo in Iran, where along with Gas Leakage detection systems, our solutions would be on display too, therefore they wanted one person from each company to be present. 

A Dairy of the Exhibition

Well then, to cut it short I was to represent my company and someone else from the other company. Now started the push pull where I tried to talk my boss into not getting into this, even tried to get him to go instead, citing various logical reasons ;).

Well, finally I was stuck, and was not happy at all thanks to the entire negative PR done by the USA. And how wrong I was.

My experience about realizing the friendliness and helpfulness of the Iranians started right at the Mumbai Chhatrapati International Airport. I was informed by the authorities that I needn’t carry any documents and would be issued a Visa on arrival at the Khomeini International Airport. However, while checking in I was asked for an invitation letter. So, I called up our host in Iran asking for the letter to be faxed ASAP. Meanwhile a young Iranian girl realised what the confusion was all about, so she told the Iran Airways manager that she would be happy to help me by telling the Immigrations’ in Iran that I was her guest and would be staying at her house. But with the US publicity playing on my mind I waited for the fax which did arrive and I boarded the flight.

Here started the next experience which was to last till I got off the aircraft on the return flight. By default, everyone started talking to me in Persian (Farsi), even the Indian immigration officer with my passport in his hand asked me whether I was Indian. I looked at him with a look that said, “Right, very funny!!”

Once we landed there, we noticed that there were only Iran Air and Mahan Air (another Iranian airline) aircrafts all around. No rush, no crowd, nice and easy pace, as ours was the only flight that had arrived at that time. We got our Visa on arrival, we each gave a US$ 100 note as the visa cost was US$70, and we get Iranian Riyals (IR) 300000 BACK OMG, we felt so rich thinking now we don’t need to change any more money. Boy!! Were we mistaken. Then we cleared immigration and were out of the airport. While we were waiting in the immigration line for the foreigners I was called by an officer who was sitting in the cubicle in a queue for Iranians, I thought he was free so was being efficient, but on seeing my passport he sent me back saying something which I guess meant I thought you are an Iranian. First thing we realised is that Language will be a great barrier :(. As we got out the airport, and well!! boys will be boys so we noticed ALL the beauty around us, luckily none of us sprained our necks ;).

Our clients then drove us to the hotel which was one long drive, and a new experience where my perception towards Iran started changing.  We reached the city and were waiting at a signal and next to us was a car full of Iranian women. Just a point to note, women in Iran do not wear a whole abaya but just a long coat and a head scarf and compared to other Middle eastern countries women enjoyed lot more or a complete freedom. So, the host rolled down his window and the girls in the next car do the same and they started talking like they were old friends and I assume one of them asked about me as I was sitting behind with my window rolled up, so the host explained I did not know the language and they refused to believe him and thought I was being pricey, but I guess the blank look on my face and a polite smile convinced them I did not know the language. You see I can’t say I am not Persian as by ancestry I am. Please be assured I am a very proud Indian and I repeatedly told everyone there with due pride that I am Hendi (that is how they pronounce Hindi). So, by the time the signal was on, they had exchanged numbers. And this was not the only time we saw this happen. People are just so friendly, everyone speaks to everyone even if they don’t know each other.

Finally, we reached the hotel and let me tell you, we noticed that they drove worse than us, BUT there was one big difference. If we were to drive five kilometres, and if we were to have same number of cut ins, or wrong turns and other such traffic violations we would have had at least one fist fight and many verbal duals and many many more gaalis under our breath. And we were agape, as not once in our entire stay of 7 days did we have a glimpse of anger or heard an angry word. Our host sweetly showed us the Indian restaurant in the hotel saying, “This is why we chose this hotel for you”, and both of us said, “We are in Iran to eat Iranian food, not Indian which we get in India.”  And were left to rest as we had a long day ahead.

Next morning we went down for breakfast and with Iranian chai and fruits and stuff, we also got an eyeful of feast as other guests were also there for breakfast. What we noticed is that there were no foreigners, except for us, all were Iranians.

The Taxi arrived on time and we were off to the Expo, and we got the first daytime view of a city with which my love affair began. I kept falling in love with it more and more. So as the taxi came out on to the main road we saw a mountain covered with a blanket of snow on the top and what a sight it was. I wondered whether I would get to see it up and close. And the taxi kept moving closer and closer towards the mountain. .

As we reached the grounds I realised we were right at the base of the mountain. Our host greeted and welcomed us. We were pleasantly surprised to see the stall already set up perfectly and the Day ONE began.

As the day progressed we were surprised and pleased to see the crowd. The number of visitors was big to put it mildly, and not one of them was a time waster,  everyone knew exactly what they were looking for and asked to the point questions another surprise was to see the women visitors who had turned up, all turned out to be engineers. All the perceptions about Islamic state and its restrictions on women started melting like the snow on the mountain top. I was told that 63% of the students in the university were females. 

One of the Lady Engineers at out stall

THE CROWD

Four pm was the exhibition closing time. Just like the working hours there normally are Eight  am to four  pm, which to me seems sensible, because even if you put in an hour or two of overtime you are still home by about 7 pm latest and can have quality time with the family.

So, off we went in the car with our client and were stuck in a jam at the gate. As we slowly crawled towards the gate, our car and the car next to ours shook mirrors with each other, and my colleague  and I were thinking here goes.... BUT both the drivers smiled, exchanged greetings and drove off.... and we are left to wonder what will get them out of the car waving fist. This is in absolute contrast to what we have heard or read about hot headed Iranians.

We drove back to the office, relaxed a bit and discussed the events of the day, we were introduced to the secretary of the company who was on her way out – a very sweet and pleasant young girl. At about sevenish, out came scotch and that too a good brand. My colleague and I who were mentally prepared for  7 dry days were overjoyed like kids as if being told that there was chocolate/ ice cream  available in hell.

 We were asked for our food preference and we said in unison, “Iranian!!”. “Would we like Sheesha?”( hooka/ bubblepipe) and we go, “ Yyeess!!”. So they decided to take us up that snow topped mountain for dinner. We were told that a surprise had been planned for us, and we left on an amazing drive up the mountain and it had high end residences and buildings on it, beautiful roads lined with trees and flowers.

The Great Alboorz Range

Mt. Alboorz from the Exhibition Ground

The Exhibition Ground with Mt. Alboorz and house on the Mt.

The Green and Clean Road

Road Leading to the Exhibition and the Mt. Alboorz

Tehran City

Greenery around

City Road

Greenery with Creativity

City Road

Blank walls always had some scene painted on them.

There were hardly any blank walls as you can see in the pic above they always had a scene could be historical or cultural or fairy tale

 As we went higher, we felt blessed for our suits. The weather throughout the day was so good that not for a second did we feel uncomfortable in our ties and suits and here the jackets were protecting us from the cold.

We reached our destination which was half way up the hill and we saw a lot of coloured lights  and many restaurants and shops. 

Restaurants on the Alboorz

We parked the car and walked a little when we saw the surprise they had planned for us. It was a mirage of 3 bbeeeaaauuuutttiiiiffuuull young women walking towards us smiling and I realised that one of them was the young secretary and I knew the evening would not be boring ;).  They were so friendly and helpful, in spite of language being a major hurdle the girls started talking to us immediately as if we were old friends, by getting each other to translate to us what they could not find words for.

After a lovely evening of chai, Shesha,Kababs and beauty, in which the beauties tried to convince us that they were bollywood fans and could do some moves of the dances, we were on the long drive back enjoying the scenes of the beautiful city, and I could not help wondering about how wrong my apprehensions were before coming here.  Back at the hotel for the first time in the evening, I looked at the time and it was nearing 1 AM. I thought wow this has been a very long day since it had started at 5AM. And I had 4 hrs to sleep before I would be back on my feet. Amazingly there was no feeling of tiredness.

Next day was as good as the 1^st with the same eye pleasing crowd during breakfast. Kinda cheers you up and energises you ;). 

Taxi arrived on time and off we go.  Some way down the road this very young, maybe 20, started off in English, which surprised us and it surprised our host too when we related the incident. His first question was where were we from? Next was a zapper, as he asked us, “Is Mr. Manmohan Singh good for India?” Wow he knew our PM’s full name and that, believe me, is a zapper not because I am being condescending but rather giving him the credit, because in all these years and countries of travel this was the first time I was asked a political question that too with the full name of our PM.  And then there was a brief discussion about politics of Iran and India, which was fun. And the fun quotient went up when the socio cultural discussion began.  To begin with, he was all excited to know about India as a country then came the fun question. His first question was, “How many wives can an Indian man have?”   We said, “one” in unison, and he was disappointed and said that Iran allowed four wives. So I said, “We Indians learn from the first mistake and don’t believe in repeating it.” And still not believing he asked, “Really!! Only one?” So my colleague says, “Yes!! Only one, officially.” ;) And that cheered him up and he was relieved to know that we Indians were normal ;). And he started off about how even in Iran men have one or two wives and many secret wives as marriages were very expensive affairs (Pun Intended). So finally on reaching the expo the man gave us a discount on the fare!

Day two was even more crowded with more excitement as the crowd was genuinely interested in our products.  Ninety five percent of the crowd could speak only Persian, so our clients took care of the basics, then called us and interpreted. Lunch would usually be something different Chelo Kabab (rice and Kabab of different types) purely on our wish as we did not want any fast food or anything that was not local.  End of day two of work and we headed back to the office for some more discussions. Iranians worked hard. Inspite of an established company the staff consisted of 3 directors and 1 secretary, and right from making tea to washing up was done by all of them personally as there was no office boy. Once work was over, they laughed, cracked jokes, had lots of fun; no mention of work or any official discussions after working hours and partied harder.  Day two we asked them to take it a little easy as we already had long days since the day we left India. So we went towards North Tehran visited a superb park with busts of famous personalities of Iran from Poets to Scientists decorated with excellent flowers all around. (PIC) Then we went for Iranian fast food, which included salads, olives, fried chicken and pizzas. As we walked along the foot path, I noticed a stream running along, in fact we noticed this very narrow stream running through most parts of Tehran like an open gutter but this was cobbled with stone and had trees planted in them. Upon asking, we were told this was the water from the melting snow on the peaks. Ice cold water running through the city. WOW!!

Tulips

Back a little early to the hotel (about 12 AM) and we hit the sack.  Lying in the bed I realised that there was no fan in the room nor had I noticed them in the office or any other places we had been to. They just had a different version of air coolers and most had room heaters. They just had a different version of air coolers and most had room heaters working on some hot water principle. It may be a good point to mention here, that the plumbing concept originated from Persia.

Day 3 to 7 is on a separate blog www.dickreadymoney1.blogspot.com