Snow-less Tehran and Farewell to Friends

I arrived in Tehran on the Sunday morning expecting a white blanket of snow to greet me. It’s deep winter now and by all right, there should be snow. But, to my disappointment, there’s no snow at all.... except in the mountains.

Why was it actually? Global warming has taken its toll on Tehran? And the temperature was also not very cold. I can go out of the factory building with only a t-shirt and a light sweater. I haven’t been wearing my winter jacket except for the first night when I went out to buy dinner.

Last week, when I checked the weather condition in one of the on-line sites, it said that this week the temperature would be at the maximum 0 degrees..... And no sun. As I was writing this entry, the sun was shining brightly....the cold breeze only came occasionally. Well, I guess you could never trust weather forecast, couldn’t you.

I received news.... one of my Iranian friends, Shohre Kamali, is leaving. She said that most probably she would be going back to her hometown in Shiraz, a city south of Tehran.....about half-a-day drive from the Iranian capital. I told her that maybe one of these days, I would want to bring my family for a vacation in Iran..... So, who knows that we might be going to Shiraz as it’s one of the tourist cities in Iran, apart from Tehran, Esfahan and Kish Island.

The next day, I received an even bigger surprise. My friend Ali Reza was also leaving. I didn’t want to ask why, but I knew that it would almost be the same reason as Kamali’s.

Shohre Kamali (extreme left) & Ali Reza Tajgardoun (extreme right), in Feb 08

For me, personally and professionally, I will definitely miss the both of them, especially Ali Reza. He had been helping me a lot whenever I went to Tehran......and professionally, he is not the typical Iranian-styled worker. He worked smart and always gave his own ideas if we had any problems or troubles. He was not the one who liked to point fingers at other people.

To my friends Ali Reza Tajgardoun & Shohre Kamali, I would like to wish you the best of luck....and I hope that we will meet some day in the future. Salam, Merci va Khoda Hafez....