EP 8 – Iran As I Knew it : Zahedan…the small town
By Colonel V K Bali, Retd
Having arrived from Delhi to Zahedan by train, ship and bus journey of over 3 weeks we were all so relieved for having made it to what was going to be our new home for next three years or so.
We hit the ground running as there was no time to waste. Dad had to take over his duties and get oriented to the local work conditions, the staff and the local contacts for official work etc. There would be meetings and dinners as follow up, fir we knew these mission activities pretty well by now.
We met our boy servant named Gullu, who happened to be a local Irani Baloch tribal. Baloch tribal lived both in Iran and in Balochistan (under Pakistan).
Zahedan was a small town in the Iranian province of Sistan and it was not a bustling town but rather a small sleepy town (I checked out in Google, the population of Zahedan was around 24000 in 1960, when we arrived there and is currently around 6.5 Lacs due to large influx from Afghanistan during Russian invasion and subsequent fighting with Taliban).
The Mission was located inside a huge building in a compound as large as a football ground and the compound was surrounded with high walls. It had the office complex and four residential quarters for the key mission staff. The minor staff and the local employees lived in the town.
Our home was inside the complex itself. There was a small garden and a fountain in the middle of the Compound with flowers and kitchen gardens and some fruit trees of almonds and pistachios. There was also a hand pump fir irrigation purpose.
The entry was through a big door which needed to be pushed open because of its huge size. It was opened only for car, otherwise there was a smaller door within the big door for people to pass through.
The town was quite small in size and the main landmarks were the local grocery and vegetables shopping complex called ‘Band Bazar’ since it was a covered with roof throughout. The Bus Stand was across this place and also a police Station, a court..a cluster of shops for electric and electronic goods, cameras and fine clothing along with a laundry nearby and also a building with Bank of Iran.
The most famous landmark was the well maintained local public park known as Bagh-e-Milli ( park of public) where the whole town seemed to descend in the evening when the sun went down. Small children played around and elders sat on benches having ice cream or coffee / black tea. They didn’t eat any snacks out there in the park, it was forbidden. Lastly there was a masjid for the locals for Friday prayers also Fridays were weekly holidays in Iran.
Another interesting aspect was that there were about fifty Indian families settled there as Iranian citizens. These families were mainly Sikhs who had drifted/ migrated from across erstwhile Indian side of Balochistan while trading and settled there.
There was a proper Gurudwara, a small temple and a school upto middle class affiliated to Indian Punjab board of education supported by the Indian government through our Indian Mission at Zahedan.
The town must have been just 5 km across as I discovered when I started cycling all over. Also 10 kms out of town there was a functional airport constructed by the British during world War 2 that served as a life line and a communication link with Tehran.
There were two flights in a week from Tehran to Zahedan by a DC 6 propelled aeroplane. This sleepy airport used to get activated only on these two days in a week, the rest of the days it’s gate used to be locked up with a guard posted at the guard hut.
Not far away from there was a radio broadcast station which used to have local language broadcasting of about two hours only every day.
Since our new home was being set up, we were looked after by the ladies of other mission families. They provided food and other necessities for a week and by that time we started our own proper routine household activities.
Our mom was informed about dates of her travel organized by the travel section of Ministry of External Affairs at Delhi. Later the Indian Embassy staff at Tehran also informed her the travel dates from Tehran to zahedan which was to be by flight.
We counted each day and soon mom joined us at Zahedan.
