Ep10 – Iran As I Knew It : Settling Down

By Col V K Bali

Now that we were nearly settled and dad got into his daily routine, our daily life also started getting on the tracks. We had to be on our own as Mom was to arrive only after three more weeks

She was told to bring many house hold items from India which were not available here, like certain kind of condiments, specific utensils etc and not the least the books for us. Dad had sent a complete list to her of all these items.

Surprisingly, our mails to India were delivered like Speed Post, very fast as compared to post office mails which took about three weeks from India to Iran and vice versa.

In our case, the mail was sent through the ‘ Diplomatic Bag ‘ which used to be a confidential method for sending messages and documents between missions, their embassies and thence on to Ministry of External Affairs, (MEA) New Delhi. While the official mail was retained at MEA, the personal mails of embassy staff were sent to the local addresses in India by official registered post by the MEA.

All Diplomatic bags were sent by air and these could not be opened by customs of any country.

And these Diplomatic Bags were also a source of happiness in other ways as well. My dad used this privilege to get his favourite scotch whisky, 555 (called triple five) tins of fine British cigarettes with each having one hundred of these also tins of German cheese (Kraft). .. now and then. Life went on happily with the weekly Diplomatic bag arriving from Tehran bringing the excitement of news from India through personal staff mail in Diplomatic bags from India through MEA channels.

The Mission ladies had fed us meals for a week and now we had cranked up our own kitchen till mom came and took over. . Dad and Gullu Baloch were in action on the marketplace buying the food stuff. and other necessities. The kitchen was to be set up from ground zero and it was not a mean feat in a foreign country.

Being a desert nothing much in form of vegetables was available there . Onions came from neighbouring Afghanistan, potatoes were luxuries and only sun dried tomatoes were available. One thing in abundance was cottage cheese in saline water (for preservation) that afforded a quick fix meal.

Eggs and mutton were available in abundance. Then every fourth or fifth shop was a nan bakery and so we had no need to make chapattis. One could cook rice at home and get nans from the nearest bakery for a complete meal.

Dad was a seasoned cook since he had been cooking meats at home, usually on Sundays as my mom was a strict vegetarian and she also didn’t allow meat cooking inside the kitchen. So dad and his assistants — Usually me and sis used to be with dad in this cooking exercise every Sunday.

Thus cooking started in the earnest and our home became active with other things about settling like fixing curtains, furniture etc. Gullu Baloch was the Man Friday for all these errands and he had a solution for everything.

After the kitchen became operational, it was time for ‘Back to school ‘ for us. We were sent to the school by Mission car by the driver (called cha cha by us, as every one else called this old man). My father had already spoken to the Headmaster. Gullu The Guide took us for our admission test after which I was told to join sixth class and my sis to join class fourth. We also bought school bags, books and stationary and came back home excitedly telling dad our admission process (as if he didn’t know).

Next day was our D day for the school and we were ready early. We were to walk to the school and were told that Gullu will go with us till we memorized the route. It was about half an hour walk from home through the main market and the central road crossing point of the town which was a very prominent landmark.

So we started for our first day at the school but we were in for a huge shock. As we reached the road crossing, we saw four men hanging from gallows at the main crossing with some hand written cardboard messages hanging by cords around their necks.

We were so scared that we both ran back home to tell dad of this horrible thing with Gullu Baloch insisting all the way that we go to school.

Soon we were back home, panting and scared and dashed to dad’s office to report this matter.