a visit by Dr. R. Sudarshana to Iran
Travelmag
The account by which Sudarrshan describes the visit to Iran in this article is very interesting. The following passage is from the essay when he met an ordinary Iranian lady and had a short conversation with her:
‘Do you know of the atomic energy problems of your country?’, I asked.
‘Of course’ she said. ‘Look at the way we are living in utter poverty. It is like begging in a gold mine because although you dig, you are not allowed to use it’.
‘Pardon me! What has that got to do with atomic energy? You don’t sell that to make money in this country’. I clarified.
She looked at me with puzzled eyes and jerked her head down with a loosely hung lower lip. ‘I know that, sir’ she said, ‘All I said is that we can use the atomic energy for electricity so that we can sell the oil instead of using it all ourselves.’
I was shocked at her high level of common sense and at my dumbness that I couldn’t figure it out myself.
‘See my family’ she continued. ‘Everyone is like this in Iran except for those who can be dishonest. We lost everything in the revolution 30 years ago. You know, we had a good life and I remember my parents being so happy. Then after that, we lost everything in that bloody endless war with Iraq. Now the Americans want to bomb us. What do we have? We have a little oil in the country and we use it all. Now I gather that they don’t want to allow us to use atomic energy’.
She looked honest and innocent. I popped in a provocative question.
‘Don’t you think your country may also be doing something wrong?’
This time Bougardi retorted.
‘It all depends on how you make up your mind while looking at us, sir. If you look at us through your jaundice eye, we are culprits and we are hiding. If you look at us from the God’s eye, you will know how innocent we are. After all, what is there to hide in this country? We are exposed and naked. Poor people have nothing to hide’.
>>> continued @ Travelmag
