My Personal Recycle Bin (Part 1)

Today is my birthday and I am not feeling good, I don’t know what feeling I should have. I was born in 1954. My father was a good man but he was irresponsible towards his own family. My Mom was perfect woman , she was my role model.

We lived in a big house with high walls which was plastered with cob and straw and crenate edges, west side of it consisted of two rooms Hafdari room and Mirror room.

Hafdari room (7 doors) had seven entrances and Mirror room walls were covered fully by mirrors. On the east side there were three rooms, each with a huge closet called Pastu.

In the North there were also 3 rooms. Tank water was located in the corner of the house. The water was carried to a pond which was sounded by two gardens. The gardens were covered with vine tree, rose bushes and geranium.

The house residents were families who lived in rooms surrounding a big yard. A narrow corridor was connecting the yard and the house to the alley. In the alley there was a neighbor with six children. The main entrance was architected such that there were two stone ledges for passengers to rest on. First thing you would see after you would enter the house was a restroom and a Ewer (with a spout) or Aftabeh as it’s called in Farsi.  The bathroom was out side of the house almost five hundred meter far from it. It had, a Hammam and a dais and Tank(khazineh) where the water was saved to be used for taking bath.

Taghi khan lived in two rooms because he was the owner of the house the rest of the families each had one room only, his sister was living the same house.

Taghi had two daughters among other children, named Najmeh and Zarri. Najmeh was always sick. She was the owner’s eldest child and she always suffering from headache but no one knew back then.

One day when Najmeh was coming from school, as usual with Lili , her father was waiting for her in the entrance of the house, her mom was in the kitchen where there was the stove and the black wall, (the wall that got to be black because of smoke from stove)and she was  cooking Ash and Eshkeneh which are Persian foods, suddenly her Aunt’s son Hosein came to the house, shouting “Ah…. I am burning” his finger was cut and bleeding, he lost his finger in the spinning factory.
Najmeh was worried about him. His mom was cursing the factory because his fingers were never injured during his line of work. At same time she was fondling him, after a while he was calm. But Najmeh started nagging at her mom, she said, “eshkeneh… Again!!, I am going to eat bread” with nagging voice. We have been eating lettuce, vintage and bread often for a while.

Zari was the owner’s third child, she was passionate, kind and beautiful.

One day Taghi wanted to go to pilgrimage, the only method of transportation to Mecca at that time was with bus until the border of Iran and Saudi Arabia and then riding Camel till Mecca. That trip would take more than 2 months.

To be continued…..