taking a Prince of Persia to the apothecary....

I'm driving home from church this Sunday with all kinds of questions in my head:
What should I make to eat?
Why is it so hot out here?
Why haven't I got my air conditioning in my car fixed?
What is that old guy doing? - Man, is he old.
Why is his left arm all crooked?
Is he waiving me over? Is he having a heart attack?

Nah, he wasn't waiving me over. Oh well, I thought - I hope he's ok.

I proceed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see that yes, indeed, he was waiving me over. I thought to myself, this guy has got be having a heart attack. I pull back toward him, open my window, and ask if I can help. One word was his reply, in a thick, labored accent.

"Pharmacy"

OH CRAP, I think, this guy who doesn't know any English is going to die right in my car! What a Sunday! What mess! It sure will be tough to enjoy my grilled chicken and steamed broccoli and carrots now, knowing that this guy just died on me.

But I was overreacting - He continued on and said, "Need medicine"

I opened the car door and let him in, and he promptly asked my name - His happened to be Ahmed. I don;t know if I'm spelling it right, but that's how it sounded. He asked where i was from, and told me he was from Iran. I tried not to make a big deal about the arm, it turned out that it was just an old injury at second glance. There was a pharmacy a couple blocks away, and he decided it was just too hot to walk the whole way. In trying to make small talk, I mentioned having read A Thousand Splendid Suns, which at least partly took place in Tehran, from my recollection. He totally ignored my attempt at connecting with his background and asked my family name. Then he offered up this gem - "I used to be mayor of Tehran"

'Great', I thought 'he's positively insane'.

I offered to stay and take him back to his home after he got his medicine. He offered a hearty handshake and wished well to me and my family.

It's not everyday you get to chauffer around a Babylonian king, so I decided to google it, and now I wish I would have asked his family name.



This is a list of Mayors of Tehran:

Gholamreza Nikpey
Gholamhossein Karbaschi (1988-1998)
Morteza Alviri (1999-2002)
Mohammad Hasan Malekmadani-(2002-2003)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2003-2005)
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (since 2005)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Tehran

Having read that, i can only assume he was the guy right before Gholamreza Nikpey.