My Father

My father was with no doubt not only the source of inspiration for me, but also for many of his friends, relatives and people who knew him.

He was the eldest son of a villager with 10 other siblings, the family could barely make the ends meet. At the age of 20, with a new born baby he emigrated to the capital in search for a better life. His goal was to support the family back in the village.

Through a friend, he was hired as the bookkeeper in a small firm first. He was sending almost half of his monthly income in cash or goods back to the village where many were anticipating his support.

Later he was promoted as the manager in the same firm. But life was getting even harder. His wife died at the age of 39 from pneumonia, and left him two boys and one 40-day old girl.

My father had no other choice, he had to fight. He had to fight with misery, poverty, depression and loneliness. Later in the same year he lost his father and directly became the guardian of his five unmarried brothers and sisters.

Coming from village where the main business was agriculture, he was referred by one of his clients to a farming company. His role was to supervise the wheat and barley cultivation in different location.

He increased the yield to double in the first year and gained trust and acceptance among all the people working with him.

Later he was dispatched to Caspian Sea region in north of Iran to find solution to rice low yield.

His successful work put him in a position to rent land from the owners and do farming for himself.

My father was successful in what he did and could move himself from the low-income segment of the society to the middle class. This achievement; although significant, is not the area that I am greatly influenced by.

My father was a loving soul more than anything else. He knew how to communicate with people and how to make friends. Anywhere in the country we travelled, he had some acquaintance we could stop over.

This social network neither was created overnight nor was one-sided. Among the relatives and friends, he was the one to address your personal and financial concerns and be hopeful to get help.

He helped his brothers and sisters to move to Tehran and supported them to continue their education. His youngest brother could get his Ph.D. from University of Tehran and post-doc from Berkley later.

His coverage of help was not limited to relatives only. He managed to collect funds from those who trusted him and provided interest-free loans for marriage, education and medical emergencies.

Coming from a deprived part of the country, he also was leading a group of people to pool sources and build elementary school and clinic in their village.

My father thought us to be effective, to help others, and to be socially accountable for what we do. He didn’t left us a big fortune when he died, but a value system nourishing and supporting us for the rest of our lives.