JOIN USNearly three decades ago, I was with my husband in Iran, where he was constructing a power plant in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. As our two-year stint drew to a close, we resolved that Iran should never be lost to us.
We set about collecting multifarious memorabilia, which we planned — when back in India — to paste on a large section of hardboard. Disparate components, artfully arranged in a seemingly casual manner, would serve to remind us of the good and the bad (Iran was at war during our stay) in the land we had grown to love.
Our enterprise might take months to accomplish, but we would relish every moment of the enjoyable task. As it turned out, we worked unflaggingly and completed our Iranian collage within a week. Over the next few months we occasionally added snippets, but the 4’’ by 3” colourful composition that adorns our drawing room is essentially the one we fashioned 27 years ago.
The collage is an album of sorts. Visitors are intrigued by snapshots of me draped modestly in Iranian attire, and of my husband posing with members of the armed Pasdaran or Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Unchanging as the figures on Keats’s Grecian Urn, friends who welcomed us into their hearts and homes appear as they were when we knew them. The collage captures meaningful moments spent in their company, and our participation in various ceremonies; notably, an auspicious ritual that entailed jumping over fire.
Another interesting feature is the currency, comprising coins and banknotes of different denominations. There are also stamps. Commemorating prominent personalities and historic events, these include a few of the last Shah of Iran, who was deposed in 1979. Banned from the public gaze by the Islamic Republic of Iran, they were secretly given to us by a generous philatelist. Striking are numerous picture postcards that highlight the artistic and architectural glories of Iran, its culture, cuisine and craftsmanship.
Less eye-catching features of the collage are stubs of entry tickets to museums and monuments in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Hamadan and Isfahan. Besides, we have part of a magazine pullout that shows soldiers ready for military conflict; newspaper cuttings predicting Iran’s victories on the battlefield; a page of a Farsi taghvim (calendar); a few of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat quatrains; local aspirin encased in aluminium foil; recipes for traditional Iranian dishes; and an epaulette embroidered with the national flag. We cannot recall how we came by that last item, but it was probably a gift.
Indeed, people contributed in delightfully diverse ways to our proposed project. An expert photographer presented us an all-embracing aerial view of Persepolis. My husband and I explored those remarkable ruins on March 21, 1986; a significant date because, at the start of each spring equinox, Darius I (525-486 BC) and his courtiers ushered in the New Year with spectacular celebrations at the very same site. That spiritually symbolic capital of the Achaemenid Empire was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
While our collage is hardly as imposing as Persepolis, it is certainly fascinating. I have, perforce, omitted much that merits mention, for words cannot do justice to our captivating creation. Like the extraordinary country it celebrates, it must be seen to be savoured.