It was getting near the time at which my car was to appear for delivery from the assembly line.
Within minutes of arriving at the site, a new car was delivered to me where I was standing. It smelled so fresh from the paint it just had and was exactly the one that we had ordered from Edmonton to be custom-built.
Before getting into the driver's seat I was given the instructions to abide by during the short journey on the first day of driving it.
When I mentioned that I would be travelling to Iran, I was provided an authorization to the Mercedes dealer in Vienna, the capital city of Austria, to get the first service done before driving further.
Taking possession of the car soon made me realize that I am already on my road journey to Iran, a country that is historically connected with India in many ways.
While growing up in Punjab, many of us were students of Persian literature and its unique heritage of classical poetry. It was mandatory to learn Persian as an oriental language in high school. This provided opportunity to get acquainted with the great poets who had lived during their literary golden period: Ferdowsi (940-1020), Omar Khayam (1048-1131), Saadi (1184-1283), Rumi (1207-1273) and Hafiz-e Shirazi (1325-1390).
I learnt Persian along with a personal friend and class-fellow, Ram Dhan, in Multan, one of the largest city of present-day Pakistan. It is an ancient city, sarcastically described in a Persian couplet:
"Chahaar shay ust tofa-e- Multan,
Gard-o-garma, gadaa-o-goristan ! "
"There are four things which Multan offers: Dust, Heat, Beggar, Graveyards!"
A great grandfather in my genealogy was a Persian language scholar and was known to recite Persian poetry and quotes orally. This had inspired me to become proficient in reading and writing Persian language. In order to achieve this, I was advised to take special lessons from a locally acclaimed teacher.
When Ram Dhan and I decided to contact him, we found that he was already over-booked and over-burdened in helping others. He had no time to spare.
Anxious to learn Persian through him, we respectfully pleaded for help.
We were already known to him as top students. He could see our sincerity and commitment.
To our great joy, he paused to consider what we were asking and said, "Can you come at an early hour ... 4 a.m.?"
"Yes, Sir, we certainly can.... We will do whatever you suggest."
We were lucky to have him as our tutor for Persian language: one hour each morning.
This made us getting up each day around 3:00 a.m., and start travel on our bicycles to reach him downtown from Aghapur,a nearby suburb.
During our readings, I got re-acquainted with the heart-wrenching story of Rustum and Sohrab. It is one of the legends from Zoroastrian mythology, popularized by the 11th century Persian poet Ferdowsi (940–1020) in his Shahnameh, the national epic of Persians.
Rustum, the Persian hero, loved a Tartar princess in early youth who gave birth to Sohrab his son. While Sohrab knows the identity of his father, Rustum does not even know that he has a son. When Sohrab grew up, he had to fight in single combat as champion of the Tartar army, against older Rustum who is still a trusted champion of the Persian army.
Fighting under an assumed name, Rustum is impressed by the bravery displayed by the young Sohrab and asks him to withdraw from an unequal contest. From the valour of the aged warrior, Sohrab suspects that his opponent is the great Rustum and begs him to disclose his identity. But all this is of no avail and the fight continues without each realising the father and son relationship. At the climax Rustum cries out his name to frighten his opponent. Not terrified but astonished, Sohrab lowers his shield, and in doing so his unprotected body is pierced by the sphere thrown at him by Rustum. The dying Sohrab threatens that his father Rustum will take revenge. Confronted to prove Rustum as his father, Sohrab points to the insignia on his arm that his mother had received long ago when Rustum was leaving her to return to Persia.
The legend is immortalized by Mathew Arnold ( 1822-1888 ) in his English poem "Sohrab and Rustum, An Episode", which according to him is "by far the best thing I have yet done ... but then the story is a very noble and excellent one".
Arnold quotes this passage from Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia as his general source:
"The young Sohrab was the fruit of one of Rustum's early amours. He had left his mother, and sought fame under the banners of Afrasiab, whose armies he commanded, and soon obtained a renown beyond that of all contemporary heroes but his father. He had carried death and dismay into the ranks of the Persians, and had terrified the boldest warriors of that country, before Rustum encountered him, which at last that hero resolved to do, under a feigned name. They met three times. The first time they parted by mutual consent, though Sohrab had the advantage; the second, the youth obtained a victory, but granted life to his unknown father; the third was fatal to Sohrab, who, when writhing in the pangs of death, warned his conqueror to shun the vengeance that is inspired by parental woes, and bade him dread the rage of the mighty Rustum, who must soon learn that he had slain his son Sohrab. These words, we are told, were as death to the aged hero; and when he recovered from a trance, he called in despair for proofs of what Sohrab had said. The afflicted and dying youth tore open his mail, and showed his father a seal which his mother had placed on his arm when she discovered to him the secret of his birth, and bade him seek his father. The sight of his own signet rendered Rustum quite frantic; he cursed himself, attempting to put an end to his existence, and was only prevented by the efforts of his expiring son. After Sohrab's death, he burnt his tents and all his goods, and carried the corpse to Seistan, where it was interred ...."
