Iran beckons

In a few days from now… I embark on a long awaited journey… to a place, which I call India’s civilizational cousin- Iran.

Iran… instills fear in many a hearts… though I have been lucky to have met many individuals who profess by the beauty of Iran, and the hospitable nature of Iranians… some even go to an extent that the much feared government machinery is actually not all that bad… and once they are convinced that you are a genuine traveler, they go out of their way to help.

It is strange… why should Iran get so much of bad publicity… perhaps its opposition to the West is a big reason… an equally bad reason has been Iran’s failure in public diplomacy… but I am not deterred by it… I have a precedent… Syria… another country, which is feared by the media… often dubbed as an axes of evil… but I met some most wonderful people therein… it was an absolute pleasure traveling in Syria… especially to Hamah, which people described as epicenter of Islamism in Syria… I can never forget Abdu, who gave me a great company while traveling to Krac De-Chevaliers and Afamea.

Iran… some say… is an even bigger eye opener than Syria… I believe so… but a degree of apprehension remains… why? I really don’t know… perhaps the bad-press lingers on with me… a wee bit. But I also believe that I would come back triumphant… triumphant over my fears.

One of the most prominent attribute of my travels is to extend the boundaries of my comfort zones…. Egypt to begin with… Syria, Jordan and Israel… and then Turkey… these places kept on inflating my comfort zone… Iran in that sense actually does not inflate my comfort zone… for instance; I am fairly conversant with Persian as a language… I know quite some people in Indian mission in Iran (for the worst case scenario)…. But then, yes, in a sense I feel that this visit too… inflates my comfort zone… this time on… I am fighting my human apprehensions… the unknown fears.

There is another problem, though… and that pertains to deciding my itinerary… the more I read about Iran… the more I am confounded by what Iran has to offer. The variety is almost overwhelming… the problem is about what to cover and what not to cover…

After much of reading I have decided a list of places which I may try to cover… try, because I would be staying in Iran for two weeks time… and it is humanly impossible to cover them all…

• Mashhad
• Neyshabur
• Tehran
• Rasht and Masuleh
• Zanjan and Sulemaniah
• Takht-e-Sulayman
• Hamadan and Ali Sadr Caves
• Kermanshah
• Ahvoz, Choga Zanbil and Sushtar
• Shiraz, Pasargade and Persepolis
• Isfahan
• Kashan and Abunayeh
• Qom
• Yazd
• Kerman and Dasht-e-Lut

Anyway you look at it… this is a huge list. I am almost certain that I would be able to cover no more than a half of it… but then who knows, I am luckier.

My experience has been like this only… everytime when I have aimed for a huge list… people have deterred me… they have said that I might not be able to do it… but then I have done almost the entire list… give or take a few places…

Wish me… I have been desperately waiting for this day… I learnt Persian just for this day. And I am sure- I will survive and succeed.