Joking with the Minister!

When Mr. Zahedi was in charge of the department of education in Tehran a seminar was held in ‎Alborz high school and along with the seminar there was a glorious exhibition arranged by the ‎stakeholder in education to demonstrate the work and achievements of different districts in ‎Tehran. ‎
Mr. Khosh Sohbatan gave the welcome note and Mr. Rajayi and Mr. Bahanor visited the stands ‎and got to MOE Training and Education Stand for District 20 (Shahr-e Rey). There were many ‎items invented by innovative and creative students of the district which was admirable. The most ‎interesting section was electronics and weaponry. ‎
One of the students of the technical high school had created colt which fired J-3 bullets! When ‎Mr. Rajayi met the creator he stood there and the students defined different parts of his creation. ‎In the end, without notice, he pointed the gun into the air and fired it and said: "And … this is ‎how it fires.” All of a sudden a blank bullet which was loaded in the gun before, exploded and ‎the voice echoed in the exhibition hall. We were all worried about the wellbeing of the Minister ‎and his body guards were really upset but Mr. Rajayi, in patience, smiled and said: "Good luck ‎kids.” He shook hands and moved to the next stand. I told the student: "what were you ‎thinking? Why didn’t you tell us the gun was loaded?!” He replied: "I wanted to joke with the ‎minister!”‎
Mr. Bahonar and Mr. Rajayi were both visiting. After Mr. Rajayi, Mr. Bahonar came to the ‎stand. In order to avoid the same incident, I got the colt from that students and said: "Promise ‎that you’ll show your innovation to Mr. Bahonar without firing a bullet.”

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We want to meet the minister
When Martyr Rajayi was in charge of MOE, he would seriously pursue and lead meetings and ‎sessions for authorities to have a better understanding of the issues and would talk to people and ‎held the sessions in provinces and counties and every once in a while he would travel with ‎managers. It was the time to visit Damavand county and we went there. The minister got there ‎on time and started the session by reciting Quran. We were discussing issues in the meeting that ‎couple of students appeared at the door and requested to meet the minister. I told them: "There is ‎an important meeting going on time and there is no chance you can meet him.” But they were ‎insisting and said: "We won’t go away until we meet the minister.” ‎
I went in and delivered the message of the students to Mr. Rajayi. He thought for a short while ‎and said: "No problem! Tell them to be at the end of the garden by the river at eleven.” ‎
Once I told the children, they were so excited and started running towards the river. I knew that ‎Mr. Rajayi wouldn’t make a promise that he can’t keep but I was wondering how he is going the ‎leave the meeting without interrupting it. It was ten to eleven that he looked at his watch and ‎once Mr. Norouzi was talking, he slowly stood up and left the room and we went to meet the ‎kids. The students were not sure that the minister would leave the meeting for them until they ‎heard Mr. Rajayi saying: "Hey kids! Where are you! I’m here!” ‎
After that the sincere and unpretentious and kind and friendly teacher shook hands with the ‎students and had a friendly chat. ‎
Short moment later we returned to the ongoing session and Mr. Rajayi quickly moved to his ‎place and without looking at anyone grabbed his file and started reading the papers and listening ‎to the discussions in the meeting. ‎

Mohammad Hossein Ghadami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian