Shah of Shahs by Ryzard Kapuscinski

Author:Ryzard Kapuscinski [Kapuściński, Ryszard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

From the Notes

Mahmud Azari returned to Iran at the beginning of 1977. He had lived in London for eight years, supporting himself by translating books for various publishers and writing copy for advertising agencies. He was an older, solitary man who liked to spend his leisure time walking and talking with his compatriots. During such meetings the conversation centered around purely English problems; Savak was ubiquitous, even in London, and wise people avoided talking about the problems of their homeland.

Near the end of his sojourn he received several letters, through private channels, from his brother in Teheran. The brother wrote that interesting times were coming and urged him to return. Mahmud feared interesting times, but since his brother had always held the ascendancy in their family, he packed his luggage and returned to Teheran.

He couldn't recognize the city.

The onetime desert oasis had become a stunning overcrowded metropolis of five million people. A million cars strained in the narrow streets, immobile because a line going one way would meet a line going another way, while other lines of traffic were cutting across, slicing through from left and right, from northeast and southwest, forming giant smoking, roaring, stellar coils stuck in narrow cagelike lanes. Thousands of car horns blared from dawn to dusk, without purpose.

He noticed that the people, once quiet and courteous, now quarreled at the slightest provocation, burst out angrily for no reason at all, jumped down each other's throats, screamed and cursed. These people seemed like weird, surrealistic bifurcated monsters whose upper half would bow obsequiously before anyone important or endowed with authority, while at the same time their hind parts were trampling on anyone weaker. This apparently led to an inner equilibrium that, however mean and pitiable, made it possible for them to survive.

He found himself dreading the thought that, when he came face to face with such a monster, he would be unable to tell which of its functions, the bowing or the trampling, would come first. But he found soon enough that the trampling reflex predominated; it naturally presented itself and withdrew only under the extreme pressure of grave circumstances.

During his first days he went to the local park, sat down beside a man on a bench, and tried to start a conversation. But the man stood up without a word and walked briskly away. After a time, he approached another passer-by, who gave him a look of terror as if he had run into a lunatic. So he gave up and decided to return to his hotel.

The gruff, petulant man at the desk told him he had to report to the police. For the first time in eight years he felt true terror and realized instantly that such terror can never be outgrown: It was the same touch of ice against the bare back, the same heaviness in his feet that he remembered so well from years gone by.

The police occupied an obscure, foul-smelling building down the street from the hotel. Mahmud took his place in a long line of sullen, listless people.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.