Two memories from Martyr Mohammad Ali Rajayi
Joking with the Minister!
Mohammad Hossein Ghadami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian
2016-9-18
Visit of Hojjat Al-Islam Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Martyr Rajayi from Alborz High School Exhibition
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.”
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.
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