A Childhood Memento 4- A Memoir by Nasrollah Karimi

“The School for Acting”

Interview date: 1995

Back then, I used to work in the vocational school of the factory. High tables had huge clamps and the small ones had small clamps. I used to place a plastic petrol container next to high tables and stand on top of it, in order to reach the table. When I was filing, the file was right in front of my eyes. The students used to laugh about this.
    
Once, when they were laughing, I noticed they suddenly stopped. I looked around and realized that Mr. Mirlohi, my teacher, was coming towards me, from his office. I was afraid that if he hit me on the head, my teeth would crush against the clamps and gets all bloody. So, I grabbed the clamp and held on to it tight. Other students started to laugh again because of my face expression. Mr. Mirlohi then walked around and stood before me and said: “Laugh at him children, laugh. And you Sir, you don’t belong here. DO you know where you should go? At Lalezar Street, there is an alley. In that alley there is a board on a door which says: “The School for Acting” You belong there, not here. He actually wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone. Unknowingly, he showed the path to salvation for the rest of my life. That very day, I joined that acting school.

Translated by: Jairan Gahan