The House Servant
The clean shaven Karamshah faced his old father and said: My dear father, with all due respect, I must tell you about some harsh truths. Today is not like forty or fifty years ago, the world has improved. In today’s day and age, two things are valueless and not necessary; one is a donkey and the other is beards.
Badelshah firstly glanced at his wife, Karamshah’s mother, and then looked towards his son and said: Are you saying that in my old age I have to shave my beards and release my donkey into the jungle? My dear son, it has taken me so long to grow my beards to what they are now and I won’t shave them even if you threaten to kill me for it. I have never shaved my beard in my lifetime; I have trimmed them, of course. Otherwise, I would have felt the weight of jungle of Amazon on my face.
I have always washed my beards and sprayed scent and perfume onto them. Ask your mother if you don’t believe me. My beards turned from black into grey as I was getting old. Now in my old age I don’t fancy shaving them. Ironically, your mother loves my beards more than me and she says that my face looks better this way and it really suits me.
Perhaps your Persian wife has something to do with raising the subject of beards and donkey. If that is the case I hold my wife’s wrinkly hand and get out of this place together.
Karamshah replied to his father: If you take my mother from my house then who would do the household chores? I cannot afford to hire a butler. Who is going to wash the dirty clothes and plates? You know that my wife is working fulltime in an important establishment. I am just telling you to get rid of that donkey and you can always live in my house but, you have to get yourself accustomed to life in this place.
Badelshah replied: You want me to take off my traditional Balochi clothes and put them in the bin and instead put on skinny jeans! Now, bring on the mud and let’s make camels out of them.
‘Yes father, No one will laugh at you for wearing jeans, this is a big city and no one knows who you are. Many people will ridicule you because of your Balochi clothes. All my friends are Persian and I work in an office. You come to my house once or twice at the end of the month; my friends come here to see me once in a while, when they see you in this way, wearing your Balochi clothes, I will get embarrassed.’
Badelshah stroke his beards and replied: Don’t any of your friends’ fathers have beards that you are so ashamed of mine? Dadmorad comes here once or twice a month for business, if he sees me wearing a skinny jean and without my beards, I would lose my identity son.
‘Sitting in the house all day long is an impossible option for me. It will be better to live in my hometown where I was born. Every day, I go to my ranch and walking through the date palms alone would make me happy. I will preoccupy myself growing wheat, broad beans, melons, water melons, peas and lentils. I would not swap the donkey’s brays and the beautiful sound of cuckoos from my hometown with the car noises and the sound of music in the hotels. I was born and raised there and I will die there.’
Karamshah firstly glanced at his mother and the then looked at his father and said: It is an extremely difficult job to convince a narrow-minded and illiterate person that their views are wrong. I haven’t told my wife about your donkey yet. She has been telling me that we should visit you for a week in the hometown. If she sees your donkey near the house, I will lose her respect. You should sell your donkey or abandon it. Otherwise tie it up next to the ranch or find someone to look after it for the duration of one week.
My dear son Karamshah, there is plenty of hungry wolves out there. If I tie up the poor donkey next to the ranch he’ll be attacked and eaten by the starving wolves in the first night. Also no one will keep my donkey in their stables as it is not the harvest season.
I tell you something; your wife is not the daughter of a minister or a barrister. Her parents live in a village and they own donkeys too! I have seen them. Your wife is only a nurse in a hospital. Also to mention I could afford to send you to school because of this donkey. It was this donkey that carried all the melons and watermelons to the bazaar and enabled me to sell them. It was this donkey that carried all the woods which helped us keep warm in the cold winter nights and also I was able to sell some of the woods.
Just think about it.
We have a famous Balochi proverb which says if someone gives you a glass of water, you will be loyal to them for hundreds of years. This donkey has made sacrifices, abandoning it in the jungle would make me the laughing stock of the town.
Karamshah glanced to his left and then towards his right and said: principles such as one glass of water and hundred years of loyalty has kept us Baloch so back-warded my father.
‘Listen Karamshah, your wife is not a princess. It is true that I am illiterate but I have sat among some important intellectuals such as Sufis, mendicants and mullahs and listened to their sermons. They say that all the great prophets owned a donkey in their lifetime. Messiah was born in the donkey stable and a donkey carried all his essentials whenever he went. Moses spent forty years in the Sinai desert when he was a shepherd. While in there, his best and closest companion was a donkey which carried all his belongings. Our respected prophet Mohammed (PBUP) also owned a donkey.
Now that you own a car, you think you are above everyone else. From the creation of the world until my youth, we never came across a car or a plane. Back then; this harmless animal has carried all the belongings of the mankind for a fistful of grass and rotten dates. Not to mention the harsh treatment of this animal by humans. In the old days, the kings did not owned planes, tanks and cars. Soldiers fought on the horseback and the brave donkeys carried all the artilleries and foods.’
‘Karamshah let me tell you something; mullahs are claiming that the apocalypse is almost upon us; all the cars, planes, cannons and tanks will be destroyed in the near future. They also claim that a giant man believed to be a prophet would rise from Isfahan. This giant man would be riding a donkey even bigger than himself; his donkey could cross a huge mountain with one single step. Its gallops can shake all the mountains nearby and its dropping would be in the form of edible dates.’
‘Father, you are repeating the words of that lunatic mullah whose trousers are folded up to his knees and screaming in the bazaar saying obscene things about the governor.’
‘Oh my son Karamshah, he is a great mullah, he has turned lunatic because of his desire for knowledge and reading of too many books. He is god’s dearest lunatic.’
Days passed and in one bright sunny day Badelshah went to visit his son Karamshah and his beloved wife Mahtab. The house was full of Karamshah’s Persian friends and colleagues; they were all engaged in smoking opium and drinking the finest wine and beer. The delicious smell of kebab and its burning barbecue sounds was very alive and present. Out of nowhere one of the guest asked: Karamshah, who is this beardy old man who is smoking shisha?
Without any hesitation Karamshah replied: He is the house servant.
Badelshah exhaled the smoke of his shisha to the air and replied: I am not the house servant; I am his mother’s servant.
Badelshah firstly glanced at his wife, Karamshah’s mother, and then looked towards his son and said: Are you saying that in my old age I have to shave my beards and release my donkey into the jungle? My dear son, it has taken me so long to grow my beards to what they are now and I won’t shave them even if you threaten to kill me for it. I have never shaved my beard in my lifetime; I have trimmed them, of course. Otherwise, I would have felt the weight of jungle of Amazon on my face.
I have always washed my beards and sprayed scent and perfume onto them. Ask your mother if you don’t believe me. My beards turned from black into grey as I was getting old. Now in my old age I don’t fancy shaving them. Ironically, your mother loves my beards more than me and she says that my face looks better this way and it really suits me.
Perhaps your Persian wife has something to do with raising the subject of beards and donkey. If that is the case I hold my wife’s wrinkly hand and get out of this place together.
Karamshah replied to his father: If you take my mother from my house then who would do the household chores? I cannot afford to hire a butler. Who is going to wash the dirty clothes and plates? You know that my wife is working fulltime in an important establishment. I am just telling you to get rid of that donkey and you can always live in my house but, you have to get yourself accustomed to life in this place.
Badelshah replied: You want me to take off my traditional Balochi clothes and put them in the bin and instead put on skinny jeans! Now, bring on the mud and let’s make camels out of them.
‘Yes father, No one will laugh at you for wearing jeans, this is a big city and no one knows who you are. Many people will ridicule you because of your Balochi clothes. All my friends are Persian and I work in an office. You come to my house once or twice at the end of the month; my friends come here to see me once in a while, when they see you in this way, wearing your Balochi clothes, I will get embarrassed.’
Badelshah stroke his beards and replied: Don’t any of your friends’ fathers have beards that you are so ashamed of mine? Dadmorad comes here once or twice a month for business, if he sees me wearing a skinny jean and without my beards, I would lose my identity son.
‘Sitting in the house all day long is an impossible option for me. It will be better to live in my hometown where I was born. Every day, I go to my ranch and walking through the date palms alone would make me happy. I will preoccupy myself growing wheat, broad beans, melons, water melons, peas and lentils. I would not swap the donkey’s brays and the beautiful sound of cuckoos from my hometown with the car noises and the sound of music in the hotels. I was born and raised there and I will die there.’
Karamshah firstly glanced at his mother and the then looked at his father and said: It is an extremely difficult job to convince a narrow-minded and illiterate person that their views are wrong. I haven’t told my wife about your donkey yet. She has been telling me that we should visit you for a week in the hometown. If she sees your donkey near the house, I will lose her respect. You should sell your donkey or abandon it. Otherwise tie it up next to the ranch or find someone to look after it for the duration of one week.
My dear son Karamshah, there is plenty of hungry wolves out there. If I tie up the poor donkey next to the ranch he’ll be attacked and eaten by the starving wolves in the first night. Also no one will keep my donkey in their stables as it is not the harvest season.
I tell you something; your wife is not the daughter of a minister or a barrister. Her parents live in a village and they own donkeys too! I have seen them. Your wife is only a nurse in a hospital. Also to mention I could afford to send you to school because of this donkey. It was this donkey that carried all the melons and watermelons to the bazaar and enabled me to sell them. It was this donkey that carried all the woods which helped us keep warm in the cold winter nights and also I was able to sell some of the woods.
Just think about it.
We have a famous Balochi proverb which says if someone gives you a glass of water, you will be loyal to them for hundreds of years. This donkey has made sacrifices, abandoning it in the jungle would make me the laughing stock of the town.
Karamshah glanced to his left and then towards his right and said: principles such as one glass of water and hundred years of loyalty has kept us Baloch so back-warded my father.
‘Listen Karamshah, your wife is not a princess. It is true that I am illiterate but I have sat among some important intellectuals such as Sufis, mendicants and mullahs and listened to their sermons. They say that all the great prophets owned a donkey in their lifetime. Messiah was born in the donkey stable and a donkey carried all his essentials whenever he went. Moses spent forty years in the Sinai desert when he was a shepherd. While in there, his best and closest companion was a donkey which carried all his belongings. Our respected prophet Mohammed (PBUP) also owned a donkey.
Now that you own a car, you think you are above everyone else. From the creation of the world until my youth, we never came across a car or a plane. Back then; this harmless animal has carried all the belongings of the mankind for a fistful of grass and rotten dates. Not to mention the harsh treatment of this animal by humans. In the old days, the kings did not owned planes, tanks and cars. Soldiers fought on the horseback and the brave donkeys carried all the artilleries and foods.’
‘Karamshah let me tell you something; mullahs are claiming that the apocalypse is almost upon us; all the cars, planes, cannons and tanks will be destroyed in the near future. They also claim that a giant man believed to be a prophet would rise from Isfahan. This giant man would be riding a donkey even bigger than himself; his donkey could cross a huge mountain with one single step. Its gallops can shake all the mountains nearby and its dropping would be in the form of edible dates.’
‘Father, you are repeating the words of that lunatic mullah whose trousers are folded up to his knees and screaming in the bazaar saying obscene things about the governor.’
‘Oh my son Karamshah, he is a great mullah, he has turned lunatic because of his desire for knowledge and reading of too many books. He is god’s dearest lunatic.’
Days passed and in one bright sunny day Badelshah went to visit his son Karamshah and his beloved wife Mahtab. The house was full of Karamshah’s Persian friends and colleagues; they were all engaged in smoking opium and drinking the finest wine and beer. The delicious smell of kebab and its burning barbecue sounds was very alive and present. Out of nowhere one of the guest asked: Karamshah, who is this beardy old man who is smoking shisha?
Without any hesitation Karamshah replied: He is the house servant.
Badelshah exhaled the smoke of his shisha to the air and replied: I am not the house servant; I am his mother’s servant.
Written By: Ali Raesi
Translated By: Hamal and Miran Raesi
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