Stories from history (29)
They wanted to take Rostam Shahjahan as hostage

Bouzarjomehr Parkhideh:  Mother is worried these past days and everybody in the house is talking about father having delayed.  He was going to return from Shiraz (to Yazd) by bus, 4 days ago.  What has happened that he is not back?  Mother and my uncles are anxious.  There is no way to get news of him.  It has been decided that if there is no news by the next 3-4 days Uncle will take his car and drive towards Shiraz through Abarghu road and find out about his whereabouts on the way.  We are all guessing that maybe father is paying visit to Rostamabad, on his way back.  This guessing lessened our worries to some extent.  But then, the Shiraz-Yazd bus couldn’t stop in Faragheh for one or two days.  Maybe he went upto there by bus and from there to Yazd he is coming on mule.
One day before Uncle wanted to start off towards Shiraz a messenger came.  He was one of the farmers in Mehrabad.  He brought the news that father was attacked by thieves and shot in his leg and at present being looked after by one of the farmers and will return to Yazd on mule after two days.  Though everyone was upset that father was injured by a bullet in his leg but we all thanked God that he was saved.
Father came to Yazd after two days and was operated by Dr Manuchehr, one of the Parsi physicians who was working in a clinic that the Parsis had set up in Yazd for free treatment of Zoroastrians.  Dr Manuchehr removed the bullet from my father’s leg.
This is the story told by father:  “The thieves made our bus halt by shooting at it and made the passengers, two of whom were killed and one was injured, to get out of the bus and stand in a line.  The leader said:  “There is a person among you by the name of Rostam.  Show him to us and all others will be freed.  Fortunately or unfortunately the only passenger who knew my name was killed and the rest did not know my name.  the passengers said:  “We are all Moslems and there is no one among us by the name of Rostam.  Maybe he is in the bus ahead of us or after us.  From what the thief said we knew that they were after Rostam Shahjahan to take him hostage and get money from his Company.
In any case, because it was night they left us in the desert and went away.  The next morning, a passenger, who was passing by with his mule, took the news to a village on the way and two farmers who had received my message came from Rostamabad, and took me to Mehrabad which was closer to Yazd.  They took the other passengers to the nearby villages, until the police came and took them to Yazd.
Thank God this story had a good end.  Uncle went to Shiraz instead of father and father stayed in Yazd for a year and worked in Uncle’s place.
Pishdadi
From the book “Memories of 365 days” by Jamshid


Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour