24 Restless Hours

The camel said this and suddenly seemed to grow wings. We flew up into the air like birds. Below my feet were pretty, clean
houses. There wasn't any smell of smoke or filth in the air. The houses and alleys wore so neat that I thought I was watching a
movie. I asked the camel, "We're not leaving Tehran, are we?"
"What made you think that?"
"Well," I said, "out here, there's no smell whatsoever of smoke or filth. The houses are all large and pretty as a bouquet of flowers.”
The camel smiled and said, "You're right, Latif, my boy, Tehran has two parts, each with its own characteristics. North and
South. The North is clean, but the South is full of smoke, filth, dust and dirt, because all the worn out buses operate in that section.
All the brick kilns are in that section, and the diesels and trucks come and go from there. Many of the streets in the South
aren't paved; the dirty putrid water in the open sewage gutters of the north flows downhill to the South. In short, the South is
where the poor, hungry people live, and the North is the area of the rich and powerful. Have you ever seen the ten story marble
buildings in ‘Hasirabad’, ‘Naziabad’ and Haji Abdol Mahmud Avenue'? In these buildings are the elegant shops of the rich, who
own luxurious automobiles and dogs worth several thousand tomans."
I said, "In the South, you don't see such things. There, no. one owns cars, but a lot of people have hand carts and sleep in dugouts."
I was so hungry that I thought the bottom of my stomach was turning into a hole.
Below our feet was a huge garden with colored lights, cool and full of freshness, flowers, and trees. A large fountain like a bouquet
of flowers was in the center and several meters away there was a goldfish pool surrounded by tables and chairs, flowers, and
blossoms. Lots of different foods with intoxicating odors were arranged on the tables.
The came said, "Let's go down. Dinner's ready.”
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