Mashhad – Lost Mobile

“Peida misha (It will be found)” – Reza Mahdavi

After the 14 hour smooth bus journey from Tehran covering a distance almost 1000 km, I arrived in Mashhad. I was invited to come here by Reza Mahdavi, one of notable artists in the country. Once I arrived in the bus station, I went to the public telephone booths, checked his number from my mobile phone, and called him.

SIM card in Iran is incredibly expensive. The common SIM card for mobile cost 550 US$, and just recently prepaid system was introduced, and it still cost almost 100$. That was the reason I don’t use my mobile in Iran. My mobile had been degraded its functionality to be a notebook to save numbers and an alarm clock. After calling him, I put my mobile in my trousers pocket and went around the station. The station was quite modern, as Mashhad is the second city of Iran. Mashhad is also a holy city and it made the city always crowded by visitors.

Reza came 20 minutes after I called him. He was in training of teaching biology. He escaped his class immediately to pick me from the bus station, put me in a taxi (Mashhad Taxi company), dar bast (lit. closed door, means that we didn’t share the taxi with others). We went immediately to his gallery, where he prepared a room for me. His gallery was quite huge, and I was impressed by most of his works, some had got national awards.

Suddenly I found that my mobile was not with me. I was panicked, as there were many important numbers of contacts in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran in the mobile, and I couldn’t afford to lose it. Reza seemed very relaxed. “Don’t worry, I lost mobile many times but it always comes back to me. Iran is safe.”

He asked me to tell him my mobile number so we can ring it up. “But my SIM card is Afghan card, it doesn’t work in Iran,” said me hopelessly. Reza just realized the risk. I was trying hard to remember where I lost it. It might be in the station’s toilet, but the biggest possibility that I dropped the mobile inside the taxi as the seat was very low.
“OK, we call the taxi company. Taxi in Iran is safe, peida misha (it will be found)” said Reza trying to make me calm.

The ‘dar-bast’ taxi in Iran is quite expensive compared to the shared taxis (much more common). The taxi work usually by telephone calls, pick the passengers from the home and deliver them to their destinations, without taking other passengers along the way. Reza checked his book and called the taxi company. The operator then headed him to call the sub-office in the bus station, as the taxi we took was from the station. The officer in the bus station taxi office asked Reza to call again at 2, as the lost mobile might be returned to the office later. It was 9 at the time.

I was trying to accept what had happened. In Indonesia, if this happened, I wouldn’t put any hope. Losing mobile phone in bus station (terminal bus) or in taxi usually does mean real lost. One of my friends lost mobile many times. In Indonesia SIM card is as cheap as a meal. Most of the time when someone finds a mobile on the street, he throws the SIM card and uses the mobile for himself. The mobile phone will be gone forever. I expected the same happened to my lost mobile and I started to ask the price of a new mobile phone set in Iran from my friends. The prices surprised me. Apparently because Iran is boycotted by the international world, all imported stuff are incredibly expensive here.

At 2 Reza called the taxi company again. They said they found a mobile. “Your mobile is found,” said Reza to me. But for me, there was still possibility that the mobile was not my mobile. “Not possible,” said Reza, “it’s not everyday that someone loses mobile on taxi.” But we couldn’t check immediately, as the officer said he didn’t have the authority to return my mobile. We had to wait until 7 when his boss came.

At 7 we took shared taxi (much cheaper than dar-bast taxi) to the bus terminal. I rushed to the small taxi company office next to the taxi stand. Reza talked with the two men in the office. The man asked him to make a phone call to the lost mobile, to assure that he was the owner of the mobile.
“But that’s the mobile of a foreigner. It doesn’t work in Iran,” said Reza.
“So let the foreigner to come himself.”
I jumped in to the office. The officers smiled to me, and pulled out the drawer, took a mobile phone from inside.

I jumped again. This time vertically. It was indeed my mobile, green Nokia 3200 set. I was so happy and could not believe myself that what had lost could be returned in this way.
“I told you before,” said Reza, “it will be found. Taxi in Iran is safe. You made me crazy with your mobile.”
Being taxi driver in Iran is not easy, Reza explained to me. The drivers had to pass many tests, and it also included honesty test. “Public service should be honest,” said him. Suddenly I remembered the taxis at home which had hobby of extorting money from passengers. No need to mention about taxi drivers who raped female passengers in Jakarta midnight or passengers who got robed by the drivers.

If we might learn more honesty from Iran, ….