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Hot Chocolate at Andarzgoo
By Sima Saeedi
sima@tehranavenue.com
December 2009
به فارسی بخوانيم
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Who Is He?

He was born in 1897 in Tehran. He joined the Islamic Coalition Society, a religious-militant group that remains one of the pillars of power today, when he was in his adolescence. At the age of 23 he picked up arms to fight against the {Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi} regime. In June 1921, at the age of 24, he was put into prison. When he was freed in the following year, he helped with the successful assassination of Prime Minister {Hasan-Ali Mansur} and was sentenced to death in absentia. He fought, hid, migrated, but was eventually killed by a bullet from security agents only 6 months before the victory of the Iranian Revolution of 1979.at.cafe.809.amir.01.jpg

Had he been alive he would've been 70. Chances are that he would also have either been behind bars or in house arrests (as many stalwart revolutionaries are today). It could also be that he would've been the head of a foundation or organization. At best, he was now writing his memoirs. Had he been alive, no boulevard or street would've been named after him. 

ANDAZGOO Blvd is in north Tehran. It runs parallel to the Alborz Mountain Range and connects SHARIATI St (the second major north-south street in Tehran) to FARMANIEH. Residential towers now populate the intersection of Farmanieh and Andarzgoo and the area has one of the most expensive real estates in the city.

The length of the boulevard has several places for cars to do U-turns. Tehran traffic "engineering" is unique in offering these turnarounds. It was during the mayoral office of {Mahmood Ahmadinejad} that these turnarounds caught on. It was a quick fix to do away with several traffic lights. Similar quick fixes became hallmarks of Ahmadinejad command, though many ultimately backfired.

What Is a Dowr-dowr?

Dowr-dowr or cruising is one of the favorite pastimes of young Tehranis. It is done with a car, otherwise it is considered cheap. The car should be a nice model, otherwise you would stand out, and people wouldn't have time to peep into each other's cars -- the reason they are there in the first place. You also need to be carefree and wear strange dress to engage in dowr-dowr. You must wear heavy make-up, be you a man or woman. 

And you may wonder why this dowr-dowr on Andazgoo? This action, dowr-dowr, formerly known as "going for a ride", used to take place on AFRICA St several years back, but traffic as well as morality authorities made it impossible for young Tehranis to do it at leisure. It consists of driving your car, preferably with friends of the same sex, though you can also do it by yourself, in circles for hours on end. Many factors affect dowr-dowr, among them, time of day and weather conditions.

Andarzgoo is a busy street in the afternoons. Why? Because of dowr-dowr and AMIR SHOKOLAT, which is a take-away coffee-shop-hot-chocolate place. Everyone shows up to buy ice cream and coffee and many other fancy objects like Swiss Army knives, designer mugs, flashlights and lighters.

My Car, Andarzgoo, Amir Shokolat and I

In my daily, or nightly, commute, I have to pass Andarzgoo. I always find myself, when I reach the boulevard, surrounded by expensive cars driven by 20 to 35 year-olds, whose face would attract my attention. I had heard the term dowr-dowr before. Even during the tempestuous post-election (June 2009) days, when many Tehranis were out on the streets finding a way to demonstrate, Andarzgoo was filled with cars doing circles. 

In traffic, I would try to remember the name of cars -- Mercedes S-Class, C-Class, Toyota Land Cruiser (4-doors and 2-doors), Tucson, Sportage, BMW 5, 6, 7, 8 and X Series, Lexus, and recently Porsche Cayenne.

On a weekday night we went to see Trial on the Street, a new film by {Masoud Kimiai}, and afterwards we had the itch to cruise the streets of the city. We drove our Pride (by Kia Motors) to Amir Shokolat and parked it between a 300,000 dollars SLK and 120,000 Lexus SUV. The parking attendant gave us a look but decided to go to another car with two blond women as its passengers. On the sidewalk outside Amir, a dozen men and women were standing. All eyes turned to us. They were checking us out. We were happy to have drawn so much attention to ourselves.

Several customers were in their jogging suits, possibly coming, we thought, from a good day's workout. Addidas and Nike were there in full glory, in azure or blue. A lady was wearing pink overalls with Louis Vuitton bags and shoes. A gentleman was wearing a fur coat, possibly of rabbit, and they were all looking at us.

Other people joined us with their jogging suits and it was then that I realized jogging suits are in fashion, why no one can workout with that make-up. This is 11:45 pm, mind you, on a December weekday.

A white Beemer parked but no one was looking in their direction. Couple of guys got out and someone asked them if they had come for dowr-dowr.

Three Nights Later

It was a Thursday night. We had gone to mid-town to buy cold cuts. Tehranis sometime go to the opposite part of town to buy specialties, like ham, skewered liver, or even underwear. It could be that you can find many of these items in your local store, but it's fun to hop in your car and go buy it from the other side of town. Anyhow, we went to ANDRE meat shop to buy half a pound of ham. at.cafe.809.amir.02.jpg

On our way back, we expected to see Andarzgoo packed with dowr-dowr cars again; but no, several "brothers" in plain clothes or in camouflage dress, with chaffiyas, the Palestinian scarf, had set up a check point on the other side of boulevard from Amir. Few cars were to be seen on that night. It was sad. It was as if life had come to a standstill. A short, angry man who took himself very seriously was leading the brothers in their mission to stop debauchery and corruption. He would point to a car, have it stopped, take the car papers (insurance and titles) and have their unlucky passengers come to get it from a police station or something.

Needless to say that on the northern side of this boulevard, a few hundred meters across from Amir Shokolat, there is a hosseiniyeh, a sanctuary for the Martyr of Karbala. A hug bus is usually parked there, so you can't really see its green sign.



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