Cyrus Mowlavi
If you were present in Dr. Mojtahedi’s Centennial birthday party on Sunday April 19th at UCLA, you would have thought that somehow you have gotten trapped in a scene from “Spies Like Us.” A 1985 comedy film directed by John Landis, starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd. The scene I am referring to is called "Doctors" as shown in this youtube clip.
I know that our Iranian culture suffers from “ titlitus Syndrome.”
And I know all I have had to do to verify it, was looking through the Persian Yellow Pages.
I have found not only MDs and DDSs calling themselves Doctors and super doctors
and doctor with board designation that God himself gave it to them, but also attorneys who are JDs and were previously Engineers, but now they are calling themselves Dokotor Mohandes.
However, for crying out loud. Couldn’t we hold back our buttering up campaign for one night? One night that was supposed to be about this "one doctor". The only one that we grow up knowing as The DOCTOR.
Yet, in the party dedicated to his memories and his life achievements, his loyal students, my Alborzi brothers could not resist playing doctor with each other’s resumes.
The word Doctor got used so loosely by all speakers in this party that at one point my dear friend Najmedin Meshkati accidentally slipped a Dr. title to our senior Alborzi brethren Iradj Eshaghian. He apologized and went on offering him an honorary doctoral degree.
I love my Alborzi brothers to pieces and I will defend my fellow Iranians at all cost against any other nationality. But isn’t awkward to call your friend whom you have known for four decades by his title? Was it necessary to massage each other’s egos by reading their resumes?
And that was not all. There were other doctors. There were doctors whose education was not as a result of Dr. Mojtahedi’s genius.
They were female doctors who were playing verbal doctor game with our Alborzi doctors.
After about 356th time that word doctor was used, the entire thing started running together for me. All I could hear was: Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor and doctor………
The most remarkable thing that I remember was meeting ostad Maani, the legendary Physics teacher.
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Isn’t it awkward to call your friend whom you have known for four decades by his title? "
The most remarkable thing that I remember was meeting ostad Maani, the legendary Physics teacher.