This is a collection of short stories that can best be described as informal oral history of life and culture in Iran, recorded as light-heartedly as possible.The book features various aspects of the ongoing clashes between the forces of modernity and those of "return to self," which began with the revolution of 1905 and culminated in the revolution of 1979. As pointed out in the preface to the book, most of the people who populate the stories were personally known to the author. The events cover more than half a century--starting from the upheavals of World War II when the author was a young child.