Hero, like Khalotaj of Bandar Abbas

Mohammad Nekouei, known as “Khalo Taj” or “Taj Mohammad”, has become a living symbol of the city of Bandar Abbas with those “short” fish that he palms on a branch and sells it with the “Pish” counting unit. He wears a handkerchief on his head in cold, heat, winter and summer, which is known as Khalutaj with the same handkerchief, shape and appearance. He buys fishing boats and brings them for sale to a corner on the main boulevard of the city, located on Imam Khomeini Boulevard, in front of the fire department and the three customs crossings of Bandar Abbas, and sits there so that regular customers or passers-by can reach them one by one.

For several days now, the people of Bandar Abbas, while crossing the main boulevard of the city, have seen in a new view that Khaloutaj, after five decades of selling fish, has spread his daily furniture next to a statue of himself.

Seeing statues and large and small statues of local and national celebrities in different cities and countries is not a new topic, but why should a simple fish seller make a statue and install it on the main boulevard of the city?

To answer this question, we must first see who ordered the construction of such a statue and what was its motive?

I go to the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Tourism and the relevant experts say they are unaware.

The General Directorate of Culture, Guidance and Islam also gives an answer to anyone I ask: We have also seen the statue, but it is not our job.

The municipality’s cultural and sports organization is the third place of inquiry, and I will return from there unanswered.

I remember the guidance of one of the experts of the guidance office who said that you should see the statue in the area covered by which district of the municipality and find out from there, and this is the easiest part of the story. Is.

The mayor of the area does not answer the first phone and sends the message that I am in a meeting and I am calling.

About 2 hours later, the name of Mojtaba Salimi, the mayor of District 3, falls on the phone, and after greetings and congratulations from the reporter of the week, I ask my questions and it turns out that I have taken the right path this time and the work is the work of District 3 Municipality.

I ask the mayor of the region that you have made a good move, but among all these cultural, social and historical figures, why should you order and install a statue of Khalutaj?

Salimi said: “Of course, this is not the first statue, and during the last two years, a statue of Khajeh Atta, a historical figure and skilled minister of Hormoz, was built and installed during the Portuguese period.”

Last month, a living statue of Mansour Naimi, a researcher, artist and cultural and artistic activist in Hormozgan, was erected and installed, and now it is time to leave.

He continued: “In our religious and national culture, much emphasis has been placed on earning a halal living, and in coastal cities, earning a living from the sea and the income earned in this way has a special place among the people.”

Khalutaj is the spiritual heritage of a city

The mayor of District 3 named the fish sale as a spiritual and cultural heritage, adding: “This figure, with its special cover and cover, the sale of a special fish and its own marketing, has not become a symbol of an important part of the coastal urban community.” In fact, it represents a working class whose life is directly related to the sea.

Salimi’s words seem solemn and correct, and a new light shines in my mind, and I think that instead of interviewing a certain manager, official, and character, I should go to Khalutaj and hear and write his story.

I go to the three ways of customs and go to Khaloutaj, I sit next to him for a few minutes and introduce myself and say that I am going to have an interview, at first he laughs and is surprised and says: “Isn’t he a traitor?” Is a person hungry?) I also answer with a laugh.

I make an appointment for a chat the next day, and in the early morning I go to Khajeh Atta, where I buy fish every day.

Hero, like Khalotaj of Bandar Abbas

Ironically, the night before, the weather was stormy and no boat went to sea to catch the heart, and Khaloutaj has nothing to sell and he has more time to talk.

I expected that now that he has nothing to sell, his morals are not good and he says bad things about the land and time, but he answers my questions with a smile and openness, and recounts the most important parts of this 83-year-old life:

“I was born in 1317 in the city of Sirik. I came to Bandar Abbas with my mother when I was about eight years old and after my father died.

I have been working since then and my first job was to unload the cargo.

“That was my job until I was 15, and then I went fishing with the small boats for a while, but I didn’t get paid much.”

When he gets here, Khalutaj pauses; He seems to be taking scenes from all over his life, touring, taking deep breaths and continuing:

“Now that I look, it seems that my destiny is tied to the sea and fish, and after fishing by boat, I worked in a fishery factory for a few years, and my job was to fillet fish, but after eight years, when I wanted to be insured, my employer accepted. “I did not go to fishing and fish shops again, and I fished at night and sold in the morning.”

For 50 years now, Khaloutaj has quietly established himself in a space as large as a few wajibs, and has repeatedly emphasized that no one has disturbed his business over the years.

Khalotaj knows how to sell a grain or a kilo of fish well, but he hits the fish on the “front” (palm tree branch) and sells the fish “in front”, which is his own special and unique unit.

For each advance, there are between 10 and 15 shorts that sell at the current price.

During these years, Taj Mohammad did not sell any fish other than Schwartz, and if he were to be awarded a degree based on work experience, he would be nothing short of a worthy Schwartz doctor.

However, a person who smells the small mouth of a 15 cm fish and realizes that he was caught on the beach or came from a sewage well, is known to be the most outstanding and expert in his work.

I ask him, do you remember how many fish you sold in the first days?

He laughs and replies, “I remember that well, but you may not have even heard the name of this money.”

And then continues:

Do you know what thirty shahs means? ”

And as if he does not want to see my shame for not knowing the answer, he immediately continues: I am selling Tomans. ”

It does not allow me to think much about the distance between 2 riyals and 400,000 riyals, and he continues:

The difference between a fish caught with a net and caught with a hook also says that the former has soft and loose meat and the latter has a firm and firm texture.

His explanation about the difference between the short fish caught in the estuaries of Bandar Abbas and the entrances of sewage and sewage to the sea with the fish caught in the offshore areas is also audible and practical.

Khaloo Taj says: “Khor fish smells of stench and mud, and this smell does not disappear with washing the fish, and it is no different from rotten and rotten fish.

“But fresh fish caught offshore does not even need spices to cook.”

With this explanation, it is interesting for me to know how much fish this old fisherman and fishmonger himself eats and I ask the same thing: he smiles again and answers: “Once every two or three weeks” and when he sees my surprise He continues: “In this economic situation and hot weather, I sell a maximum of 6 or 7 kilos of fish per day, and if I am going to eat seventy thousand tomans per kilo of fish, which will no longer benefit me.”

You do not have customer orientation at the time of the customer

Khalutaj is proud of the fact that after 50-60 years of selling fish, not a single dissatisfied customer has left, and not a single fish has been returned due to poor quality.

He knows the secret of this reputation is that he did not sell the fish once to anyone, and if his fish did not have a customer one day and was not sold as usual until 2 pm, he would lower the price so that there would be nothing left for tomorrow. .

Let me count: one… two… three…

I know he still has stories to tell, but I feel that he is getting tired little by little, and my questions about him and the fish shop have subsided, and that is why I ask him about his wife and the number of his children. The lip begins to count: “One… two… three… four… five… six… seven…” and so on, and finally raises his head and says: 22!

I laugh and say, “Aren’t you wrong? Did you really raise 22 children with a fishmonger?”

He gets up, stands up, puts his hand on his waist, pushes his chest forward, takes off his Ray-Ban glasses, and says with different and masculine pride: “Oh, I have 22 daughters and a son who “Everyone is home except one of the girls.”

“I got married 60 years ago and my first wife was alive until about 10 years ago, and after her death I got another wife who divorced a few years later and now I and one of the girls live together.”

According to him, not only did he sell the 22 children with fish bread, but he also left them another house besides his own.

I go to his sons and they say, “Everyone has a boat and they are fishing, and I went fishing myself 10 years ago.”

Although all of Khalutaj’s sons are fishermen, he does not catch fish from his own children and prefers to buy fish from fishermen who have been friends with him for years.

Hearing this prohibition of southern male nature and pride is the last line of conversation with Khalutaj, and I remember the mayor of the region and the rest of his words about Khalutaj, who said: And unlike national heroes who have a mythical and inaccessible image, these people are simple role models whose way of life and character can influence individual and collective behavior.

The mayor of District 3, who has reached the stage of urban management from the field of performing arts and theater, added: A character like Khalutaj is full of untold stories that can inspire artists to create poetry, stories, music, films and theater.

Salimi reminded: a personality like the living memory of Mansour Naeemi as a cultural and artistic activist and researcher left dozens of written and unwritten cultural and artistic works that a significant part of his works are taken from the life of ordinary people like Khalotaj and this is the importance And proves the need to pay attention to such people and symbolize them.

With these words and what Khalotaj said about his life, it seems to me that making a statue of simple and nameless heroes can be a pleasant tradition.

Now Khalutaj is sitting shoulder to shoulder with his statue, still selling fish, and sometimes when he gets tired he leans on an image of himself…