Read Online Together Tea by Marjan Kamali - Free Book Online

Rezayi?”
    Perspiration slid down Mina’s forehead. Why hadn’t she been paying attention?
    â€œWe are waiting, Ms. Rezayi.”
    Mina had no answer. She pressed her keyboard. The screensaver disappeared only to be replaced by pictures of Tehran. It was pointless.
    Professor Van Heusen tapped his foot. “Ms. Rezayi, I can’t wait till the new millennium. Surely you were working hard to arrive at your answer?”
    A small icon flashed at the bottom of Mina’s screen.
    â€œCheck your mail,” the redheaded boy next to her muttered.
    Mina quickly clicked on her mailbox. She had half a dozen new messages, with more coming in. She opened one of the messages. There in front of her was the answer to Professor Van Heusen’s question, along with a formula for how to arrive at the solution. She clicked on the next e-mail. The same. Her classmates were sending her the answer.
    â€œMs. Rezayi?” Professor Van Heusen’s voice was loud.
    The screen blurred in front of Mina.
    â€œDo you have the solution?”
    â€œYes.” Mina spoke up. “I do. I have the solution right here. And the method of arriving at the answer. It’s all right here, in front of me.”
    The redheaded boy next to her breathed a sigh of relief.
    â€œBut I can’t explain because I wasn’t working on the case. I hadn’t even read it.”
    Stunned silence. One did not admit to not reading Professor Van Heusen’s case. One did not admit to not knowing in his class. One feigned knowledge or stayed up all night trying to attain it so that one’s grades were high enough for a stellar investment bank or consulting firm to offer one a job. Starting salary: 100K minimum, plus signing bonus, plus perks. Mina knew all that. She knew Dean Bailey’s lectures by heart. This was the school for the best and the brightest in finance. These were the good times. The year 2000 was just around the corner. Nothing could go wrong. Competition, Mastery, Success. Doubt was weakness. Action mattered.
    â€œWell,” Professor Van Heusen finally said.
    â€œTo tell you the truth, I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I don’t really belong here.”
    More students turned around to stare at Mina.
    Professor Van Heusen looked up from his water bottle and squinted in Mina’s direction. His face was surprisingly small when he actually lifted it up. The clock on the wood-paneled wall ticked loudly.
    â€œWell, Ms. Rezayi,” Professor Van Heusen said. “I don’t know where you belong, but I understand that you have not been with us.” He cleared his throat. “However, in business school, as in life, honesty is always the best policy. And that’s a message for all of you. Let’s walk through this problem again together. So everyone can arrive at the solution by actually knowing what it is they’re doing. Shall we?”
    Chip Sinclair groaned. A few emboldened students actually raised their hands and asked new questions. The girl in the cashmere sweater turned around and gave Mina a thumbs-up sign. The classroom went back to work. Fingers tapped on keyboards, pencils scribbled, calculators clicked.
    Mina concentrated on the problem. She scribbled and struggled her way to the solution. And she suddenly felt better than she had in ages. Part of her had always been hovering in midair over the place that she had left. What if the country and history her parents loved was still buried there? What if she could find it? Could Mina go back and see what Darya meant when she said she wanted Mina to have “everything she had”? Mina had always wished that she could have known the Iran Darya had grown up in, instead of the Iran she herself had escaped from. Could she find it and piece it together if she went back there as an adult?
    You will go to Wall Street, Dean Bailey had lectured. But first, she would go to Number 23 Takesh Street in Tehran, Iran. She