a fairy tale

Lives are lived under such pressure here. It crushes most and leaves a few bright as diamonds. Tahir lives in Mazar-i-Sharif. He has one pair of acid washed jeans which he wears all the time never mind the boys around him in pajama pants. Tahir is on the move. He's a stringer for Reuters and the BBC.

When Tahir was 17 he started a school to teach English, called the "American English School." He had hundreds of students including the governor of the province. When he was 18 and living in Pakistan he memorized the Koran, since it might help him with his political career, and after all he was bored. Did I mention that Tahir has a photographic memory? He recently translated "Bush At War" into Dari and wonders how to get in touch with the publisher to sell it.

He's 21 years old now and wants to be prime minister of Afghanistan. I ask him why and he tells me a story i've only read in fairy tales. It's a girl, of course. Her father has forbidden Tahir to see her. He's even pulled his daughter out of school so she won't see him. She can't call either, as he's taken away her mobile phone. They talk on a friend's phone, only in secret and only once a month or so. The reason? Tahir isn't rich enough. He's going to marry her to an older man, a trader. So Tahir is working to prove to her father that he too can be rich as well as smart. That's why he works so hard, he says. "Only that. I have to prove that I am right and he is wrong. That is the reason."

It is rather humbling to have this young man as my translator.