In Search of Rain From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh is Syed Nourashrafeddin’s detailed, emotional, inspirational, moving, and meaningful memoir. It covers topics like war, revolution, addiction, trauma, illness, immigration, and the pursuit of academic and financial success and personal happiness.
Nourashrafeddin’s life began in Iran during a tumultuous time in the country’s history. ’He was five years old during the 1979 revolution. He was too young to remember life before the Revolution and knows it from elder’s memories and documentation. They described that life as joyful and filled with vitality. They could drink and smoke in public. Women were free to pursue career opportunities. Artists and singers expressed themselves without censorship.
All of that changed when the Ayatollahs stepped in. Nourashrafeddin’s description of a country deprived of everything that they once had like destroyed cinemas and clubs, banned music and art, women completely covered is completely heartbreaking. Even as a child, Nourashrafeddin felt that something wasn't right in a country that deprived its people of so much and used their limited interpretation of the Islamic religion to enforce and justify it.
It wasn't the religion itself that created it because Islam was Iran’s primary religion before the Revolution. It was because the country was taken over by a sect of religious extremists with a very limited narrow view of what their religion meant and demanded that the people follow it.
Nourashrafeddin also grew up during the Iran-Iraq War and he effectively describes the after effects of a childhood in war. He bluntly describes the War as “a war for nothing.” The places where he and his childhood friends pretended to shoot each other in games were demolished by adults who really did shoot each other.
His descriptions of a city practically annihilated with destroyed buildings, sounds of explosions and air strikes, food shortages, wounded neighbors, and casualties during a futile and needless war are unsettling.
There was also war brewing at home as well. Nourashrafeddin and his eight siblings were raised by an introverted passive mother and an outdoorsy temperamental father who was addicted to opium and heroin, “a world of smoke and addiction,” as his son wrote. His father’s addiction spiraled out of control as he lost his wife, youth, job, money, and eventually freedom to the disease.
The conflicts at home and outside during the war showed chaos, anxiety, and trauma on all sides. It would be enough to drive anyone to despair and Nourashrafeddin revealed a lot of inner strength and determination to survive it.
Through education, Nourashrafeddin discovered his passion. Starting out as a lackluster student, he became interested in receiving a letter of recommendation to study mathematics and experimental sciences in high school. His goal was to become a doctor to earn respect, serve his community, and care for his family.
He succeeded in school all the way to receiving a PhD in Molecular Medicine. He also obtained practical experience working in different fields like the military, administrative work in the Health Department, and worked in various medical and science laboratories, classrooms, departments, and fields.
His tireless pursuit of academic success and commitment to education is revealing, depicting him as someone who asked questions, hypothesized, theorized, researched, read, studied, measured, and shared his results. In other words, someone who was born to be a scientist but needed a slight nudge in that direction. Once he received that nudge, he excelled in the field.
Nourashrafeddin’s adulthood was as eventful as his youth. Financial problems and overwork contributed to friction in an early marriage that ended in divorce. He was imprisoned after not paying alimony and upon release was temporarily homeless and destitute. He had vitiligo which lightened his skin and isolated him further.
During that time, he indulged in hobbies like mountaineering and traveling to gain some perspective and a new outlook. He also had a better second marriage, found career success in Genetics, and eventually emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This section reveals that during times of difficulty that are out of one's control, it's important to find positive interests and relationships and that clear the mind, soothe the soul, and lead to personal happiness. It's also important to search for and find new directions in life that provide challenges and propel one to move forward.
Nourashrafeddin’s memoir is about a man who lived through much trauma, sadness, happiness, and success. He told his story so Readers can find ways to push past their own traumas and find their own personal success and happiness.
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