Few years ago, one day my ex-boyfriend came to me very alarmed with the news that there is a chicken pox epidemic and everyone should be vaccinated. I told him that if there were such a thing, it would be announced in the media. “No, no”, he said, “My uncle who is a doctor said that we should all be vaccinated”.

His family was more toward the panic type compared to my super relaxed family. So, I didn’t pay too much attention to his notice and hoped that he will forget about it. But no, every day he would ask me if I got my vaccine. Then finally one day he came to take me to get the shot. According to him, doctors were running out of this vaccine and we should go to a specific center. This center, which is called Pasteur Institute, is in one of the busiest parts of Tehran. No sane human being would drive there in the morning, unless he or she has to absolutely get vaccinated for a dangerous disease or travel to Malaria infested countries!

He came early in the morning, quite proud of his intervention. All along the drive, he told me how I should pay more attention to my health and these things are no jokes, etc. We arrived to the institute, drove around for one hour to find a parking place, entered the building and found few young doctors standing there waiting for the next patient.

They asked us why we were there and he started explaining that we wanted to get a chicken pox vaccine because we have heard that there it is running epidemic. The doctor looked at us and said nonchalantly: “ Ok, where is the baby?” At this point I couldn’t hold myself and I said: “ The baby is me!” They all laughed and told us to go home reassured that there was no danger threatening us!