The Grand Day
In the years before the Iranian revolution, after winning the Asian Gold Medal a bicycling champion named Gol Aqa [Ali Reza Khamseh] received an enthusiastic welcome from his compatriots when he returned to his birthplace in the City of Semnan. The government officials in his town immediately ordered that he attend a meeting about welcoming the shah's sister Ashraf Pahlavi on her arrival in the city. The district governor [Ali Nassirian] and the military and security officials asked Gol Aqa to use his popularity to persuade the people to make the carpets in their homes available to the district governor for carpeting the welcome route. Gol Aga did not agree to this but after his fiancee's brother, who was a city journalist, was abducted to provoke him, he asked the district governor and the military officials to respond and invite the people to participate. Gol Aqa's father Os Khaled [Valiyollah Shirandami] was opposed to participation by his son and the people of the town in the welcome proceedings. This was why the royal family's welcome to the city was on the same day as the wedding. The people attended the grand celebration of Gol Aqa's wedding, but the only city residents present at the welcome proceedings were the district governor and the city officials.
