A couple of days ago, I read the heartbreaking story of Filimon Popper about a Russian girl who married an Arab-Christian and immediately remembered my classmate Tola. I tell this story with his permission.

In our class, Tola was the most capable, but science did not interest him. He was much more interested in cards and he never hid it. Seriously playing for money started probably from the ninth grade. To enter the Toll Institute decided in Moscow.
Where to? I asked him.
There is a small competition. In Moscow, the most clever players, and everything else does not shake me.

He went to the Forestry Institute and continued to play. Sessions gave up, as he said, not to be driven out of the dormitory. In my opinion, money was immeasurable. How much did his diamond stamp cost and now I don’t know very much. One day, when I came to Moscow, we went for a two-day walk with the Roman Theatre. I paid for it all. Since then, I have only one photo of me. At http://abrp722.livejournal.com/ you can look at it. He is the extreme right, I am the extreme left. At fifth grade, he decided that the diploma would not hinder him and graduated from the institute. In charge of the diploma received distribution in the forestry in Krasnoyarsk region. With the distribution then was strict, Tola trembled and went. He was a great engineer. He was carried there on his arms and paid as much as he could, but Tola escaped, having only worked a year out of three. He said he would not survive the second winter. He returned to Moscow, again engaged in cards and soon again fell for the same three years in the same forestry. They met him as a native, quickly disconnected, and Tola began to do the same job as before, but for free.

When he returned, he expressed his desire to move abroad as soon as possible. The time was Soviet. It was hard to go out. I told him to marry a Jewish woman.
“No,” said Tola, “where the Jews are, I will be caught. I need a place where there are no Jews. Do not offend me. A pure business.
Eventually, he met a Christian from Egypt and married his sister. I went to Cairo, and for twenty years I hadn’t heard of him. A year ago, I accidentally found him on Одноклассники under another name, and then spoke on Skype.
Are you playing? I ask you.
I tried but failed. Muslims can't play cards, in the casino you are quickly remembered. I had to tie. And the wife is drinking, saying to live for nothing. And it is true. I remember that I am an engineer. He made a resume, sent it to several companies. No any reaction. The wife says:
“You’re doing something wrong, talk to my uncle, he’s the smartest in our family.
I met my uncle.
Are you an engineer? What engineer, what engineer?
of forestry preparations.
What is forestry?
- First the trees are rolled, then the bushes are folded on the woods, then fused.
Why be an engineer for that? With this work, two phallus will manage.
In Siberia, the trees are different. This barrel is 40 meters long, more than a meter in diameter and a lot of them. In addition, you need to read maps, build temporary roads, install equipment and much more.
The uncle thought for a long time and then said:
Forget the forests! You are an engineer in the transportation of non-cargo goods. I have friends. Let us invent something.

Two weeks later, I started working as an engineer and am still working there. I am well paid. I will work there until I retire. This work will never end.
“Don’t, Tola,” I say, “there is a saying in the United States, ‘Nothing lasts forever.’ “Nothing lasts forever.” There is no such work.
“You don’t, but we do,” Tola replies with dignity, “I work for the Ministry of Antiquities and am engaged in the ongoing repair of the Egyptian pyramids.

by Abrp722