Majīd and I attended the Amīr Kabīr High School in Zanjān. He was a year older than I was. The first time I heard his name was from Mr. Khawwāsī, the head of the Math Department. He related that there was a very difficult question in mathematics for which [Omar] Khayyām had proposed one solution and [Blaise] Pascal had proposed another, which is why it is referred to as the Khayyam-Pascal Problem. Our teacher said that there is a student in our school by the name of Shahriyārī who has provided a third solution to the problem using methods derived from new mathematics. This got my attention, as I was curious to know who this person is who has stepped foot in areas where [only] Khayyam and Pascal had tread. It was a good feeling to know that we have such a person within our midst. So I went up to him and introduced myself, and we became friends.