From Vahe to Vahe, Վահէ-էն, Վահէ-ին

Vaհe H Apelian

Vahe Berberian

Today I received the picture posted below from my former high school classmate Vaghenag Tarpinian. The picture depicts Vaghenag and his wife Shoghig with Vahe Berberian. It turns out Knights of Vartan had invited Vahe Berberian to New Jersey to stage one of his comedy acts. 

Regarding Vahe Berberian, it must have been in early 1970's. I was a member of the ARF Zavarian College Student Association overseeing the workings of the Zavarian juniors. Vahe Berberian, early in his teens was a member of the juniors. He caught my attention. He stood apart from the rest. Lean, tall, with a smoothly flowing hair, hands often in the pockets of his jeans, walked with stooped gait, with an hunched over posture. It may have been his growth spur. He was taller than the rest of his friends.  But most of all, it was his overall mannerism that caught my attention and stirred my curiosity to the point that I wanted to know more about this junior member. Everything about this young student looked so different that I made a point of meeting his parents to find out more about him.

One day the opportunity presented itself and I drove him in my car to their house. We had recently moved from (west) Beirut to Antelias, a walking distance from the Catholicosate of Cilicia. It turned out Vahe Berberian's family also lived in Antelias, a bit further uphill from our house.

Theirs was the everyday Armenian hospitable family. They hosted me cordially, knowing that I am a senior member overseeing the juniors. There was nothing unusual that stood apart in their family. But there was an unmistakable similarity between Vahe and his mother, both physically and in mannerism. In later years Vahe would crack jokes about his mother but he made his father the protagonist of a novel he wrote. That became the only time I spent time with Vahe Berberians for any appreciable length of time. 

Civil war came upon us and all of us got scattered. I heard that he had moved to Canada. Later on, I started reading about him in the Armenian media, that he was in LA and has blossomed into a writer, painter, playwright, stand-alone comedian, actor.  I realized I had met a budding genius who had not blossomed yet and was in search of his calling. 

I wrote him a letter inviting him to Cincinnati for a few days of rest and relaxation away from the hustle and bustle of the Armenian community in Los Angeles. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some time with that young boy, the blossoming genius of which he seemed not to be aware of, and who could not bring himself to graduate from the Sophia Hagopian High school he attended with my brother. He answered letting me know that he was busy preparing for his next comedy and sent a copy of his newly published  book.He had personalized it "From Vahe to Vahe"  It rhymes much better in Armenian, (Վահէ-էն, Վահէ-ին). 

Vahe Berberian has now become an Armenian cultural icon. I appreciated him sending word with my friends Vaghenag and Shoghig Tarpinians letting them  to tell me that «Vahe says hi to Vahe”, as Vaghenag captioned it on their picture with Vahe Berberian, depicted below.