Moving to Pakistan (2) - Part 3

From my previous posts on 'Moving to Pakistan', I hope I am not giving out a message of hate or disrespect for the U.S. I still think it is one of the best places to live in the entire world. I think in many instances, it rates much better than Pakistan. It is still the land of dreams, filled with many opportunities for the talented and the knowledgeable.

When I first landed in the U.S. in January 1999, America was flourishing like anything. The internet boom was on full swing, people were making money left and right and unemployment was lower than the average, and more importantly the U.S. debt was on decline. So the future looked pretty promising. I remember I met a guy from Bangladesh who was graduating at the end of my first semester. He had received an offer from a telecom company a couple of months ahead of his graduation. I believe his Grade Point Average (GPA) was below par but they still hired him. I also remember another Indian guy who had received multiple offers from various companies in the U.S. and they were all competing to hire him. So those were pretty good days to be in the U.S. 

During our visits to the malls or other public places along with other Pakistanis or Indians, sometimes locals had a little gossip with us about our whereabouts. And they were quite surprised to know that we were from overseas and had left our families for studies in the U.S. That was really heartening for them. They thought really big of us to sacrifice so much just for the studies. They appreciated what we were doing and encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing. They even encouraged us to stay back and work and live in the U.S. after graduation and make U.S. our home. So that was the kind of acknowledgement we got before 9/11 from the locals. Many of them would like to chat with us about our countries, families, social fabric, culture and almost every other thing they pleased. They would inquire us about comparisons between different things in the U.S. It felt so much at home while talking to them. So things were great. And surprisingly or not, not many Americans were familiar with Pakistan. Sometimes, they thought of Pakistan as India or Palestine. Some thought it was still part of India. But all in all, those were good times. 

When 9/11 happened, things changed. There were quite a few Pakistani students in the university at that time. The first few days were pretty scary. Pakistani students would not want to leave their apartments at night or alone. We would not leave our apartments without purpose during the daytime. We would not try to get into an argument with the locals. So the Pakistani students got pretty frightened and became conscious of the fact that we were foreigners in this country. This is not to say that we didn’t think of being foreigners before. But things had changed now. Before 9/11, during our visits to the mall, the locals would greet us warmly or at least would not stare at us suspiciously. After 9/11, their eyes would chase us from one end of the mall to the other in case we do something to alert them. Occasionally, they would talk to us, but in this case, trying to investigate us.  

However, the university administration tried to help us in whatever way they could. They increased the police patrol, put out instructions of being watchful and all, and had held various multicultural meetings in the university to educate the locals and us. These were beneficial for the community to understand the sensitivities on both sides. The administration tried to convey the community that every Muslim is not a terrorist, Islam is not equivalent to terrorism and restraint is the key. They also informed us not to do or say anything stupid in case someone says anything which might hurt our feelings. But I think, things were pretty tense those days. Fortunately, it did not result into anarchy.  To be continued….

Moving to Pakistan (2) - Part -2

As I had mentioned earlier in 'Moving to Pakistan (2) - Part (1)', building of relationships and network is like planting a seed in the soil. First, it spreads the roots in the ground firmly, then grows a trunk and branches and leaves and later on bears the fruits. This is long and strenuous struggle. It takes years to develop the kind of networking with the people to thrive in the society. That the society knows you from  inside out to know who you really are. And then you can enjoy and benefit from those relationships.
I think most people are aware of the fact that most foreigners live in isolated communities in the foreign countries. Muslims like to interact with Muslims socially and it further narrows down to Pakistanis interacting with Pakistanis. It is mostly true for the first generation. The second generation modifies itself as they please.

During my years of studying, we had very close friendships with the locals and many others in the town. We socialized, studied, hung out together. Our American friends even invited us to their homes. Everything was going fine until we graduated and moved. I came to Richmond, Virginia for my job. Here I had to build my friendships all over again. It was quite difficult. I couldn’t get around the idea that the relationships and networking is time and place bound. If you change a place, you have to start over.
It isn’t like that in Pakistan. For an example, Multan is called ‘City of Saints’. Meaning, from early days of Muslims in the sub-continent, Saints had lived in this city for preaching and spreading of Islam. And the biggest saint of them all is a close family member. So, to begin with, they had sewn seed of the plant back in the day. That tree had developed fully over all these so many hundred years. We are the lucky ones to enjoy the fruits of the full grown tree. No matter where we go and live in Pakistan, we don’t have to exert our energies to make new friends. We are always blessed with good friends who know our family members already. And we can enjoy the labor of our family members and we only try to keep the relationships going. And pass those on to our future generation.

So these are some of the important things to consider when one is living in the society. There is a saying in the U.S., “It is not worth what you know, however, it is worth who you know.” Anyways, I am sharing only hard facts and my experience of moving to Pakistan. I am sure someone else can come up even forceful argument of moving from Pakistan and s/he could be rightful in their opinion. My intention is not to convince someone to do what I did. Everybody has to think in their own ways and every situation is different. I don’t want people to take my word and leave what they are doing and come back to their motherland immediately. No. That is not the point. But I do hope that my blog is an interesting read and may be a point of reference and something to talk about. This is extremely huge decision of moving back. There could be so many risks involved. So, please think it through thoroughly before you take a big step like this.

Anyways, there are many more interesting pieces of information to share. So, look for the next post in the near future.

Moving to Pakistan (2) Part-1

It was back in 2009 when I started thinking seriously about moving back to Pakistan. At that point, I had a very good job and was getting two to three job offers every week. My small family, wife and daughter were doing great in Madison, Wisconsin. However, the mind was stuck back in Pakistan.

In the meantime, whenever I had a chance to talk to older Pakistani Americans, who have lived in that country for a long time, with their kids grown up, college bound or married, they also thought of going back to Pakistan. I was surprised because they were doing so great financially and socially that I couldn't imagine how they would adjust in our culture anymore. Some of them even talked about participating in the general elections to bring change in our culture. This was quite surprising.

In the U.S., our folks do things like running a gas station, may be establish an IT outsourcing company, jobs, desi grocery stores, etc. Their kids would yearn to become doctors or lawyers to become prominent in the community. For me, I am an engineer. I know my field is specialized and not everybody can do the job I can do. So professionally, I felt pretty secured and it was a matter of choice of working in the U.S. But at times, it made me feel that there is so much more that I can do in life which I may not be able to accomplish if I stayed in the U.S. I know U.S. is a great country and provides opportunities to people who wouldn't get the kind of opportunities in their homelands. I thought that I have a professional ceiling which I wouldn't be able to cross. Secondly, I am an agrarian and I may not be able to make a good businessman and be able to run a gas station or a grocery store if I chose to leave my job.

Life is like a plant seed. Once it is sown and left in one place, it grows with deep rooted roots, strong trunk, branches and leaves and it gets to become a very strong tree as the time passes. If it is uprooted and moved to a different place, the process starts all over. That is exactly what happened to me in Pakistan. Even though I was son of the soil, I had to go through the process of acclimatizing in this culture. Pakistan is one of the best places to live. But it still requires the effort and sacrifice to adjust.

To be continued....

Moving back to Pakistan from the U.S.

Things are quite different in Pakistan than there. There is  never a dull moment here. The transition from the U.S. life to Pakistan takes a while, anywhere from six months to a year or so. But the idea is to get yourself in the routine and being productive  as soon as possible. Otherwise, the depression sets in and the individual tends to start thinking of moving 'back'. One has to understand that entry to a new system takes some effort, running around, adjustment, ups and downs, a lot of comparisons between the two systems, and a few more things. People here have hard time admitting the fact that some new guy will be working with them from the overseas, even if he left the country for a short while. But again, that's part of the effort of moving back. One important point is the salary packages are not comparable to the U.S. But on the other hand, a lot can be achieved with less money here. And the quality of life is much better. So yeah, the salaries are low, but you gain more with low salaries. See in Pakistan, once you get a job, the housing, utilities, conveyance, driver, gas, they are all taken care off in most of the jobs. Even private companies offer a lot of perks these days. Maybe that's why we can do a lot of things with our salaries here. 

Thinking of the long term, how long would I want to continue working for someone? And what would I want to do after retirement. So, many people start businesses on the side alone or with a partnership and keep developing their businesses over the years while working. This gives them steady income on one side and gives them something to look forward to after retirement. So there are opportunities all around. It's just  a matter of how willing someone is to take a chance.

This discussion can go on and on. But the matter of the fact is, like people ask me, which one is better? My answer is that one has to set the priorities in order and take a serious look at what is important to the individual. One has to make sacrifices and compromises in Pakistan and same in the U.S. If we look in Pakistan, there are many miserable people in this country and same in the U.S. Many people don't have jobs, or a very little money and are suffering while same goes for the U.S. as well. Everything is tied to the job. If someone loses a job, they lose almost everything and they would have to start over with the new job. So no drastic difference. So, I tell them wherever you feel at home, that's where you belong. Either way, we all have to work hard for a  living, in Pakistan or the U.S.