we had a great life in pakistan. my father a geologist for the govt, my mother a doctor. then wahabis came and threatned our family because we werent extremist sunnis like them. so we moved to america. ironically to find refuge in a western country from our own muslim 'brother'. due to pressure my father had a massive heart problem upon reaching here. my mom got sick aswell. my brother destroyed his career trying to work to support all of us. i am the second oldest. it is now 7 years. we are finally back to a place where we are comfortable. we are still shukar guzaar of allah. it is my belief that musharraf is a blessing in disguise. by curbing sunni extremism, he has helped saved lives of many productive and respectable people of pakistan. including normal sunni people, shias, ahmedis, ismailis, etc. i hope nawaz sharif burns in hell with his lady love benazir. anyone who supports stupidity of such nature is slowly but surely sliding into a black dark hole. may they reach their objective soon.
My father first moved to the US, alone. He worked for American Embassy in Pakistan. He was offered a position with Pakistan Mission in United Nations. My mom and children joined him in 1983.
We lived a very comfortable and happy life here. But, in 1990, my father decide to send my mom and the children to Pakistan so we all would be exposed to the culture and Islam in more depth. I was in 8th grade when i left America. I did my 9th, 10th, and F.sc. from Pakistan. All of my siblings and myself can fluently, read, write and speak urdu.
We came back in 1994. But, the four years spent in Pakistan were the best.
In 1994, my father decided to resign from United Nations because he did not want to raise his children in NY. So, we moved to Wisconsin. So, yes, guppies, I am from the dairy land. Later, my parents and siblings relocated to NC due to the weather in WI.
my father came wiht my pohpoh and her husband to toronto 30 years ago....he was around 18..being from the village, my father didnt have much of an education, so he started off working in a car factory. He went back to pakistan to get married and brought my mom back to toronto with him. Later on, he hurt his back, and decided to open up a driving school. Now 30 years, 4 kids and 2 grandchildren later, masha allah, he's got one of the biggest driving schools in the GTA. But I still think my mom has the best job...her "work" is spending the money my dad makes...lol..must be nice.....
I should add, thanks to family sponsership, my family grew from 20 to approx 200 members during the 30 years...and we're all in the GTA....
Death threats. My father was in a great position, and the people in power wanted some jihadi in my fathers chair. My father was also an outspoken critic of mr. not-so-sharif and prevented the sale of OGDC (pakistans only Oil company) to some foriegn company. On the other hand, my mother refused to treat the injured Taliban that nawaz sharif brought in from afghanistan (most taliban leaders/generals had free medical access in Pakistan! They would curse shias and other minorities as they were treated by the same minorities!). At that time, the Taliban peaked their vengence on the poor Hazara people, so my mothers fault was that she took a moral stand against the idiots.
If this is the first time you are hearing this, then its the first time I have heard someone say what you have said! In my family, I've had doctors, engineers, army personells, all shot dead because of their specific beliefs. These extremists have been trying to systematically wipe out the back bone (the educated class) of the shia. Like I mentioned, it is much better under musharraf.
You will also notice an interesting trend. Most of the people that leave Pakistan are educated. Why they leave could be argued that the oppurtunities are limited, but one can hardly ignore the fact that there are other reasons. Extremism and lack of tolerance are basically the second best reason in my opinion for people to leave the country. Now you will notice, after musharraf, people are actually going back. Not necessarily to live, but to invest, marry, creating more for others and being more or less unselfish.
In Pakistan, we have only one day off, that is sunday. Total number of officail holidays in a calender year are just around 10 including all eids and independance day etc.
We work 6 days a week, 300 days a year. baat kartey hain
Few days earlier, proposal was brought forward to our prime ministers for making sat-sunday off to save resources in wake of increasing prices of oil and stuff.
But the nerdy workaholic PM rejected the proposal.
Sorry Codey saab but you have half day on Saturday due to weekend, Sunday off, Friday pura jumma parhtay guzar jata hai. How does that make it 6 working days in a week?
Aur Pakistanis itna kaam kartay hein? Sure, jata kahan hai itna kaam? Believe it or not, majority of Pakistanis is lazy, comfort loving. Eating, sleeping and seeking fun are their favorite passtimes. Again, I am referring to the majority.
Larkion ko sirf shaadi kar kay shohar kay paisay shopping mein uraanay ka shoq hai aur majority of the Pakistani young guys are busy proving their love for each and every girl they come across. Or playing jokes on their guy friends to make them look bad in front of other girls. Or wasting time watching porn or talking dirty.
Until this changes, Pakistan's economy's gonna stay where it is.
I have three stories to tell. I will tell one right now. If you'all like this, then I will bother with the other ones.
So its January 10th 1994, my first day in school. I had two classes in the morning. After the 2nd class, it was lunch time, around 11:45 and I was pretty hungry. So I walk over to the mcdonald and order a fish combo. This was my first day in a mcdonald ever. I was following my brother's advice on what to order when I go to a fast food place like md. After I told her my order, she asked me a question:
Her: For here to go?
Me: pardon me....
Her: For here to go?
Me: I am sorry I don't understand
Her: For her to go?
I do not know what to do at this point. She would not explain what she meant and I was thinking really hard if this was something I ever learned in my grammer lessons when preparing for TOEFL. Nope, this sure was not the "present perfect continues tense" that I mastered. I was thinking she must be very new and English must be her 2nd language as well.
Me: Can you please tell me what you mean?
Her: Is this order for here to go?
I was still confused. I was like what kind of freakin' grammer was that? I didn't say that out loud of course. I hadn't learn to swear in English at that time anyway.
There happens to be a desi girl behind me. She told me that cashier wants to know if you like to eat the food here or take it home.
I then told her "Yes I would like to eat my food here."
This was an embarassing experience but this is how I was introduced to the American version of the language they produly call English. This ain't no English to me. know what I'm sayin'?
So how else you wanted her to ask you? “Mr. Asif Peerzada Saheb, would you like for me to setup the dasterkhwaan with big fish sandwich here inside the restaurant or would you rather have me pack it so you may take it home with you”?
the story didn’t end there as asif asked the desi girl out and two lovebirds enjoyed many a ‘for here’ & ‘to go’ mcdonalds dinners and fruit parfet desserts together…ahhhh…love …true love
She was saying it pretty fast too. I could hardly deal with her accent. Let alone those words coming out of her mouth. All I could hear was “for ya to go.”
