Maths of Life

I am a strong believer in Makafat-e-amal. I believe everyone faces the consequences of their actions in their lives. What goes around comes around. If you intentionally hurt someone or harm someone emotionally, physically, mentally, or financially, then sooner or later you will also face that pain. If you are the source of happiness for someone, then someday someone else will provide you with happiness. Life always does its maths and gives the results, even in the end. I have faced it. This is sometimes the only thing that keeps me from exacting vengeance on those who have wronged me. I try to forgive people and rest my case in the hands of Allah. Sooner or later, the truth will be revealed. The true faces of people are exposed, and everyone is rewarded and punished for their actions. I always try to be true to people and help them selflessly with good intentions and with everything I have, because I know that sooner or later, I will be rewarded for that. It is difficult to forgive people or to help someone wholeheartedly from whom you can’t expect any favor, but then life is very unpredictable, and you never know in which phase of it you need happiness the most. You may find sorrow instead. Simply have faith in Allah, be patient, and do good to everyone you meet without any ill will. In the end, it will take you down the road to success and happiness.

I am vulnerable...

These days, I am going through a very difficult phase in my life. A recent incident just showed me how vulnerable I am. During the past few weeks, I have put everything at stake... My life... my career... my relationship... my family. I just can’t believe in myself that I have been so stupid and foolish. In going through everything, I hurt the person who is closest to me, even though that person doesn’t have to do anything with it. I feel very guilty about myself. In my heart, I regret a lot of decisions I made in my life. I can’t turn back all those decisions... I am too far from that now... But from now on, I can only make it work better. Even though I feel I don’t have the courage to make things better, I know I must do so... as it will be good for me, my wife, my son, and my family. May Allah help me during this phase of my life.

Only Hope floats in deep end of Ocean...

There are moments in life when all you just need are a few words of affection; a slight assertion of hope; and a little appreciation, even though they are not meant and are coated with layers of lies. These small things can help you to move forward in life and give you courage to fight against the odds that you face in life. Sometimes all that you need is just one person who stands beside you, who believes in you and assures you that, in the end, everything will be fine; that person’s assurance that "All the obstacles and problems are transitory. If good times are not there, then surely bad times won’t last that long. A little hard work and patience are all that is needed. And in the end, it will make everything fine". This small piece of hope can do wonders in your life and help you achieve things you might not have even thought about. That small stone of hope transforms into a mountain of strength. Patience and believe that everything happens for a reason and it's only there to make you stronger so that you can value the reward at the end, which you will get.

I have seen people who are deprived of hope. They left things in the middle during difficult times in their lives. They don’t fight back for something of value and back out during such situations. Even when they are close to their destination, they quit their journey. I believe that each journey enriches our experience. It extends our limits beyond our own and others' imaginations and prepares us to achieve greater things. Times do change, and they change for the good. The best thing that one learns from difficult times is that the person discovers their ability to survive, and it makes one strong enough to deal with such situations in the end. In life, not everything goes according to what you had planned. But you can always try and struggle for it to make it work. And the right people always take something good from the unplanned things that life offers them, and they make them worthwhile by shaping them according to what they have planned. I have personally experienced a lot of such situations. I have failed a hundred times, but I have never let a failure drain my energy and hope. And with each failure, I have always learned something new, which has led me to a way of success which I had never planned.

Democra(c/z)y

I earlier thought that I would be voting for Imran Khan in the coming elections. But now I have decided I won’t be voting for anyone. It’s not like that I am in favour or against any particular political party or personality. It’s just that I do not support the idea of democrazy (democracy) anymore. I am very much against the idea of men ruling over men, whether in the form of aristocracy or democracy. Democracy is more suitable for welfare states where government officials have high moral values and have strict accountability. But in third world countries like Pakistan, where governments are corrupt and ruthless and people are divided into different sects, races, and castes, and where more than half of the population is illiterate, their minds are always occupied with earning enough to buy bread for their family at the end of the day. In such societies, democracy is greatly abused by powerful people. Meritocracy can be a good alternative, meanwhile, for such states.

2011: A year in review – Extending the Limits...

At the beginning of every year, I am in the habit of writing a post in which I highlight the important events of the previous year and the changes they made in my life. I couldn't do so for 2011. Since the beginning of this year, I have been very busy. Now, after more than 6 months, I have found an opportunity and I don’t want to stop this tradition. Let me start with my memories of 2011.

The year started with me and my wife shifting to Islamabad. I rented the ground portion of the house in the G10/4 sector. Its area was 5 marla (or may be less than that), and I was paying Rs. 18000 as rent, which was way less than the rent of other houses in the same area (as told to me). The house was definitely not worth it, but I didn’t have any other option and I didn’t want to live in guest houses anymore. We lived in that house for almost two and a half months, and then I went to Norway for one month. I had a skiing accident over there and got a brief concussion. Meanwhile, my sister from the UK visited Lahore. It was fun to spend time with her and her kids. In May, I had my firstborn. It was the happiest day of my life. I lived in a guest house for 2 months during that period in F8. Later that July, my family returned to Islamabad, and I rented a house at G11. It was a pretty nice place. In September, I got Australian immigration, and I started making up my mind about what I should do. Meanwhile, one of my really good friends lost his parents in a row, my brother got dengue, I had awful experiences at work and lost a friend at my workplace, and I have been travelling between Islamabad and Lahore back and forth. In November, I again visited Norway for the last time. During that trip, I got a job offer from an Australian company. I have decided to opt for that option. On my return, I resigned from Telenor and started preparing myself to face a new era in my life.

In short, if I conclude 2011, I will say it was a very hectic year for me because of all the travelling between cities, multiple relocations, and adjusting to a totally new city on my own. The good part was, in the end, it made me realise how far I could extend my limit. But if I ever come across a similar situation again, I think I will never again take decisions in that way in which I took them in 2011.

Happy life to you all....

99 Journeys

It’s been 2 months since I first came to Australia. I came here on the 25th of January on a flight via Thai Airways. But this post is not about what happened after I came here. This is about what happened before it.

In 2007, I accepted a job offer from an IT consulting company in the USA. At first, I was never interested in working abroad, but I did see an opportunity in this offer. The only thing that interested me was easy access to the USA, where I had the option to resume my studies. The company put my nomination forward for H1B balloting, which I went through. The process itself took a year. And then on January 8, 2008, I went to the US embassy in Islamabad for a visa interview. The embassy asked me to wait for some weeks as they needed to conduct some administrative processing, which never ended. After a year, I came to know that the company that offered me a job had been blacklisted by the US government for some fraudulent issues.

Most Pakistani youth, like those in any other third-world country, aspire to travel abroad and live there for at least a few years. I didn’t have that dream initially, but the whole H1B episode nailed the first nail. Having so many friends, colleagues, and cousins opting for this option makes one feel left behind. This feeling nailed the second nail. Pakistan's rising inflation and deteriorating security, political, and economic conditions were the final nails in the coffin.

So I decided to try to go abroad one more time. But this time, instead of looking for a job, I opted for another plan. I decided to apply for immigration to a developed country. There were 3 options available to me: the UK, Canada, and Australia. Among these three, Australia was the easiest and fastest. I started getting information about its immigration process from the internet. After an effort of a couple of weeks, I had enough information and I started the application process and formally applied on May 19, 2009. Two months after that, I got engaged, and the same year, in December, I got married. Meanwhile, there was little progress on my application initially, and then there was a long dead silence.

In July 2010, I quit my job in Lahore and joined a multinational telecommunication company in Islamabad. Previously, I got offers from different companies in Islamabad, which never materialised. This time too, I wasn’t clear about this decision and I had a lot of apprehensions regarding it. At the same time, I didn’t want to lose the opportunity. Finally, I decided to go for it.

And then one of the most challenging phases of my life started. Initially, we (me and my wife) stayed at our relatives' place for 2 weeks, and for one week we lived in a guest house. Then I went to Oslo alone for 18 days. I came back from there on the night before Eid, after a flight delay of a whole day. I lived that week in Lahore and the next week went to the office in Islamabad. At the weekend, I flew back to Oslo. I returned after 7 weeks, stayed for 3 days in Lahore to celebrate EID and spent the remaining 2 days of the week in Islamabad. At the weekend, I travelled back to Lahore and spent the next week in Islamabad. At the weekend, I went alone to Oslo for the third time for 17 days. I experienced the coldest ever weather there. On my return, I spent some days in Lahore, then returned to Islamabad, hunted a house, and at the end of December, me and my wife moved there. We spent around two and a half months there, and later I went again to Oslo for four weeks. There I had a skiing accident, which was a bit scary. Meanwhile, there was progress on my immigration application and I was asked for some medical tests, but due to the pregnancy of my wife, I asked them to defer them for some months. On my return, I spent a few weeks in Lahore. I had to live alone in Islamabad since my wife was expecting at that time and she was at her parents' place, so I decided to share a room in a guest house in Islamabad. I lived there for 2 months. Every weekend I used to go to Lahore on Friday evening and get back on Monday morning or Tuesday morning. There was no cooking facility at the guest house, so I had to eat rough most of the time. During this period, I had my first baby. In July 2011, I hunted another house, and I brought my wife and son back to Islamabad, where we shifted to that house. It took us a few months to get settled once again in Islamabad. This was the time when I had some relaxation. Meanwhile, I submitted my medicals, and, after a few weeks, the big news came in. My application was approved, and we all got permanent residency visas from Australia. But this way was not simple either. There was a twist. We all had to make our first entry before March 10, 2012. Unfortunately, the bonus from my employer was due on March 25, 2012. The travel cost of the first entry of the entire family was huge and was more or less equal to the bonus I would be getting. So, I was confused about whether to make the first entry and come back to the job in Islamabad or go to Australia once and leave the bonus and job behind. One of my friends gave me good advice about looking for a job in Australia and said if I get a job before my visa validation date, then I should move there immediately. Previously, I had an impression that I couldn’t get a job in Australia while sitting in Pakistan, as told to me by people who were already in Australia. But luckily, I got an offer, and I accepted it. In November 2011, I had to travel to Oslo once again. I spent 4 weeks there. On my return, I resigned from my job in Islamabad. I was tempted not to do so by my employer, but this time I was clear. I knew I had to do this. The job was not as meaty as it appeared to me at the time of joining, and the professional experience I had was not satisfying and was frustrating at times. These past 18 months have been a challenge for my family as well. I really missed some good things during that time. Some people were amazed at my decision, as they thought I was doing very well in my job in Islamabad, and it was foolish of me to leave it.

On January 9, 2012, we left Islamabad and moved back to Lahore. Man, I miss Lahore so much. It’s an amazing city. Living in it can’t be traded with any other city in Pakistan. Of this, I am sure. On my return, we started our packing for the big journey.