Many people give up without even starting on a project or a mission, because they are easily overwhelmed by the odds against them. The odds can be financial, emotional, mental or physical. But the reason why some people succeed, where others fail, is because they had the will to succeed that cleared all the possible hurdles in their way.
In this blog I will tell you how I have been able to succeed on two occasions. The first was getting a Masters degree from U.S.A. After getting my Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from University of Karachi in 1972, I also wanted to get a Master’s degree from USA, but at that time my will was not strong enough to clear the way. One of the main reasons was that I or my family had not sufficient funds (or rather no funds at all). The other reason was that being the eldest child in the family, and as my father could not get any job due to his age, my moral duty was to get a job and support my parents and three brothers and three sisters. So with the help of one of my uncle, I was able to get the job as Medical Trainee at a very meager salary, which was only sufficient to pay our house rent and some of the bills. Our near relatives helped us financially to meet other expenses. This continued for one year, when I got fired for some very petty reason.
I kept on mailing my resume, and waiting for some miracle to happen. After about three months I was surprised to get an Interview call by a foreign company. The interview consisted of some formal questions and a written technical test, which was immediately graded, and I was offered a job at six times the salary that I was getting before I was fired, with all expenses paid. This was a verbal offer, and the actual written offer will be sent from the company’s regional office in London within 3-4 weeks. I returned home extremely happy, but was a bit skeptical about this virtual job offer. When the days became week and 2nd week also passed away without any mail from that company, I began to wonder if this job offer was also like local company’s promise. We will call you, if we need your services, which we will decide as soon as we complete all the interviews, don’t call us, use to be the usual parting message from local company’s interviews. But I did not loose all hope, as I had full faith in the Almighty God. It was the last day of the 4th week, and I was sure that today’s mail will bring my job offer, it did. So I started my 1st overseas job with an American oil exploration company in the desert of Ethiopia as a Gravity Meter Operator. You may wonder what an Electronic Engineer was doing in the desert of Africa, operating a simple Gravity Meter taking readings for a seismic survey. Why and how I survived that job, and for how many years, with how many contracts, and how many job-less days, is a different story, that I will leave aside for another article, some other time.
After working for the American oil exploration company in a number of countries for about eight years, I returned to Pakistan in 1982, completed my house and started living there with my three bothers and 1 sister, who was later also married. During the next four years, I worked for about an year as a Maintenance Engineer in a plastic molding company, where I could not survive the local politics, then started my own Electro-mechanical workshop. Due to bad partners and my inexperience, I had to close down the workshop, and to cover the losses, I had to sell me house, that I had built with my hard earned foreign earnings. During all these years, my wife always used to convince me to get a higher degree from a foreign country. I had always wanted to go to USA and get a Masters degree, and with her persuasion and moral support, I once again started the process of getting an I-20 from USA. I was lucky to get an I-20 after some efforts. The only money that I had in my bank account was only enough to meet my expenses for only one of the four semesters. If I would have been practical, I would have never dared to leave Pakistan and go to USA to get a Masters degree with so little funds, and leave my wife and two kids at the mercy of my three brothers, of which one was mentally sick and not working. But because my will this time was much stronger than it was before, it was able to clear all hurdles in my way.
I had gone to USA to get MBA, after doing PGD in Business Administration from IBA. But only after studying for the first six weeks the introductory course about computers, I changed my major to Computer Information System. When I met the Director of Computer Science Department and told him that I had no funds to continue my studies. He was very much surprised to learn about my family, lack of fund, and my desire to get higher education. He not only promised me help, but also really helped me in all possible ways, by giving me financial aid. I was working in two departments for 40 hours per week, one was paying for half of my tuition and the other department was paying for my living expenses. During my last summer semester I was working 51 hours, managing three computer labs, and was also enrolled for 9 credit hours. After I finally graduated from the University of Evansville, Indiana with a Masters degree in CIS, I had used only 25% of my own money (10% was loan from my relatives, that I repaid after some time), while the 75% was paid by the University. So my will paved the way.
No matter what you did, and where you spent your time, once you have lived for a few years in USA, it is very difficult, if not impossible to forget about that country. My wife used to taunt me for loosing a chance to get a good paying job and permanent visa in USA. She used to say, I should have stayed for Ph.D. and may be by then I would have obtained my Green Card. But I used to miss my family, and knew that getting a Ph.D. was not an easy job, besides the time (at least 2 – 3 years), it needed a few thousand dollars, and I had no money. So I had no other option, but to return to Pakistan and look for a job here in my home country.
I was full of high hopes when I returned to Karachi with an MS CIS from USA. I had lot of interviews, but no offer of job, except for a teaching job, first part time, later full time, at a salary, which was less than what I was getting before going to USA. If I would have rejected that offer, not only would my family have starved, but may be I wouldn’t have succeeded in my mission to settle down in USA. While I was working for that semi government organization, I was still making all efforts to return to USA, this time with either a job offer or a green card. When during the 90’s I read about Diversity Visa program of USA that gave green card, at first I did not believed it and ignored it for a few years, but when it was repeated again and again, then I mailed my application in 1995. Nothing happened, and I read a news item later, that due to the murder of some employees of US Embassy in Karachi during that year, all the applicants of Karachi were not entered in the computer for that lottery visa. I don’t know how far this is true. When next year (1996) the news appeared for the lottery visa, I sent two applications. One I mailed from Karachi in my name, while the other I sent in my wife’s name giving her parent’s address of Lahore. I even did not tell any body about it, not even my wife. After mailing my applications, and getting no news, I had already forgotten about it. In my application from Karachi, I had given my sister’s address, as I was not sure how long I will be living in that rented house, and the mail was not very reliable.
When one evening after dinner, my wife gave me a thick envelope that my brother had left for me from my sister’s house. Although he had opened the envelope and read the letter, he could not understand what it was. As I used to request information from various embassies, he thought it was also some kind of information. When I opened the envelope, and read the first line, I could not believe my eyes. It was the result of the DV Lottery for Green Card of USA. It was much better than winning a million rupees lottery. It was the excellent opportunity of a lifetime. I took my wife and all my children in my 20-year old car for a long ride. In the car, I broke the news. I was so excited, that it was difficult to hide my happiness. However, at the same time, it mad me sad also, as I had to leave my mother, brothers, sisters and all other relatives, and migrate to a new country, new culture. As I was the eldest child, both my mother, and my own family were very much attached to each other. I was not sure how my mother would react to this, so I decided to keep this a secret, until such time I get further confirmation. I asked my wife and the kids to keep quiet. In the next few weeks, whenever any body mentioned this topic, it was in a very indirect way. I continued my efforts to complete documents, and before I mailed the documents for further processing to Visa Center in USA, one evening in a very subtle way asked my mother, “what would she do, say or react, if we all had to go to USA for long.” She became silent for a few seconds, may be she was trying to suppress her sadness or tears. However, when she had absorbed the initial shock, she expressed all the happiness and said, “it does not matter, where we lived, as long we were happy, she was also happy.”
After a few months, I received more documents from the National Visa Center of USA, along with the date of Interview at US Embassy in Islamabad, and instructions to complete some more documents and get medical check up. I applied for all of my three months accumulated annual leave along with leave pay. After I got my annual leave with advance pay, I took my family to Lahore, where we stayed for a few days and then proceeded to Islamabad for the Visa Interview. I was lucky to have accumulated three months annual leave, and for getting advance pay. That was all the money that I had, and it was just enough to pay for the Visa fees. My wife and I were very worried and tense, although we never showed our fears. The thought was enough to make us worried and keep us sleepless, was what if we do not get the Visa, and we loose our money. How we will live for the next three months. It was a very cold Monday morning in the first week of January, when we reached US Embassy and after waiting for more than three hours met the Visa Officer. After a few questions and inspection of our documents, the Visa Officer asked me to deposit fees, and come back in the evening to collect the passports, I was still not sure that I will be getting the Visa.
When I returned to the Embassy in the evening, I got back the passports all with Visa and a sealed envelope for the Immigration Officer. After getting the Immigrant Visa for USA, we returned to Karachi, where I sold all my furniture, and shifted my family to one of my brother’s flat. The same night I left for USA. I was lucky to get my one-way air ticket from my friend on part payment and took some loan from my brother-in-law to meet my expenses in USA.
After reaching USA, I was lucky to get full support from my cousins, and after some efforts got a part time teaching job. Now the most difficult aspect of my family’s immigration to USA was arranging enough funds to purchase their one-way tickets and other necessary things. As there was no option left for the family, besides making all efforts to make this long journey, so they had to overcome all hurdles. The car that I had sold before leaving Karachi, coupled with whatever provident funds that was left with my last employers, was used to pay part of the air-fare. I will be ungrateful, if I end my story without acknowledging the greatest help from my old school friend Javed Ahsan, who took a great risk in providing plane tickets worth over 150,000 rupees to my family, without who help, I do not know how I could get my family here.
I was lucky to get a full time job at one of the 100 best colleges in USA—North Georgia College and State University, as an instructor. After five years of hard work I was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor. I have been teaching in this university from last eight years.
The bottom line is that before you start any new venture or project, you should make plans, but do not give up, only because you do not have the financial resources, or do not have the necessary technical know-how. If you have a will, you will always be able to find your way. Also have full faith in God, and ask his help and guidance. Try your best, but leave the result to God. You will be surprised to see the result and the success in your life.
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Rambler's Corner 