Missing Pakistan

Tell anyone that you’re leaving Pakistan, even if it is for a year, and you’re mostly met with looks of envy and deep sighs.

But for the students and executives who choose to work abroad, the expat life may be fun for a while, but one tends to miss the idiosyncrasies that make Pakistan such a unique place to live in. Desi students trek for miles to find the best biryani and chicken tikka, constantly refresh news websites for the latest developments in Pakistan and strike up a friendship with any South Asian on the street.

The concept of ‘back home’ remains constantly affixed in one’s head, even if one has no plans to move back. So Pakistanis tend to hang around in supermarket aisles and department stores, muttering aloud at how tomatoes cost a fraction of  the price in Pakistan.

It also makes for delightful surprises to discover that life does not shut down the minute it starts raining, if there’s an electricity cut it may be your own fault and not another unscheduled power cut courtesy of the Karachi Electric Supply Company or Water and Power Development Authority.

Speak out

Foreign graduates talk about what they missed about Pakistan

Madiha Ahmad, graduate of the London School of Economics

Despite the abundance of desi restaurants in London the food is just not the same as the real thing in Pakistan. Maybe its the lack of desi oil! I remember really craving Gazebo’s sev puri and meethi puri, Ghaffar kabab’s double bun kabab and malai chicken that just melts in your mouth. And Lahori fried fish. All the British fish n chips in the world can’t compete with that.

Saima Hussain, graduate from Mount Holyoke College

I missed spending Ramadan with family and dressing-up in traditional clothes, particularly on Eid. Both these events are the biggest celebrations in Pakistan and not spending them at home wasn’t fun! Long, extended iftar parties, wearing colourful bangles and getting henna tattoos done on Chand Raat are all things that I took for granted when I was in Pakistan. I only realised the worth of these festivities when I was in an alien culture. Not being around friends and family during these occasions was when I missed being away from home the most.


Asad Hashim, student at the School of Oriental and African Studies

I miss Karachi winters. Particularly when you’re trudging to class wrapped in about 17-and-a-half layers, attempting to keep your footing on an icy pavement, pondering whether, at the end of the day, this MA degree is really worth it. And Pakola - life is just emptier without it.


Mehr Saeed, graduate from the University of Toronto

The best thing about living abroad is the sense of independence which brings maturity and self reliance but it can also bring loneliness and perhaps a disconnect, especially if you have a big family in Pakistan.


Morial Shah, student at the University of Georgetown

Feeling disconcerted by DC’s small and clean suburbs, I found myself craving Karachi’s crowded streets and Khairpur’s chaos quite often. At first I couldn’t figure out what I was missing. Was the lack of chaat, falsa juice, kulfi and the good old doodh pati getting to me? It took me a while to put my finger on it - I missed my family.

College had a lot of things to offer, but there were no annoying brothers to pick a fight with or bully, parents to nag, aunties and uncles with gifts, or grandmothers to offer advice.


Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.