Nothing like passion for journalism

It is not my the GPS in my car but my life’s GPS that took lots of reroutings as I swerved from an ultimate route. I studied in a French convent school and one day suddenly Urdu language attracted me. I started reading and learning the language, lost interest in French, though I loved this very sweet language.

When I was in high school, my subjects were Home Economics, Urdu and Mathematics. In college, I was attracted to Economics and was very much impressed by Adam Smith’s Free Market idea. Pakistan was a free country in every aspect, and at that time I was very sure that the vendors in Pakistan believed in free market (without a consent of a consumer) which is why every vendor sells goods on his own price. That was my idea of free market.

When I was in the third year of college, I thought, though Adam Smith’s economic philosophy had not completely failed in Pakistan, but my impression vanished. I changed my major to Political Science with electives Urdu and Persian languages. I was proficient in Urdu. In Persian, we read some stories and their lessons from a famous Medieval Persian poet Sa’di Shirazi’s Gulistan and Bostan, they were interesting and one can relate to them. So that was fine too.

Then came Political Science. Initially, I thought it will be an exciting subject to learn but there were political theories and constitutions, nothing exciting at all. I was surprised to learn that Pakistan had two constitutions but none enacted. We also studied that Britain has an unwritten constitution, “how is it unwritten, if we can read it?” I asked my teacher. “It is not codified, the unwritten constitution is an Act of Parliament with some other conventions, if you have read Magna Carta it is very much like that, and what you are reading is not a constitution but information about it,” she said. None of us in the class knew about Magna Carta at that time but since the class time was over we could not ask Mrs. Arif, our political science teacher, about Magna Carta.

After I completed my Bachelors at a Girls College in Abbottabad, the next phase was to go for a Masters. I did not want to graduate in any subject I studied in undergrad so I decided to go to law school, another abrupt turn! That was not very impressive either. The class, the teachers and the very conservative environment in the university, I chose.

Finally I agreed to my father’s idea to study journalism. That thrilling subject became my lifeline. For more than a decade, I worked as a reporter in Quetta and Islamabad with full enthusiasm and commitment. Since I have moved to the United States, things changed rapidly. It was a foreign land, and I did not have any idea of the people, culture and society. I went through a smooth struggle, worked different odd jobs, bank, and then Urdu teacher and finally ended up in Georgetown University for an English language course and worked as self-employed media consultant for many years. I kept writing columns and articles for local Urdu newspapers, community literary gatherings.

Despite many turns in my life, I have always loved journalism and writing and my colleagues, friends and other related to this wonderful profession in Pakistan. They welcomed me with open hearts during my recent visit to Pakistan, after more than two decades of living in the United States

Not for a second I had any feeling of estrangement. I felt as if I came back in life to my original exciting field of journalism, in a circle of journalists and writers.

I am not going to write a travelogue but would share my impressions of my recent visit to Pakistan in short columns in next few weeks, until then have a nice day! Finally, I am back to journalism, fully and enthusiastically. A homecoming like nothing else.