Our Master Chef

Other than the driver, the other two important people in my life during my stay in Pakistan were the cook and security.

We had a personal armed security guard or escort who followed us everywhere we went. Is not that Pakistan was not safe but it was a requirement by the Pakistan government. This is mainly due to isolated incidents in which foreigners were targeted. The security personnel attached to us kept on changing due to various reasons that we didn’t have a close relationship with them.

However, with our cook, I had very close friendship. He was not only a cook but also acted as our housekeeper. He was a trustworthy person who had access to all of our rooms and personal belongings. He had worked with Malaysian on our previous projects as an assistant cook. When that project ended, he went back to his village and opened a small grocery shop in front of his house.

When we were looking for a cook, my boss who had prior experience working with him proposed to hire him. Luckily he kept the same phone number and when my boss called him and offered him the job he was quick to grab it. He told my boss that he will be joining us as soon as possible. It was already Ramadhan now and we were eating out for our iftar (breakfast) and buy packed meal (bungkus) for sahur. We were already tired and bored eating out and was hoping that the cook would join us soon.

During our early days in Pakistan due to the workload we clocked long hours at office. Even in Ramadhan when locals were working half days, we were staying back at office to ensure all the initial deliverables of the contract were being completed. This led to us even working on most of Saturdays and Sundays.

But on one of those Saturdays we decided to give ourselves some rest and stay at home. As I was lying on my bed just flipping through the FB feeds, I heard our house bell ringing. At this point of time, we don’t have security service yet so I went out to see who was at the gate. When I reached there, I saw a young man wearing a long sleeve shirt tucked in and wearing what looked like a sport shoes. He was carrying a backpack while standing outside the gate. Immediately when he saw me, he started saying something in Urdu. Yes, everyone mistaken me for Pakistani. I have almost all the attributes including the skin colour and beard to qualify. I had tough time convincing people that I’m not Pakistani.

There was one incident when I went to a shop to make copies of some documents. I talked to him in English. The shopkeeper gave me a face and answered me back in Urdu. By his facial expression I can read that he seems to be upset with me. I almost can see him swearing at me, why is this Pakistani being so arrogant talking to me in English. I tried to clarify myself and told him that I’m Malaysian. He was even more upset and opened his drawer and slapped on the table a passport while almost yelling to me, “So what if you are Malaysian, I’m Canadian!”. He challenged.

It is very common for Pakistani to have PR of other countries. He might be thinking that this Pakistani is trying to act as foreigner or forgot his root and speaking in a foreign language. Luckily that incident didn’t escalate further and I got my documents photocopied. Similar but less severe incidents continued to happen to me.

So I don’t blame the guy waiting outside the gate for mistaking me for Pakistani. I tried to make up the meaning of what he could have said in Urdu by his looks. He looks like someone who is doing direct selling, similar to what we have in Malaysia. So I told him, “No we don’t need anything, thank you, syukria”. He looked stunned. Oh yes! maybe he doesn’t understand English. I wanted to try this time to amend my earlier failure with the Uber driver in communicating in Urdu. “Nahi, nahi, nahi, syukria”. I tried tripled rejection of his sales. Now he looks even more confused. “Mr Ong” he quipped. What! How come he knows the name of my boss. “I want to see Mr Ong”, he continued. Ok, so he can talk in English. But my suspicion was not cleared. I just told him to wait and told my boss who was in his room that someone was looking for him. My boss came out and I was standing behind him. “Oh Nadeem” he called his name. So my boss knows this guy. What happened next stunned me. It was like a Bollywood movie scene and I particularly recalled a scene from the movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum when Shah Rukh Khan has an emotional reunion with her mother in London. Shah Rukh and her mother has been separated for long time and when they meet they hugged each other. So there were this two people who looked like two long-lost friends being reunited, hugging each other. I was still standing there watching that Bollywood movie scene for which I didn’t pay the ticket.

Both of them then entered the house and as they were entering the house I whispered to my boss. “Who is this guy? “. “He is our cook”, he answered. What! he looks more like a chef than a stay-in cook. I was imagining someone who is more typical looking wearing salwar khamis. I was then formally introduced as a Malaysian (thank god) to him and I did make my famous disclaimer that even though I look like Pakistani I’m not one and I don’t speak Urdu. So there he was smiling cynically at me maybe imagining me as an arrogant Pakistani who is acting like he cannot speak Urdu.

Despite of our awkward introduction we had been good friends. He speaks above average English for someone at his level. Shockingly also he can read and write in English compared to Shabbir who actually speaks much better English than Nadeem, reads and writes poorly in English.

#pakistan #expatriate #bollywood #culture #friendship #9HA