Kal...the Ameristani

CNN footage of ameristani.com!

2008-07-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

I have been totally delinquent on updating this blog (which I plan on rectifying very soon). However, I wanted to post that this blog and my post on how Obama pronounces Pakistan was on CNN yesterday!

Check out the video.

Six Million Rupee Kid

2008-02-29T17:35:00.000-08:00

“Kal. The Ameristani. A boy barely alive. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better. Stronger. Faster.”

The words above were blatantly lifted from the opening sequence to the hit 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man starring Lee Majors.

Growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, it was my absolute favorite TV show. I did not miss a single show. This is one of the earliest memories of my obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Eventually, I decided that I was the Six Million Dollar Man. At the time, we were living on the fourth floor of a building in a flat with two adjacent balconies.

One afternoon when I was about four-years old, I was playing on one of the balconies and decided to use my bionic capabilities to do one of two things: I attempted to either climb from one balcony to the other, or to jump from the 4th floor to the ground. There is no way of knowing my original intent, but the outcome was the same: I fell from the 4th floor balcony to the ground. (In Pakistan’s British floor numbering scheme, it was considered the 3rd floor).

The ground floor patio was mostly cement covered, except a narrow patch of dirt along the edge of the patio, about 15 horizontal feet away from the edge of the balcony. There were also clotheslines and a huge swing in the middle of the patio. Somehow, I ended up missing the swing, travelled 15 horizonal feet forward, and landed in the dirt. Some speculate that I hit the clotheslines, which slowed my fall and toppled me into the dirt at the edge of the patio. Others insist on divine intervention which kept me from hitting the swing or “splatting” on the cement floor. Perhaps someday I will get out my old physics textbook and calculate the trajectory to see if I can determine if I jumped or just fell off the balcony.

The only damage I sustained was a fractured left femur (clean break in the middle). It obviously could have been much, much worse. I was taken to the hospital, where they inserted something in my leg to hold the femur together and put me a full-leg cast. After many weeks in bed, I fully recovered.

The story of the “Six Million Dollar Man” who fell from the 4th floor became infamous in our community. To this day, I still meet people from Karachi who, when they find out my name and where I lived, remember me as the “Six Million Dollar Man”.

I did not observe any long term effects of my injury until recently. When I was getting measured for pants, my tailor looked puzzled as he kept measuring my left and right legs. He indicated that my legs were different lengths. I confirmed this a couple of weeks ago when seeing a doctor for my plantar fasciitis, an injury from running. I had x-rays taken of both my femurs and found that my left femur is shorter than my right leg, and likely played a role in getting plantar fasciitis in my left foot. It is interesting that I never noticed the leg length difference my entire life until I started long distance running.

I now have a new party trick: I can stand on my right leg and swing my left leg back and forth without touching the ground.

It's like Tupac, not six-pack

2008-02-27T15:53:00.000-08:00

[ O ]
On Tuesday, March 4th, my home state of Texas, also the home of George W. Bush, could potentially decide the Democratic party candidate (and hopefully the winner of the general election in November). It feels like the race for the White House started years ago, and it looks like it will go down to the wire.
[ BA ]
Current polls in Texas show a dead-even race between BARRACK OBAMA and Hillary Clinton. Either Democratic candidate would be a huge step forward for the US and the world, when compared to our current President and even Republican front-runner John McCain.
[ MA ]
However, when you compare OBAMA and Hillary, one candidate really stands out for me. Can you guess which one?

There are so many things I could say about Barrack Obama: how he will unite this country across cultural, religious, racial, and economic boundaries; how he will change the special interest and partisan politics in Washington; how he will restore the pro-American sentiment within the world context (atleast to where it was before George Bush).

I could also say how Barack Obama has energized so many people to actively join his campaign, going door-to-door, making calls, donating money. Over the past few weeks, the election and Obama has been the most discussed topic at every social event I have attended. I have even seen non-US citizens getting politically active! I don't remember anywhere near this much energy in 2000 or 2004.

The clincher for me is the fact that Obama is the first American politician I can recall that pronounces Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq correctly. The "Pak" in Pakistan is like the "pac" in Tupac (R.I.P.), not as in six-pack. And it's not I-Ran and I-Rack like I-Pod, but rather eeRan and eeRaq. How hard is that? YES, WE CAN pronounce things correctly!

Given that we will be hearing about these countries for many years to come, I can't take it any more! And don't get me started on NU-QU-LAR!

Amgen Tour of California

2008-02-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

The third annual Amgen Tour of California kicked off in Palo Alto on Sunday. The world's top professional teams and cyclists were represented. I went to see the Prologue on Sunday and the big mountain stage 3 on Sierra Road on Wednesday. It was great to see the cyclists up close and personal, as I have followed a lot of these riders in the Tour de France for a number of years. Wow, these guys are incredible athletes, from their blazing fast speed in the 2.1 mile time trial prologue and their phenomenal climbing ability up Sierra Road in the mountain stage.

Check out pictures from the two stages. Can you recognize any of the big names?

Tour of California Prologue

Tour of California Stage 3

Stem cell donation done!

2008-02-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

I spent a good part of Monday at the Stanford Apheresis Center donating stem cells. I went in at 730am to get my last set of filgrastim shots and then was hooked up to the "Leech-o-matic" machine. I had to close my eyes as they put needles into both my arms. The machine took blood from one arm, extracted the stem cells, and then put the blood back into my second arm. It took about 5 hours to get through 24 liters of my blood to get the amount that the patient needed.

A typical human body has about 5 liters of blood. So all of my blood was cycled through the machine five times. Freaky! I am lucky that I have huge veins in my arms, otherwise it would have taken a lot longer. It was hard enough sitting still for that long (with no bathroom breaks). Several friends from Team-In-Training came by to entertain me, making the time go by much faster. I brought a couple of DVDs with me to watch during the donation, but didn't get through even one because of the great company. Thanks a ton!

That evening, the stem cells were hand-carried by the Stanford Bone Marrow Center coordinator on a plane to the patient. The transplant is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

When it was done, I was very exhausted and my body was very achy from the shots and from sitting still for so long. But overall, everything went well, and I am quickly getting back to normal. The nursing staff at the Apheresis Center and the coordinators at the Bone Marrow Center were great throughout the process. Thanks!

The timing for this could not have been better, as I will soon be travelling for a while. Furthermore, I have been involved with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for about 3 years, training for marathons and fundraising for the society with their Team-In-Training program. Due to a foot injury (plantar fasciitis), I have been unable to fully train for over 9 months. However, this opportunity came along allowing me to do something for this worthy cause.

Join the National Bone Marrow Program registry!

T-minus 3 days

2008-02-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

Today's shots stung a bit more. I'm not very comfortable with needles, and have to look away whenever I get a shot, give blood, etc. I have lost count of the number of times I have been poked with needles since all this began. It's a very small price to pay.

I have been feeling tired all day and running a slight fever. I have also become very congested, and am not sure if that is due to the shots, allergies, or perhaps I am coming down with a cold or flu.

Doug, a Lymphoma cancer survivor who is very involved with Team-In-Training (part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), put things in perspective for me today. During his treatment, he got filgrastim shots almost everyday for 6 months, while also undergoing chemotherapy and dealing with the disease itself. Compared to what patients go through, my cold symptoms are very trivial.

Visas and the golden rule

2008-02-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

Visas are all set for the trip. If I end up anywhere else that requires a visa, I will have to get the visa from the nearest consulate.

It is interesting that every time I walk into a country's consulate office in the US, it immediately feels like I am already in that particular country. I often feel the same way when I as soon as I get on an international flight to a particular country. It guess it is the people that give each country its "feel", more so than the history, economy, infrastructure, etc.

For each visa that I have applied for, the cost of the visa is significantly more for US citizens than for other citizens. This may be due in large part to the fact that the US charges so much for visas ($131). Other countries apply reciprocity and use a variant of the golden rule: screw others the same way as they screw you.

T-minus 4 days

2008-02-14T17:06:00.000-08:00

On a more serious note.

I started the filgrastim shots today. I will get two shots a day until the apheresis stem cell collection on Monday. Feeling okay so far, just a little fatigued.

The patient (somewhere in the world) has started her intensive chemotherapy to wipe out her own bone marrow to be ready for the stem cell transplant next week. No turning back now.

I often wonder about the patient: What has she been through thus far in her battle with Leukemia? Where in the world is she? Did I match with her because we are the same ethnicity? How's her family handling all this? What is her chance for success?

This has me thinking a lot of my dad and everything he went through, and the anonymous donor that went through this same thing for my dad.

Saishu Densha, Japan

2008-02-10T12:23:00.001-08:00

Below is one my most memorable travel experiences from one of my favorite places in the world, Japan.

In June 2002, I visited my good friends Kevbert and Figgy in Kyoto, Japan, who were spending one quarter at the Stanford-Kyoto campus. It is not accidental that their quarter in Japan coincided with the World Cup being held in Japan and Korea that summer. Both of them are futbol nuts!

On a Sunday evening, we headed by train to Osaka and went for the quintessential Japanese experience: karaoke. Karaoke in Japan (and Asia) is very different than in the US. You get your own private room, equipped with a karaoke player, microphones, a enormous library of Japanese and English songs, and food/drinks that you order via an intercom/phone in each room. Our Japanese friends that joined us sang really well, whereas we were miserable, essentially screaming into the microphone. After a few hours of karaoke, Kevbert and Figgy headed back to Kyoto. I stayed longer to catch up with a Japanese friend who I had met during my 3-month stay in Osaka in 2000. I was planning on taking the “saishu densha” (last train) back to Kyoto a bit later.

Around midnight, my friend dropped me to the subway, which I would take to the train station to catch the last train to Kyoto. I was quite surprised to see the subway station completely packed full of loud, cheering Japanese soccer fans. Japan had just beaten Russia 1-0 in the first round of the World Cup! The atmosphere was electric.

Due to the excitement and celebration, I missed the train that I had planned to take. A few minutes later, another train came and I hopped on. In my broken Japanese, I ask the conductor when the train would reach Kyoto, only to find out that I had missed the last train to Kyoto, and this train was a local train stopping at a small town halfway between Osaka and Kyoto. It’s now 1am, early Monday morning. Uh oh!

I started pondering my options: Sleep in the train station at the last stop and take the first train in the morning (safe but uncomfortable). Take a taxi to Kyoto (expensive). Get on another train back to Osaka and stay with my friend (not sure if there are anymore trains to Osaka). Or just wait and see what happens….

A few minutes later, a Japanese guy on the train, approximately 20 years old, comes over and asks me if I needed help. I tell him my situation. He seems to indicate that he is going to Kyoto and can take me. I was thinking how fortunate I am that someone is going to Kyoto at 1am and offers me a ride. We get off at the next stop, and he tells me to wait in the parking lot at the Circle-K. There was no one around, except a taxi with its driver sleeping inside. After about 10 minutes, a car pulls up with two guys, the guy from the train and his friend driving. I get in and we’re off to Kyoto.

Their English was not very good, so we mostly spoke in Japanese (though my Japanese is not much better). We talked about American music, pop culture, etc. After about 30 minutes, I asked them why they were going to Kyoto at 1am on Monday. They replied simply “To take you there”. Say what? From the conversation on the train, I thought that the guy was going to Kyoto and offered to take me along. Lost in translation. After further clarification, it turns out that when we got off the train, he went to his friend’s place, who had a car, woke him up, and told him that they needed to take me to Kyoto. I was stunned!

It was about 3am when we finally reached Kyoto. I thanked them profusely, and insisted on giving them gas money. They would not accept. I asked for their addresses so I can send them CDs of American bands they like. They politely declined. In the end, I took the picture below and they headed back to their home town, probably arriving around 5am, leaving me with a unforgettable experience.

Stories like this are not uncommon in Japan. Japanese people, especially the youth, are incredibly kind, generous, and helpful, to the extent that I have not witnessed anywhere else in the world. Furthermore, Japan is one of the safest places in the world. I never felt unsafe about the possibility of sleeping in a train station, or hopping into a car with total strangers in the middle of the night.

Nihon-jin: I owe you big!

Pics from Japan 2002 trip

The Shalimar Revolution

2008-02-06T01:40:00.000-08:00

Pakistani food, which at home growing up we simply called “food”, is very different from Indian food. While there are similarities between (predominantly North) Indian and Pakistani cuisine, their differences are great. In fact, whenever I go to an Indian restaurant, I often feel as if I am going out for foreign food. I won’t go into the differences between the two cuisines here, except to say that Pakistani food rocks!

When I was growing up in Texas, there weren’t any true Pakistani restaurants around, whereas Indian restaurants were fairly common. In the early 1990s, an authentic Pakistani restaurant, Savoy, opened in Houston. For many people I know, including my friends and I, driving 3-4 hours from Austin or Dallas to Houston for dinner at Savoy and then heading back home seemed entirely reasonable. This was when gas prices in Texas were under $1/gallon.

In the mid 1990s, I lived in Colorado, where most locals couldn’t tell the difference between Pakistani, Indian, Arab, Filipino, Latino.... Needless to say, there weren’t any Pakistani restaurants in Colorado back then. In fact, there still isn’t a Pakistani restaurant in metropolitan Denver to this day.

Fast forward to 1997 in San Francisco, I find a small dive Pakistani restaurant called Shalimar in the crack infested Tenderloin district. Seekh kabobs, chicken tikka, nihari, korma….eat like a king for about ten bucks…open until midnight…free chai...oh man…I am in heaven. Lines were always long, as people came from all over the Bay Area and as far out as Sacramento to eat there.

The Shalimar revolution had begun. One by one, new Pakistani restaurants started opening up as close to Shalimar as possible: Pakwan half block away, Chutney directly across the street, Naan-n-Curry and Lahore Karahi one block away, Punjab Kabab house a few blocks away, and many more across the city.

Some of these restaurants are pretty good, possibly even as good as (or better?) than Shalimar. But whenever I really need a Pakistani food fix, I almost always head to Shalimar, the original that started it all. You just have to be careful to not trip over the crackheads sleeping in front of the entrance.

Countdown to vagabond

2008-02-05T02:22:00.000-08:00

Besides posting about random topics to this site, the original motivation was to serve as a travel journal for long term travel I wanted to do in 2008. After some research and soul searching, the time is quickly approaching. I’d like to quote famous words of LL Cool J (and later reiterated by the Notorious BIG), I am “Going going…back back…to ‘stani ‘stani”.

In less than two months, I hope to start my travels in India (aka Hindustan, so technically also a ‘stan). Depending on the political climate and general safety in Pakistan after the February 18th elections, I hope to cross the land border in Punjab from Amritsar, India to Lahore, Pakistan. Then head to Islamabad, and take the Kharakoram Highway (KKH) to Kashgar, China. That’s as much as I know right now, and I’m sure a lot will develop (and change) over the coming weeks. This will be my first trip to India as well as Pakistan, outside of Karachi.

I’m not exactly sure how long the trip will be. The list of additional places I want to visit is very long, and would take multiple years to complete. I am currently planning the first three months and see how it goes. This will be my first time doing long-term travel, first time “backpacking” vs. vacationing, and first extended time traveling in a 3rd world country. I am not entirely sure what to expect or how I will respond. However, I am very excited to go find out!

I have roughly 6-8 weeks to convert my life to that of a vagabond. Things that are keeping me busy:

• Getting ready to donate stem cells for transplant patient
• Trip planning: rough itinerary, visas, flights, gear, vaccinations, insurance….
• Setup life to manage remotely via internet: bills, mail, communication….
• Put everything I own in storage, sell some stuff, figure out what to do with my car
• File 2007 income tax return on time (uh oh!)
• Wrap up lots of loose ends

A few things have already been taken care of: setting up blog and photo site, adding visa pages to my US passport, getting an India visa, and submitting NICOP application. According to the website, it will take 3-4 months to get the NICOP card. But I am hopeful that it will come sooner.

Faarm Bay

2008-02-03T23:04:00.000-08:00

Last week, I wrote about applying for a Pakistani NICOP card and the "magic sheet of paper". I just received a receipt confirmation from the Pakistan Consulate in Los Angeles, which confirmed all of the supporting materials I submitted with the application: photos, copies of passports, birth certificate, etc. There was also one more thing written in Urdu that it indicated I submitted. It took me a while to figure out what it said. It said "FAARM BAY". Say what?

A few minutes pass scratching my head.... Ohhh! It means "Form-B", also known as the Child Registration Certificate (CRC), and is necessary to get a NICOP card if you don't already have a Pakistani ID card (which I don't). It turns out that the magic sheet of paper was the Form-B for our family. So it's not so magical after all, but it's very fortunate that I randomly came across it last month.

Other thoughts:
Maybe I should relearn how to read/write Urdu....
Or better yet, maybe I should learn how to speak Urdu beyond the level of a 5 year old....

Two weeks until go-time!

2008-01-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

It looks like everything is now good to go for the stem cell donation. Last week I had a physical exam, EKG, chest xray, blood and urine tests to make sure that I am healthy enough to go through with it. I passed! In a couple of weeks, I will start getting shots of filgrastim for five days. Filgrastim causes your body to release more stem cells into the bloodstream, which could then be collected on the fifth day. The most common side effect of filgrastim is bone and muscle pain.

The stem cells will be collected through a process called apheresis. Basically, blood is drawn from one arm, and goes into a machine which separates out the stem cells. The remaining blood is then returned into the second arm. The process should take 4-5 hours. To pass the time, there will be a TV/DVD player in front of my seat, so I should be able to get through a couple of movies while donating.

As soon as the stem cells are collected, someone from the bone marrow center will immediately hand-carry it on a plane to wherever in the world the patient is. The patient will have been going through a week of hardcore chemotherapy drugs to get her body ready to accept the stem cells. The transplant will happen upon arrival of the stem cells. It's pretty amazing how all this works, specifically how the timing is synchronized between donor and patient.

Are you on the bone marrow registry? It is so easy is to join. A simple form, a few health questions, and a swab from your cheek is all it takes. It can even be done over the phone and through the mail, if you can't make it to a center in person. In addition, due to the great need of minorities in the registry, all minorities and mixed-race individuals can join the registry for free. Check out marrow.org for more details, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions. For those in the Bay Area, you can simply let me know if you're interested, and I can have Stanford Blood Center contact you directly to join.

Magic sheet of paper

2008-01-30T01:21:00.001-08:00

How come pretty much everyone I know has had less than ideal experiences with consulate offices of India and Pakistan? It's always the same thing: inefficient queuing, confusing instructions, unnecessary delays, unfriendly and unhelpful staff, etc. I had to endure some of this when getting a Pakistan visa last year for my short trip to Karachi (photos). It seems as though they try really hard to recreate a third world atmosphere in the consulate office.

The outsourcing of India visa processing in the US (at least the front end portion) seems to have addressed the issue altogether: first world customer service for a third world visa. Excellent!

I had to give the Pakistan consulate a chance to provide a similar painless experience. I decided to apply for a Pakistani national ID card so I would not need a visa when traveling there and would also serve as official identification while in the country. It is probably not a good idea now days to flash a US passport too often while visiting Pakistan.

There are no less than 4 different ID cards: NIC (National ID Card), CNIC (Computerized National ID Card), NICOP (National ID Card for Overseas Pakistanis), and the POC (Pakistan Origin Card). [I think there is a fifth older one as well]. I went through various official Pakistan websites (which were not always consistent) to figure out which card I should get. The POC is meant for foreign citizens who originate from Pakistan (valid 7 years, $100). The NICOP is required for all Pakistani citizens living abroad, including those that are dual-nationals, i.e. citizens of Pakistan and another country (valid 10 years, $15). I opted for the NICOP, as it was valid for 10 years, was much cheaper, and would allow me to renew my Pakistani passport if I ever wished to do so.

A few notes about the application process:

• The form was mostly in English, except for a mandatory Urdu section (doh!) which was just a repeat of all the names on the application. Thankfully my friend Akbar came to the rescue.
• Self-imprinted left thumb print - it was strange to fingerprint myself on an government application without an official witnessing or notarizing
• Lots of supporting materials - birth certificate, copies of US and old Pakistani passport, parents' ID cards (luckily my mom had one), and the "magic sheet of paper"
• Magic sheet of paper - When I was in Dallas visiting family last month, I randomly came across a cryptic 25-year old sheet of paper in my parents' files, entirely in Urdu, that contained old ID card numbers for my parents and the children. Well, it turns out that sheet of paper is required in order to get a NICOP card, as it contains my old ID number. Friends recently told me that they couldn't get the card without that specific sheet of paper, and the consulate has no way to retrieve that paper otherwise. I still have no idea what the paper is for. Very fortunate that I came across it.

Let's see if I get the ID card before my next trip to Pakistan (if at all). Since the application has to go to Pakistan for processing, the website says it takes 3-4 months to get the card.

Opportunity to make a difference

2008-01-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

It is a great privilege to be given an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life, much less save their life. I was recently asked to attempt to do so.

Four years ago, my father passed away after a tough yearlong battle with Leukemia. Soon after he was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), we were told that only chance he had was to get a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant from a matching donor. However, finding a suitable donor would be nearly impossible, since he did not have any full siblings, and there were very few South Asians in the bone marrow registry. Surprisingly, the doctors were able to find a match in the registry and my father was able to get the transplant. Ultimately, the transplant did not work and he passed away. However, my family was immensely grateful to the anonymous donor who tried to help someone s/he did not know. I hoped that someday, I could do the same for a patient and so I registered with the National Bone Marrow Program.

Almost 3 years later, the time has come. I was found to be a match for a forty-something year-old woman with AML. That’s all I will ever know about the patient. Over the next few weeks, I will undergo further testing and preparation for the donation. I think of this as a privilege. Considering what the patient has likely endured thus far and will go through, my part seems trivial. It is not too often that you are given the chance to possibly make a big difference in someone’s life.

Are you a part of the bone marrow registry? Do you know how easy it is to join? I call out to everyone, especially South Asians, to join the registry, as South Asians are significantly under-represented in the registry. Check out marrow.org for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note.

ameristani.com technicals

2008-01-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

The site is basically setup now. I’m sure I will keep tweaking and adding things to the site but essentially the core is done. In the past, I have always used webhosting companies, wordpress, gallery, etc. for my domains. However, no matter which webhost I used, there were always technical issues, downtime, significant manual configuration, tech support calls, etc. This time I wanted to avoid the hassle and use existing web services using my own domain. Here are a few details about the components I used to put it together.

• Blogger with custom domain: Easy to setup, great online tools, owned by Google [free]
• Google Apps: Provides gmail (woohoo!), calendar, docs, and more for custom domain [free]
• Domain ameristani.com registered using Google Apps [$10/yr private registration]
• Feedburner for feeds and email delivery, owned by Google [free]
• Flickr for photos [$25/yr for pro]

It was fairly straightforward to set everything up, except for a couple of things. Even though Google Apps and Blogger are both owned by Google, they do not know about the existence of each other when using a custom domain. A big pain was getting ameristani.com to forward to www.ameristani.com. After some tweaking and trial and error, I think I have everything working.

Flick'it!

2008-01-19T00:11:00.000-08:00

I was debating between using Google's Picasaweb or Yahoo's Flickr to post photos for this blog. I opted for Flickr and decided to upgrade to pro ($25/yr), which allows unlimited upload bandwidth, storage, and collections/sets.

Check out a few sets I posted from 2007 travel.

Outsourcing works!

2008-01-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

My last post discussed the advantages of having a US passport. I was able to test that further, as I recently applied for an Indian visa. I have a friend getting married in Delhi in April. Since I have never been to India, I thought this was a perfect opportunity. It's no surprise that Pakistani citizens have difficulty in getting Indian visas. However, I had also heard stories first hand about the difficulties of Pakistani-born US citizens as well.

I applied in person at Travisa Outsourcing in San Francisco. I find it amusing that the Indian consulate outsources their visa collection and delivery services to another company. I was told that although I was a US citizen, since I was born in Pakistan, the maximum duration visa I could apply for is 6 months (vs. 5 years for US citizen not born in Pakistan) and that it would take 72 hours to process (vs. same day otherwise). I could live with that. I know of two cases of Ameristani friends that had issues recently: one was given a 30 day visa after multiple exchanges with the consulate, and the second was given a 3 month visa, both of which expired before they were able to go India.

Crossing my fingers, I impatiently waited. Right on schedule, Travisa called my cell phone and left me a voicemail indicating that my 6 month visa was ready to pick up. I was also able to track my application using their fantastic online tracking system, which updated you through each step in the visa processing (similar to FedEx/UPS with package delivery). Overall, it was very pleasant and straightforward experience getting the visa. Travisa provided great customer service and were very efficient...all for a $13 fee.

Now only if the Pakistan consulate would outsource their visa processing. My experience last year getting a Pakistani visa was a pain. If you have ever been to a Pakistan consulate, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about.

The blue book that's worth its weight in gold

2008-01-17T01:25:00.000-08:00

Less than a third of Americans have passports, and less than 10% have ever left the US. That statistic amazes me along with most non-American travelers I have met during my travels. I suspect that in other western countries, the percentage for both stats is significantly higher.

When I became a naturalized US citizen, I could not wait to get my hands on a US passport and applied only a couple of days after my oath ceremony. I found myself incredibly fortunate to finally have a passport that allowed me to travel most of the world without much hassle. Most countries would not even require a visa ahead of time before entering the country - what a novel concept!

Such is not the case when traveling on a Pakistani passport. Visas must be obtained prior to travel to most places (and rejections due to vague reasons are not uncommon). Upon entry and exit into each country, you are subject to additional questioning, numerous baggage searches, special registration, etc.

I will never forget one horrific experience traveling on a Pakistani passport from Dallas to Karachi via Boston, Paris, Cairo, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Masqat. (Yes, that was the actual routing! After that trip, I never let anyone else book travel for me again.)

It took three days to get to Karachi with overnights in Paris and Cairo airports. In Paris, the aircraft for our flight to Cairo was 14 hours late. Most passengers were bused to a hotel in Paris, took a city tour, had a nice meal, and came back refreshed to the airport just before the flight departed. A few of us traveling on non-US/EU passports, on the other hand, were asked to wait in a transit lounge and were given a ~$10 food allowance.

When we finally reached Cairo, my plan was to spend the night at a nearby hotel and go on a short tour of the pyramids before my flight the next day. Upon arrival into the Cairo airport, our passports and plane tickets were taken from us until our flight the next day, and we were again asked to wait in the transit lounge overnight and half the next day.

Three days, two airport overnights, and countless baggage searches later, I arrived in Karachi, vowing to apply for a US passport as soon as I was eligible (and to never fly TWA again)!

To the Americans out there that don't have a passport: Do you realize how fortunate you are to be able to get a US passport? Get one right away and explore the world!

What's in a name...Kal?

2008-01-17T00:33:00.000-08:00

There are three things I find worth mentioning about the name Kal.

Kal (pronounced same as the English name Cal) is often used as the short version of various Indian names (Kalpesh, Kalyani, etc). I have found that many Indian Americans use Kal instead of their full name as it is easier to pronounce for westerners, e.g. Indian American actor Kal Penn whose first name is actually Kalpen.

Kal (pronounced "cull" with a soft-K) is also an interesting hindi/urdu word, as it has dual meaning. Depending on context, it can mean 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow'. For example, kal I ran 10 miles, and hence kal I will be in pain. I found this word very relevant to me, as I find myself constantly reminiscent and sentimental about the past, while always obsessed with the future and what's next. As a result, I often find myself unable to live in the present and embrace today for what it is.

The University of California, Berkeley is also referred to as Cal (Cal...Kal...close enough). Ironically, I attended its nemesis across the Bay.

What is an Ameristani?

2008-01-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

An Ameristani is an AMERI-can Paki-STANI (at least in my case). The term could certainly apply to any American of a "-stani" country origin.

I was born in Pakistan and immigrated to the US when I was very young. I have spent most of my life in the US, and was raised as an American, while maintaining ties to Pakistani culture, language to some extent, and most important food! In most respects, I feel like an American, talk like an American, and think like an American (albeit a liberal, world-aware, west-coast one). However, I look like a Pakistani (or Indian, South Asian...all the same race as far as I am concerned).

Whenever I travel outside the US and am asked where I am from, it always requires a paragraph to answer. If I say I am from Pakistan, I inevitably get asked questions about cricket, Pakistani politics, and other topics that I am mostly unfamiliar with. If I say I am American, then there is always a "say what?" moment, as that is not what most people were expecting from a brown guy. "But where are you really from?" is usually the followup question.

Hence, I am Ameristani. My purpose for this site is to log my quest to better understand my identity, origins, heritage, etc.

[The other option "Pakican" sounded either like a South Asian tropical bird or somewhat of a racial slur.]

Today is the first day...

2008-01-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

...of 2008, of this site, and of the rest of my life (I know...cliche). January 1st seems to be an appropriate day to start this blog. This year promises to be a very exciting year, full of new adventures, personal growth, fulfillment of life-long dreams, and new beginnings. I hope to elaborate more on all of this in future posts.

I still have quite a bit of setup to do for this site, and I will be working on that over the next few weeks. Stay tuned....