Saturday, January 29, 2011

Shahid Husain talks about his highs and lows during his visit to Alexandria and Richmond

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I would sit in the backyard of Zulekha's house in Alexandria, VA, and smoke. She was irritated. She would say, 'Why don't you go outside?' I would say that I am thinking and it's the highest form of activity. Sometimes I would say, I am very tired. She said why are you tired, you have done nothing? I would try to tell her that 'thinking is the highest form of activity,' but she would not understand.

I showed her the hypothesis I had written and after a cursory look, she said, 'Every American kid knows it.' I was hurt. It took me 18 years to collect citations to create this hypothesis and two eminent professors in Pakistan approved it when I had left for the US. Without going through it or understanding it, she made the comment. I recalled my school days when I was in ninth class and our headmistress Mrs Mansoor would teach us mathematics. She would call me to solve a theorem and I was always successful to write QED. Sometimes, I would solve it in my own way, other than text book version and she was amazed.

Mrs Mansoor had made four or five group leaders who would help fellow students in maths. I was one of the group leaders and would help out students. 'I will give Rs 10 to a student who bags a distinction in maths,' she announced one fine day.

After a few days, she left for England and became a teacher in some school there. During my prelims, I received a letter from Mrs Mansoor. Mrs Memona, who was our invigilator brought me the letter. I felt proud. She had written: 'Here in England, children have lots of facilities but our children are more intelligent!' I always wanted to study mathematics and literature but my parents wanted me to become a doctor but I was least interested in medicine. While sitting under a tree in Zulekha's house, I made a plan how to survive in the US with just $750. But I had only brought $1,000 with me.

In the meantime, the paper that I had written for Johns Hopkins got published in The News. After some days, I received a call from Dr Ayesha Siddiqa. I was excited! Not fully aware about the railway system in the US, I reached there at 7pm. Wajid who is a freelance journalist and makes documentaries for Discovery Channel was also there. We discussed many things and by the time I had departed it was already 1 am. The metro services had closed for the day. I also got a chance to visit Richmond, to interview an American family physician of Pakistani origin and a woman and human rights' activist. After the interview, she asked me if she could interview him for her YouTube venture. I agreed. She interviewed me for five hours and put it on YouTube in five installment. I was so excited when my wife, children and other family members saw me speaking on the YouTube. Dr Shazia also took me out for dinner and gifted me a wonderful book. I was always a book lover!

I was waiting for a call from Dr Ayesha, Pakistan's top defence analyst who also teaches at Johns Hopkins University. She had sent me an e-mail while I was in Karachi to read a paper on evolution of trade union movement in Karachi followed by a Q & A session. I was so excited that I will be reading a paper at one of the most prestigious universities in the US although I was always shy to come on the rostrum. I called Dr Ayesha that I am waiting for the lecture. She told me her director is away and she is waiting for him. Then she told me that her 6-year-old niece has come to the US and then she said she is going to Holland. I got irritated because I had told almost everybody that I will be delivering a lecture at Johns Hopkins University and they were asking me have you delivered the lecture?

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