Funeral of Entrepreneurs
Chapter 36 of “Hold On”: Islamabad 2018
(N.B. I’m writing a novel, a chapter a week, here on Medium. Find out why I write here, start from Chapter 1 here, and always feel free to give me feedback in the comments. I write here for the community.)
Sarmad Qazi walked into Hira’s office at around 10:30 in the morning. He was dressed casually in khaki pants and a light blue shirt. His curly mass of well-groomed hair seemed to defy gravity; it made him look youthful but still composed, setting him apart from the crowd. His overall composure matched his physicality, as a young, slender man in his mid-twenties with a chiselled face and sharp features. He knocked on the door of Hira’s office, where he had been led by an office boy. Hira had waiting for him since 9 am, as today was the day Sarmad became a part of InfoTech.
She welcomed Sarmad with a warm nod, and a polite greeting, to which he responded in a similar polite manner. The process of hiring him had taken two months. At InfoTech, her boss had requested that she hire a junior computer vision expert for their ongoing bicycle safety project in Philadelphia. Hira subsequently had asked the HR team to help find potential candidates who would be suitable for the role. They looked for people who often shared their skills, projects, and online certificates on LinkedIn. After initial interviews by the HR team, they gave Hira a condensed list of 10 candidates. During interviews, Hira had asked standard questions, and presented candidates with a scenario regarding a computer vision problem related to bus routes in New York. Of all the candidates, Sarmad was clearly the top contender. He had asked a few questions to clarify the situation, before he started on the solution. Hira had appreciated that he wanted to be sure about what he was doing. However, Hira’s surprise, she later found out from his CV that he had completed his undergraduate degree five years ago, and had not worked since then.
Hira asked him about the reason for this long break, to which Sarmad said, “I just didn’t feel ready to work. After completing my hectic degree, I felt like I needed to take a break, so I didn’t work for two years. Then, when I eventually began looking for a job, I found that employers were put off by the gap in my CV. So, to make up for it I then spent some time learning more about computer vision because I was already interested in it. I started doing small jobs on Upwork and was happy doing that, but I realized I needed to work at a company to get more work experience and also learn how to work in a team.”
Hira liked his honesty and simplicity; he hadn’t concealed anything from her and had not given her an elaborate tale explaining the break in his work. She felt this to be an encouraging trait of a potential employee. Later on, Hira, being a holistic interviewer, asked him where he lived in Islamabad to gauge whether it would be possible for him to commute to their F8 office. He said he lived in the F6 sector, so he can conveniently drive to work. After all ten interviews were complete, Hira picked three finalists for the final interview that would be taken by her boss. Hira really liked Sarmad and put in a good word for him, writing: “Sarmad is very skilled and eager to learn. He is a proactive learner, and has studied a lot on his own, doing well in small jobs. His grades from FAST University are not exceptional but he has grown a lot since then. I believe he would make a great asset to the company.” Her boss had agreed with this review, and after interviewing Sarmad, had decided to hire him. He would start working on the first day of the coming month, with Hira as his new boss.
After exchanging pleasantries on the first day, Hira asked Sarmad to meet the HR team so he could learn all that was necessary about the company and its policies; they would start working together the day after. Sarmad gave a simple nod, then left. Hira had anticipated an enthusiastic expression of thanks, but she noticed that he had not deviated from his personality, and that his reaction was genuine, not performative.
Hira prepared some notes and datasets that she had saved in a shared folder on their cloud platform for Sarmad to access the following day. She asked him to review these materials and report back to her within three days. He was to provide his initial understanding of the project and outline the next steps for creating a machine learning model that the client could use with their cameras.
Hira was thrilled to have assistance on the project, which was becoming increasingly complex and time-consuming. She had been working late to complete tasks and to hold meetings with the client in the evenings, to comply with the client’s schedule, as they were based in the US. At times, juggling between the three different time zones — Pakistan’s, the US Eastern Standard Time for her clients, and the Pacific Standard Time for Ahmad — became confusing. Ahmad often jokingly suggested that Hira start new projects in Japan or Australia to further complicate her time management. Hira appreciated his sense of humour in what was turning out to be a tough time.
The previous night, Hira had informed Ahmad about her teacher Sana and her husband Sanwal, both PhD students in the Bay area. She let him know they would reach out to him and perhaps invite him for coffee the following month. Ahmad, being a sociable person, was looking forward to meeting them and jokingly suggested he might ask Sana about Hira’s performance in college. He sent this message with a playful emoji, to which Sana replied with an emoji on Whatsapp.
A few days later, Sarmad returned to Hira with his preliminary analysis of the work. Hira was taken aback by Sarmad’s ability to execute a detailed, complex analysis in a short period of time. She spent three hours going over the project with him in an in-depth meeting. During the discussion, Hira offered Sarmad tea or coffee on four different occasions, but Sarmad only asked for black coffee once and then later for green tea. The HR team had mentioned to Hira about Sarmad’s habit of arriving late to the office, but Hira didn’t discuss this with him. She wanted to prioritize her evaluation of his work before discussing his punctuality, which she thought was secondary. After their first meeting, she realized that Sarmad had been working on the project at home until late at night and was therefore waking up later in the day. She, therefore, asked the HR team to overlook his tardiness, as he was fulfilling his responsibilities with integrity.
In the following weeks, both Hira and Sarmad made substantial progress on the project. The client was extremely pleased with the initial results of the model and gave approval for full-scale deployment of the machine learning model. This greatly pleased their boss, Shehryar, who invited Hira and Sarmad for a celebratory lunch in recognition of their excellent work done under a time crunch. He commended Hira for the work, and Sarmad kindly acknowledged that completion of the project was only possible due to Hira’s constant guidance and support.
Shehryar volunteered to chauffeur them in his car, taking them to Sakura- the Japanese restaurant at Marriott. This particular eatery was imbued with a sense of luxury that Hira was entirely unfamiliar with. The ambience was elegant, with dark interiors, dim lights and comfortable seating arrangements awaiting customers. Calm, slow jazz flowed through the concealed speakers, making for a relaxed atmosphere. The distinctive aroma of seafood was unfamiliar, but inviting, nevertheless. This was Hira’s first experience dining at such an indulgent venue, and due to her lack of awareness regarding Japanese cuisine, she struggled to decide on a dish, while Shehryar and Sarmad made their choices swiftly. Hira eventually sought Shehryar’s advice on what to order. As he was glancing at the menu, Sarmad suggested that she should try sushi, praising it as the best in town. He also proposed a few other dishes, demonstrating his familiarity with the restaurant. For Hira, this did not come as a surprise; she had gauged Sarmad’s affluence based on the fact that he resided in a well-to-do neighborhood in the F6 sector.
A few days later, when both Hira and Sarmad were working late at the office, Sarmad mentioned that he needed to coordinate with his mother for some household chores as his father would be late from the hospital. The mention of the word ‘hospital’ led Hira to inquire if everything was okay. Sarmad explained that his father, a cardiac surgeon at a local private hospital, had to stay late for emergency procedures. These pieces of information consolidated Hira’s understanding that Sarmad came from an exceptionally wealthy background.
Hira, being from a modest background herself, and dealing with her own insecurities, often found herself wondering how Sarmad’s or her other colleagues’ childhoods compared to hers. Did they also witness household abuse? What kind of financial situation did they grow up in? What schools did they attend and did they also face bullying? Did they ever get the chance to play outdoors, a chance she never had? These thought patterns had almost become a part of her personality, though she tried not to consciously dwell on them.
At lunch, as Shehryar and Sarmad sat discussing the various cuisines available in Islamabad, Hira felt out of place. Both of them were food connoisseurs and frequented such eateries and had extensive cultural capital. Hira, on the other hand, didn’t have the financial means, nor the company with which she could visit such places, though she had decided to try out some of these spots soon.
Shehryar continued to share his plans for expanding the firm and how he was acquiring more business from the U.S., especially in the field of AI tools. However, he expressed his growing frustration with the complications of conducting business in Pakistan. He recounted a recent incident when Islamabad’s authorities visited him and instructed him to vacate the basement he was using for his company office. They told him that conducting business wasn’t allowed in that area. Shehryar tried to negotiate with them, but they were adamant, threatening to forcibly remove them if necessary. Shehryar pointed out that his business didn’t cause any environmental or social harm, and that there were only a dozen engineers working with him. Furthermore, he highlighted that he was bringing export earnings to Pakistan, which the country sorely needed. Yet, his reasoning fell on deaf ears. The authorities were unwilling to listen, let alone understand the logic behind his reasoning and the long-term benefit that his work brought to the national economy.
The person in charge, who had introduced himself as a Director, said he didn’t care about any of that. He stated that court orders forbade conducting business in residential areas. Shehryar countered by saying it was his property, and being situated in the city center, he had every right to work alongside a few people in the privacy of his own home, to work on creative projects. The Director countered gruffly, suggesting that he open an office in a commercial area. Shehryar pointed out the high cost of good commercial properties, and the poor condition of cheaper ones, with dilapidated buildings, unsafe wiring, and unsanitary conditions in the Blue area. Shehryar said he wanted to expand his business in Pakistan, but it seemed that the policy environment here was not in favor of entrepreneurs. He lamented that it appeared as though the state machinery was more inclined towards arranging the funeral of entrepreneurs rather than aiding their expansion for job creation.
The authorities were uninterested in his pleas, and said in a matter-of-fact tone that he had only three months to vacate the premises. Shehryar later explained to Hira and Sarmad that the evacuation might take a year or more, as he had heard that some influential businesses had managed to obtain a two-year extension. Therefore, he was hopeful about continuing operations at this location for another two years before he would be forced to make his next move. But he was also frustrated over payment transfer mechanisms in Pakistan. It is becoming difficult to send payments abroad to international employees due to rigid conditions and extra documentation.
He also mentioned, in a personal capacity, that due to the recent political unrest and economic conditions of the country, his wife had been urging him to move abroad and operate internationally. However, Shehryar wanted to continue operations in Pakistan until things worsened to the point of becoming unbearable. He was keen on staying, and on making a positive impact in his homeland. But it seemed that the government offices were insistent on derailing his dreams, to the detriment of not just his business, but the national economy.
While Shehryar was sharing this ordeal, Hira’s mind wandered to Ahmad’s startup. She wondered how he would manage after returning to Pakistan, and felt her heart sink. However, she quickly dismissed this thought as she didn’t want to discourage him from coming back. She decided not to share this conversation with Ahmad.
