Memoirs of a Desi American — Part 2
Early Days of a Desi Immigrant Series
Part 2 - Touchdown in the US: The First Steps
It was a chilly day. The sun was shining but we could feel the chill in the air. We grabbed our hand-carry luggage and walked out of the aircraft towards the immigration counters. We had to wait an hour in the queue before we were finally in front of an immigration officer.
The immigration officer welcomed us with a warm smile, stamped our passports, asked a few questions, handed us our folders, and let us go. We were surprised by how smooth the process was.
We then made our way to the customs, picked our bags, and went through the Green Channel. After passing through the Green Channel, one of the agents asked us to check-in our baggage again. I inquired politely that why was there a need for re-check-in. He explained that it was a long way to the airport exit and we needed to take a train to reach the baggage claim — an arrangement to facilitate the passengers. Upon hearing his explanation, we happily re-checked-in our baggage and started walking towards the route leading to the train station.
One of the immigration agents who was standing in the hallway politely asked me and Zee to report to a room for an additional check. I inquired why we were singled out so he pointed to folders in our hands and mentioned that it's because of these folders which were meant for an extended check. We had no option but to comply with this process so we reported to the room and placed our folder in a rack and grabbed a chair. There were a whole lot of passengers waiting for their turn. Some were arguing with the officers that they had connecting flights and they might miss their flights but the officers were asking them to stay put and wait for their turn. After an excruciating wait of about 2 hours, Zee and I were called and the whole interview lasted for about two-three minutes. We felt bad for ourselves and our company representative who at this point must have been waiting for us in the lobby.
Now after getting clearance, we were free to go, so we reached the train station and entered a train. It was packed with passengers so we had to stand all the way. We then got our luggage from the baggage claim and proceeded to the exit. Once we came out of the terminal, we saw our company’s rep who was holding a placard with our names on it. We rushed towards him and introduced ourselves. It turned out that he was our company’s CEO, Prasad. We felt bad for him and apologized for the delay.
In Pakistan, we could never imagine that the CEO of a company would come to the airport to pick up his employees. Not only that, he waited for about 2 hours. He inquired about the delay and we explained the situation. He asked us to grab our bags from the baggage claim hall and then follow him to the parking. We came out of the airport terminal and chilly cold winds welcomed us. It was dark outside and the evening was cold. We were used to cold weather back in Islamabad but it couldn’t be compared to the piercing cold we experienced here. We followed Prasad to the parking and loaded our luggage into a shiny new BMW X-5. Riding in our CEO’s X-5 was a great and privileged experience😊
Prasad started to drive and soon we were on a freeway. He mentioned that we were heading to a corporate apartment. I inquired how far it was from the airport and he mentioned that it was about 50 mins away. Zee and I exchanged a surprised look. Compared to Islamabad airport which was only 20 min away from our place, the distance of this ride was new to us. We were enjoying the ride. We passed through Atlanta Downtown and got the chance to look it at in all its glory.
Atlanta is an important city in Southeast US. It has become a major IT, financial, and film production hub in recent years. It has fast become an alternative to Hollywood. It boasts of brands like Coca Cola and CNN and also has a rich sporting history. The city is home to Atlanta Falcons (NFL), Atlanta Braves (MLB), and Atlanta United (MLS) teams. In 1996, the city hosted the Olympics which were right at the 100 years mark of the modern Olympics. For that reason, these Olympics were known as “Centennial Olympics”. 11 years ago, watching Atlanta Olympics in my living room in Pakistan, I had never imagined that after a decade or so, I would be visiting and working in this amazing city.
We drove through the downtown and were now hitting GA 400. At this time, we felt bored because now all we could see was a dark road and green trees. After about 45 minutes, we took an exit which led us towards an apartment community. It looked nice, well lit up, and organized. Prasad stopped his car in front of a building and helped us unload our bags. We entered apartment number 90 and there two gentlemen welcomed us. I would call them “Sammy” and “Siddiqui”.
Prasad told us that it's a 2 bed 2 bath apartment. Two people share one room and a bathroom. It was a nice clean and cozy apartment. Furnished with all the required stuff. After that, he invited us for the dinner at his place and instructed Sammy to bring us to his place when we were ready. Sammy and Siddiqui were from Karachi and they had reached Atlanta about 2 weeks prior to us. Sammy was in his early 30s. Although he was a serious-looking guy, I realized he had a good sense of humor.
He shared some pieces of advice for our stay. Sammy said that we were all on our own and if we fell sick we had to take care of ourselves. It was a brutal but honest reminder that we were no longer in our comfort zones and we had to accept this reality of living far away from our families. Siddiqui was a geeky bespectacled guy in his mid-20s. He sported a beard and looked serious most of the time. Turned out later that he had a bumbling and witty personality that would make you laugh out loud.
After a quick break, everyone got ready and hopped into a Honda Odyssey- company’s vehicle. Sammy had printed a Google maps sheet with directions on it. Yes, fellows, these were pre-iOS and pre-Android days. GPS was in the process of becoming a cool gadget. So Siddiqui guided him turn by turn. He was acting like a navigator for Sammy. After losing our way twice, we finally reached Prasad’s house. It was a nice and big villa in a cul-de-sac. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were welcomed by the gushes of chilly winds.
Prasad and Aizaz Sahab, the Co-CEO of the company greeted us warmly. We ate dinner shortly. Zee and I had decided that we would eat vegetarian only since we did not know if the meat was halal. We had realized that looking for Halal meat would be a struggle for us as back home we never realized this as an issue.
Prasad upon watching us munching down the vegetarian stuff offered some chicken curry. We politely refused. He smiled and assured us that it’s halal meat. He had gone to the Halal Meat store exclusively to buy halal chicken for all of us. We were happy to hear that and gladly started to try out the chicken curry. After a good dinner and post-dinner discussion, we left the place. The day came to an end.
The journey that had started 3 days ago was now coming to end and we could now have a good night's sleep.
As the saying goes “Every finish line is a start of a new race”, and we could totally imagine a whole new chapter of our lives unfolding before us and new race was about to begin.
Waz Imran
https://medium.com/@wazimran
