Memoirs of a Desi American — Part 3
Early Days of a Desi Immigrant Series
Part 3 — Nine Zero ( 90 ) and Struggles of Shared Accommodation
In the previous part, I had talked about our corporate apartment where we would be staying. The apartment number was 90 but I would call it “Nine Zero.” Nine Zero is also a headquarter of a famous political party in Karachi. The apartment folks liked the name and we started calling it “Nine Zero.”
I remember some great memories from Nine Zero as it was our very first accommodation in the US. We had to learn the life in shared accommodation. It was quite an adjustment to the lifestyle we had back home. When we are with our families, we know the likes and dislikes of each other but in shared accommodation, everyone has different personalities. We need to co-exist with our apartment-mates and tolerate each other while others are not. Some like to contribute whereas some like to stay back and do nothing. Living together with various personalities teaches you the art of co-existence and conflict resolution.
This narrative can be extrapolated in the world where humans need to learn the art of co-existence, i.e. live and let live. At Nine-Zero we had to do everything on our own. We would clean up the apartment, make our beds, clean the bathrooms, cook our own food, wash the utensils, replenish the supplies & groceries, do laundry and pay our bills. We never had to worry about these things as our moms and sisters used to take care of all this stuff back home. We always took these chores for granted but now we had to learn some new life skills.
Sammy wore the hat of the Apartment Manager and assigned the duties. He said that Zee and I would cook food one day and he and Siddiqui would cook the next day. The group that cooked also had to clean the utensils afterward and clean up the kitchen before turning off the lights. Every weekend, we had to clean the apartment, vacuum the floors, do the laundry, clean our own bathroom and clean the kitchen and fridge. Moreover, we would go to Walmart and desi store to buy the groceries.
Cooking food was a major struggle. Being a foodie, I started to crave the amazing food back home. I missed my mom’s cooking a lot. Please keep in mind that these were pre-social media days. Not much desi cooking-related content was available on Youtube so we would refer to some cooking magazines.
During this time I learned the true meaning of “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. For example, one member of the group would put salt in the pot and step away while another person would step in the kitchen and sprinkle some more. There were cases when no one added any salt at all. Almost every day turned into a comical situation. For instance, one day Zee and I were cooking Channa masala. I put some Shan Masala in the pot and went to my room to pick something and he emptied the rest of Shan Channa Masala in the pot and the channas got too salty and spicy. We would laugh at such situations and head to the nearest McDonalds or Subway.
We would occasionally indulge in a biryani vs pulao debate too. Zee and I were of the view that nothing could beat good old Pulao Kabab from the iconic Savour Foods. Siddiqui and Sammy were team biryani :). This debate never reached a conclusion and will go on forever :).
We also explored a different style of cooking among us. For instance, our friends from Karachi were not much used to using a pressure cooker for cooking meat. So when we cooked the mutton in a covered pot, it would take 2 — 3 hours. Initially, Zee and I were not able to figure out the difference in the taste of mutton and always blamed it on the meat of US, however with the passage of time, when we started using the pressure cooker, it brought back the good old taste of mutton and with that our standard of cooking improved significantly.
One Monday morning at the office, Prasad asked us what we had cooked on the weekend. I told him that we cooked Chicken White Karahi. So next time when we made Karahi again, we brought some for our boss who praised our finger-licking food. We felt good about ourselves and with this validation, we thought that we had finally learned how to cook.
We spend about 2 months together at Nine-Zero. In these initial days, we had to apply for social security, driver’s license, bank account, and credit card account. It was a time well spent.
We all had a lot of good times and hearty laughs. We consoled each other whenever we felt home-sick. We learned some really valuable life lessons and life skills that helped us grow as individuals. Leaving our comfort zones and starting a life in a new land is a challenge but the task seems less daunting when you have good friends around you.
Today the residents of Nine-Zero are successful immigrants of this great country but it will hold a special place in our memories forever.
Waz Imran
https://medium.com/@wazimran
