KARACHI, 7 November 2003 — A product of Karachi Grammar School, Saeed left for the United States at the age of 16. He returned several decades later with an MA and a PhD from MIT and Columbia. Today Saeed is the chairman of the IT department at Karachi’s most prestigious business school. How, we wonder, is this drained brain coping with living in metropolitan Karachi? He has had his share of frustrations and of happiness.

These days Saeed is driving his beat-up but air-conditioned Margalla on a learner’s permit.

Isn’t he a little too old to be driving on a learner’s permit? “Yes,” he sighs and tells me the story, “I committed two cardinal sins — stopping my car and not photocopying my driver’s license.”

Saeed was returning from work and just a few yards away from his house, two men on motorbikes cut in front of him and stopped. One of them started jumping as if in pain. “Of course, I stopped to check what was wrong. In a flash, one of them grabbed my collar, produced a gun and demanded my wallet.

They took it and sped away on their motorbikes.” Saeed had 10, 000 rupees in his wallet but far more precious than that was his driving license.

Saeed went to the nearest police station to report the problem. The officer on duty gave him a hard time.

“First he told me to come later as they did not have the FIR (first inquiry report) register; it was out of their station on some official business.” When Saeed returned later, the policeman refused to write down the story as he claimed it sounded suspect and made up.

After a lot of hassle, Saeed finally applied for a duplicate driver’s license. Another shock, however, was waiting for him. The department did not have any record of his license and Saeed had not bothered to make a copy of it! So the officials refused to believe that Saeed had ever had one! A little bribe would have solved the problem but Saeed preferred to go through the whole process again so these days he is driving on a learner’s permit!

Saeed said that though he had lived in the heart of New York City and had often had his car vandalized and his cassette player stolen, it was nonetheless quite daunting for him to experience the lawlessness in Karachi. And he has had his share!

Once when he came home on his lunch break, he found a robbery in progress. The robbers were helping themselves to everything in the house. Saeed’s entry delighted them further since he had just cashed his pay check.

Another time, Saeed was stopped and harassed by a policeman because he was carrying a big gasoline can. He had just bought some petrol from a nearby gas station for running his generator at home. The policeman accused him of being an arsonist and insisted on a small bakshish!

“You learn fast in Pakistan. Now I know never to walk with a can of gasoline. Carry it safely in your car. And I have just learned new lesson. Photocopy everything and never stop your car. If someone makes a gesture, just keep going!”

Still Saeed is happy to be back in Pakistan. “I really enjoy my students and bringing about positive changes in the IT department. Pakistan is unfortunately still behind in IT but we are steadily taking giant steps to improvement. And Karachi has things you cannot find anywhere else — parents, family and where can you find better mangoes?”