REFLECTIONS OF AN AMERICAN MUSLIM

[Continued]

By

Ahmed A. Qadeer

I started to think about writing this post some six months ago after I posted the first installment of my "REFLECTIONS OF AN AMERICAN MUSLIM".?

I went through several "mental" drafts of the topics I wanted to write about.?I was side-tracked by many a distraction due to COVID-19, the war in Afghanistan, the unrest in the Indian/Pakistani sub-continent, etc.

Finally, I have decided to stay with the chronological order of events as much as possible.

My first stop in America was New York City.?I had arrived there by a TWA flight from London.?I had spent about twenty-four hours in a suburb of London with my sister and her husband.?Both of them were doing house jobs in a hospital in the suburbs (I think it was Essex County).?They were in England for the previous four years for higher education in medicine.?[They would not return to Pakistan for another two years.]?

When I was seeking admission to colleges and universities for my master's degree in structural engineering, my sister had offered financial help for my education if I went to England.?However, I did not want to go to England to be treated like a second-class person.?I had heard from family and friends that Pakistanis were not liked in England and were called "Paki" in a derogatory way.?

?Two noteworthy events of my short stay in London were:

1.????One of the coldest nights I have ever spent was at my sister's living quarters at the hospital. ?They did not have central heating.?Even after being loaded with piles of blankets, I was shivering all night.?Whether it was due to my coming from Karachi's mild climate, or it was really cold in London, I cannot say.?

2.????We went to a shopping district to pick up an overcoat for me on our way to the airport.?It was awfully slow going with huge traffic jams in whatever area of London we were in.?I really did not care for the overcoat as much as I was eager to catch my flight to the USA.?I was already late leaving Karachi to join the University in the USA.?But my brother-in-law insisted that I needed the overcoat, lest I freeze on arrival in New York.?Somehow, we managed to reach the airport before the flight departed.?I was rushed to the plane by an airline employee.

The TWA plane was almost empty from London to New York.?So, I got the opportunity to catch up on the sleep that I had missed the previous night in London.?I arrived in New York nearly at the same (local) time as I had left London.?I caught a taxi to Manhattan from the JFK airport, which was named Idle Wild in those days.?The Pakistan International Airline (PIA), which had brought me from Karachi to London, had arranged for an overnight stay for me at the Roosevelt Hotel. I had to catch a flight to Columbus, Ohio, the next morning.?From Columbus, I would take a bus to Athens, the small town where Ohio University was located.

Speaking of Idle Wild, I thought the name was very romantic and I had already developed a liking for that name.?I was so sorry that its name changed after the assassination of President Kennedy.?Perhaps Boston's Logan airport could be renamed JFK Airport considering that Kennedy had his roots there. ?Why my Idle Wild??

[To be continued]