In India, they call them NRIs, short for non-resident Indians, but since we only ape Indian movies and television shows, complete with their ‘‘Hinglish’’ which becomes ‘‘Urdenglish’’, we do not call ours NRPs. Exist they do, nevertheless, and in increasingly large numbers. Some of our countrymen living in North America are like birds; they follow the sun. In winter, some of them fly to Pakistan for a couple of weeks of winter sun, servants, Food Street and the wedding season. If you meet a person who is hovering between a desi and a quasi-American accent, who is drinking bottled water (which has more germs than its poor cousin from the corporation tap) and flashing credit cards at establishments which prefer old-fashioned cash with the Quaid’s picture to plastic, you can indeed tell your friends that you have just met an NRP. Doctors do very well in America. Some of them even do even better when they return home, defeating every sinister anti-Islam conspiracy with flying colours as the distinguished Punjab minister of health has recently demonstrated. Some, not yet fully satiated with the lucre they have fattened their bulging bank accounts with, join hands to set up private hospitals and state-of-the-art clinics for those who need their healing touch in the home country. Since it is American treatment their clients come for, it is only fair that they be made to pay American fees. There being no health insurance, public or private in Pakistan, the clients shoulder the entire cost of treatment in cold cash. Many go bankrupt in the process or fall under heavy debt, but why should they complain? They have had the best treatment money could buy and if, later, they are felled by a heart attack because of the crushing financial burden their cure has entailed, it is nobody’s fault. After all, they entered — or were carried to — that Amreekan huspataal out of their free will. Not of course all doctors who live or work here, or who have returned to Pakistan view making money as the sole object of their existence. Many have made admirable contributions to genuinely public-spirited causes, like basic healthcare and school education. But since the Pakistani elite as a rule has shown little regard for social responsibility, it is only natural that those who actually want to serve a good cause involving personal sacrifice, are viewed cynically. The fact is that there are exceptions. The number of those who do good is always small, even in affluent societies; in ours, it is abysmal. We generally do not put our money where our mouth is because talk costs nothing. The expat community of Pakistani-Americans is today on trial because of General Pervez Musharraf’s decision that the old chancery building in Washington, a heritage property that can fetch millions, will not be sold but become the seat of the Pakistan Centre, to be named after the Quaid-e-Azam. Let’s see if the Pakistani-American community will rise to the challenge. So far, there is no such indication. Recently, one of our countrymen who has made good, reportedly blew over $100,000 over a wedding reception at a Washington hotel. How many schools could have been built with that for children back home, I could not help wondering? The author is Daily Times’ US-based correspondent
