AMRIKAAA Land of Free ...
Dollars do not grow on trees: Deaths, murders and suicides.. Life of some Immigrants from Pakistan “The moon is fragrant. And this fragrance links us to the moon. Don’t you see these little boats, floating in the moonlight? Board them and they will take you to the moon.” This was Asad, a 30-plus young man called lunatic by most of his friends because of his obsession with the moon. He had a vivid imagination, which became even more vivid in a moonlit night.
“You guys just see the outer surface. If you borrow my vision you can also see the dimensions I do. Touch this counter and you can still feel that warmth of the customer who just left. See, the idea is to feel. Touch. Embrace.” Today,
Asad is in a hospital, struggling for life. A bullet pierced his skull and came out from the other side. The doctors are still trying to determine the damage the bullet might have done to his brain. He was doing the night shift in a relatively safe area of Northern Virginia when some people broke into the shop, shot him in the head and ran away with the cash.
As we gathered tonight to pray for his full and early recovery, we remembered another man known among his Pakistani and American friends as Khan Sahib or Mr Khan. He was hacked to death outside his pizza shop in a rough Washington neighbourhood two years ago. Then there was a cabdriver we did not know but attended his funeral prayer when we went to our neighbourhood mosque for the weekly prayers one Friday. He was also shot in the head and died on the spot.
And it was in December 2010, when I received a call from the late film and television actor Jamil Fakhari, asking me to help find his son, Ali Fakhari. His son went missing in New York in early 2009 and the Pakistan Embassy in Washington had told him that his son was murdered, apparently by carjackers. Jamil Fakhari refused to believe the embassy. “My son had no feud with any one. Why would someone kill him?” he said to me. I wanted to explain to him that most immigrant workers are killed because they work in dangerous place and at odd hours. But I could not say this to him. I did not want to break his heart.
Someone else did and Jamil Fakhari died of a stroke soon after he accepted his son’s death.
Immigrants are forced to do such jobs because sometimes these are the only jobs available to them. “People think that in America, dollars grow on trees,” Asad once told us at the tavern. “And when you tell them how difficult America is for immigrants, they get offended.” He said he shared his troubles with a cousin in Pakistan, he said: “Yes, you enjoy all the luxuries of the first world in America and try to discourage us. Why? Did I ask you to get me a visa?” He was right. Those in the home countries do not understand. But did we? Did we ever bother to think it’s not easy to uproot and then to grow new roots in new lands?
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Worse are those who climb the dollar-ladder a little and slip. Unlike other Americans who have been living here for generations, they do not realise that hundreds of thousands of small businesses fail in America every year.
Financial troubles lead to family disputes which often lead to kids running away from home and parents ending up in mental asylums. In extreme cases, some people also kill themselves.New York State Police reported on Friday that a man killed his wife and two sons before killing himself in an area called Pleasant Valley. The Lodhi family lived in rural Goshen in Orange County for about a year and a half before they moved out in August to Pleasant Valley. Other neighbours too had nothing but good things to say about Abbas Lodhi and his wife Sarwat, whom friends called Mona, and their two kids, ages 13 and 9. Police said the father murdered his entire family before killing himself.
Strange case of Lodhi and that is yesterday's news and is from AMRIKA
that is 43 year old Sarwat Lodhi, 43 with her sons..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FjHpfik3isA pharmacist killed his wife and then used a shotgun to kill his two sons and himself in what state police called a "senseless tragedy" they still can't explain.
Abbas Lodhi first shot Sarwat Lodhi, then killed 13-year-old Mujtabah and 9-year-old Zain, state police Trooper Melissa McMorris said Friday. His body and those of his children were found Thursday morning in their Dutchess County hometown, Pleasant Valley, a 90-minute drive north of New York City.
Sarwat Lodhi's body was found Friday afternoon by a homeowner along a road 13 miles away in Wappingers Falls, McMorris said.
Mr. Abbas Lodhi shot his wife dumped the body 14 miles away from home came back home killed his two sons and himself.
Apparently all that tragedy is because of his Financial troubles in AMRIKA... Back in home in Pakistan their near & dear think Dollars grown on trees in AMRIKA .. once you move out of country to AMRIKA everything become allah heaven..
Oh well life goes on.. All that was written by
Anwar Iqbal who is a correspondent for Dawn, based in Washington, DC