I have been avoiding writing a long, bizarre section on me for a while now. But, I couldn't prolong the delay anymore. If you are visiting this blog, it is important we establish a virtual relationship. You get to know me, and I try to get to know you; well, only if I don't already know you at all.
Which is why it is about time I update this.
Arslan Saeed was born to a family who had lost two sons in events before and after his birth. But perhaps, that is not what I want you to identify me with. Although, if you know me very well, you will acknowledge the additional cuddling I get at home as a result of the loss. May be it will help you relate to me more.
My (late) father started off very poor; he is my prime example of the rags to riches story we often hear and watch on television. I play it out with him as the main character. Nonetheless, I never got to witness that side of my family's life, as I came a lot later, when we had moved to Saudi Arabia and the richness of oil reserves had greatly improved our living standards. My being born with a silver spoon is not what I want you to identify me with, either. Although, it could tell you a great deal about the kind of childhood I had, with every sort of toy and gadget imaginable.
I know three political figures in Pakistan: Nawaz Sharif (former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who recently returned from exile) went to college with my father; former Chief Secretary of Punjab, Javed Mehmood went to University with my mother; and former President Major General Pervez Musharraf's favourite General, is my mother's brother-in-law. While in Pakistan, we can get almost anything done with the help of these contacts, I have never boasted knowing these people and don't want to be identified through them, either.
You see, from my first fleeting memory I have seen and heard people gawk and envy my relationship with people who have the influence to make things happen in Pakistan. Why should this have mattered to someone like me who spends a maximum of three months there for vacation, I seriously don't know. To someone who was born and grew up in the Saudi Arabia, the country of black gold, the place he calls home. Someone who now is in a country where he is seen to be ordinary. Working odd job shifts and struggling to manage School and expenditure, despite being a millionaire?
And that is really my point.
In life, people come and go, and some get to places that others don't. I am happy to be where I am, and I am proud of my achievements. Why should I be proud of everybody else's achievements and use them to push myself higher the hierarchy of society, evades the logic of my mind.
I have done a lot of things in life. Some good. Some bad. And I am proud of them.
I have made friends and enemies, alike. And I don't expect to please them all.
I have enjoyed fame at school and at University. So I am a celebrity in my own right.
My teachers adored me as a student.
My family loves me (well, my immediate family, and relatives - err, sometimes). And I love them back.
And that is what I want you to identify me with.
Arslan Saeed is nothing and everything at the same time. He can go places if he wants to, or he can sit still, if that is what he so desires. Who he knows or how much wealth he inherited from his parents, had nothing to do with him. That was their destiny, that flowed to him.
I am not who I know, or what I have; I am what I think and what I write. And what I aspire to do with this world, on my own.
Obviously, I am at a point in life where I discover something new everyday. I appraise myself, go through self-evaluations and try to improve generally the way I live my life...
And that is who I am. I am the reader. The explorer.
And the wonderer. Never the follower.
So now you know me.
