Kamal

The world has so many stories, and each person is a hero in his own tale.  We are always busy doing our own thing, and sometimes we forget to take a moment, look around, and wonder about how heavy someone may feel with a ton of stress overtaking his/her body.  We are all meant for greatness, our own greatness, and the definition of it could sometimes be different from one person to another.  We reach for the stars that are millions of years away, and we soar in our very own thoughts.  But what does it mean to literally “think” of those around us, to discover their stories, and dive into their imaginations?  What does it mean to tell someone “I feel you” and mean it?  What is the price of giving someone else attention and care? 

Just the love that we were all born with.

Saudi Arabia is a country that has a lot of workers coming from around the whole world seeking for jobs.  The World Bank recently conducted a study which states that Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest country which has foreign workers.  There are nearly 9.2 million international workers here in Saudi out of our 31,716,240 population.  Each person flew here looking for a new opportunity in a certain job, and a lot of these people end up spending their entire lives here while they send their salaries to their respected countries for their families.  Since women don’t drive in Saudi, many families depend on foreign drivers.  There are almost 800,000 personal family drivers today in Saudi Arabia.  One of these thousands of people is my family’s driver, Kamal. 

I wanted to know more about Kamal, because for the first time ever, I figured that I have never actually spoken with him about his life back home.  He came here and got lost in the sea of workers, and I always just looked at him as a driver.  Yet once I thought about it, I realized that he is truly a loyal and trustworthy member of my family.  So, I made tea, called him and asked him to come to our home’s Majlas (The Saudi word for the formal room where we receive guests in the house).  My brothers got very excited too, so they called him again and asked that he comes wearing nice clothes.  They also brought their camera, poured tea for him, and sat down waiting.  Generally, and in most Saudi houses, the driver has his own room on the property with the door straight to the street.  This way the driver can still be close to have food, and to also be called to run an errand, or simply drive the car somewhere.  Being a driver is a full-time job.

He rang the bell, and my brothers went to open the door with so much excitement!  This time, he wasn’t ringing the bell to wash the car, or get it out of the garage.  He wasn’t carrying supermarket bags full of goodies.  He was our guest of honor!  He was so shy and stayed standing up until I got to the Majlas. He was wearing a red t-shirt that said “Stop Looking, and Start Doing.”, I have never seen it before because he always looked professional with a button-down shirt, so I guess that this was his personal definition of wearing something nice and new. He also wore a pair of jeans with a Diesel belt, and I wondered if it was the real deal, or from a store owned by an Indian man in the Souq. He finished his outfit with black shoes with red lines to match the t-shirt. I smiled for a second and asked him to please sit down, and he sat on the edge of the couch on the other side of the room.  I explained to him that I am very interested in writing a blog post about him.  He looked confused at the beginning, so I pointed to my dad’s pictures on the wall and tried to explain “I want to write like Baba.  Newspaper.  Article.” But he still didn’t understand, then I used Google to translate my words to Hindi, his mother language.  “Saakshaatkaar, Kamal, interview!” He smiled and nodded his head in agreement, and I knew from there that I was going to have to translate all of my questions to Hindi.   

Kamal is a 26-year-old Nepali man from the city of Kathmandu.  This city has a population of one million people, and it is the country’s capital and largest municipality.  Kamal explains that four years ago, at the beginning of his marriage, he decided to apply for a job in Saudi Arabia so he can start saving money and break the chain of poverty in his family by sending his monthly salary to his wife and mother.  Based on my research to understand more, almost 30.85% of the people of Nepal live below the global poverty line.  From what he explained to us, his general lifestyle needed to be changed somehow, and working abroad seemed like the right idea. 

Shielded by his high school degree and little English, he arrived to Saudi Arabia in the winter of 2014.  I remember seeing him arrive with his small suitcase, and I wondered where the rest of his clothes were.  I didn’t quite understand the many things I had and was blessed with. I was puzzled of how someone could travel with a small suitcase, and so was he...  When I asked him about his first culture shock upon arriving here, he said “The language.  Everyone expected me to immediately start understanding Arabic, but I couldn’t explain to anyone with my Hindi tongue that I couldn’t understand what they were saying.  I would always try, but no words would come out.  But I know a lot now!”   

Then I asked about the biggest challenge of being here.  He paused for a few seconds, his eyes teared up, and then said “I left my wife while she was pregnant, and it has been hard to be away from my daughter.  I didn’t see her crawl or walk.  It is very emotional, but I am doing this because I want her to go to a good school, then maybe become a doctor or an engineer.  Whatever she likes, I will support her.  As for Saudi, my days here have been very good.  I don’t have any bad memories, just good ones of doing my job behind the wheel.”  His response made me question my own life abroad.  These two journeys are different, yet they are similar at the same time.  I can’t describe the amount of strength and hope he carried in his words as he talked about his daughter with a smile.  That is true courage, love, and sacrifice.

I once read a quote which says “Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Kamal was narrating a memoir through his broken Arabic and English, but he didn’t know it.  I was trying to fill in with my Hindi Google Translate phrases, and we figured it out.  He didn’t realized how valuable it is to be trilingual, even if the languages were a little broken.  But when I asked him about any future jobs in Nepal, he said “It’s not very easy.  Family first, and work second when I go back.”

At the end of my questions, my little brother, Faris, interrupted shyly and said “Kamal, drink your tea.  It’s gonna be cold, I promise it’s tasty.” Then my sister brought a gift for his wife so he can take it back home with him.  Before leaving, he turned around and thanked us.  But he was the one to be thanked for four years of dedicated service.  He is the silent solider who drove us to our schools and universities.  My sisters received their Bachelor’s while he was here, I graduated high school, and my brothers continue to climb their ladders.  He would drive us to our celebrations, family gatherings, and shopping sprees.

 

Today, I discovered Kamal’s story, and I learned so much from him.  I looked into the people around me, and once again, I can tell you that everyone has a very important story to tell.  We are all heroes in our own worlds, and to our people and loved ones.  You all matter, and you are valued.  Appreciate yourself, because you are a hero.  Kamal helped lift his whole family above that global poverty line.  He is a true example of success to all of us.  We can make a change in our lives too, and we can turn the wheel of our future to the destination we want.  Yes, there’s a lot to learn like a new language or lifestyle, but we can still make a true change.  Just like Kamal’s t-shirt, stop looking and start doing.  You are meant to do great things for yourself and the world, so don’t think of yourself less than that.