The hardest thing about living abroad, away from your family & friends is how quickly life goes by & when you pause to look back you realize that your parents have grown old & there are so many moments you have missed that won't ever come back. [1]

[2] In May 2010 when my father was wounded in the Model Town mosque attack, I was in UK.

At 21 and it occurred to me that it was only a matter of on inch or two, & I wouldn't have ever truly known or gotten to spend time with the the person I called my father.

[3] Our parents generation sacrificed so much for our education & careers but more than the financial sacrifice, they sacrificed their old age & the time they needed us the most so we could find a life abroad in a safe place.

But why did we find ourselves in this position?

[4] My parents never wanted me back, but there was no other place I wanted to be.

Because it breaks my heart that 70 years of corruption & elite capture of our political/governance system forced so many to become reluctant migrants. All for what?

[5] Some left to save their lives, others got married abroad for a better future, & many more to earn livelihood to send money back home.

In the process our families broke down, & those abroad got stuck in the middle of the 2 worlds where they were happy but incomplete.

[6] We didn't get here out of nowhere - we got here by a systematic corruption & marginalization practiced by the ruling elite.

We look at political/institutional corruption through indexes/numbers forgetting that it has a direct human impact on our families/society.

[7] In last 7 decades, our ruling elite thrived 'serving' in govt while the country got poor & minorities faced more persecution due to elite politics.

The cost was paid by the avg person that was forced to sell land/wealth to pay for education & health or pack bags & leave.

[x] Yet, it's 2020 & we are unable to see the source of all suffering bcz in our parts of the world, poor/minorities are just a number for ruling elite.

They've not only left families poor but also broken. Yet, their politics continue bcz there will always be someone to fool.