This is one of the most interesting topics to talk about and when I was living in Pakistan I used to think exactly the same way. But after living in Dubai for two years now, I reacted kind of the same when I visited back home after a year. It was extremely strange for myself too that I was doing all these things. People living back in Pakistan greets us very warmly because our families do miss us. To be honest, there’s no place like home and for me “Lahore Lahore Aye”. I miss Lahore a lot. I know that I will get some creepy comments like “if you do miss that much, why don’t you come back?” 🙂

Anyhow, I listed down few points which every Pakistani living abroad do and its not in their control 🙂

14 Things Overseas Pakistani Do When They Return Home

1- Foreign Accent

Somehow, they all try to talk in some strange goofy foreign accent no matter where they have lived. Even an overseas Pakistani living in US will try to sound like a Britisher 🙂

2- NBA, Baseball and Football

Even if they have never watched any of these games, they will still talk about Redsox, Yankees, Chicago Bulls, Manchester United, etc. But if in case, there’s a Pakistan Cricket match, they will start shouting for Shahid Afridi.

3- Bottled Water

“Oh, I can’t drink the tap water.” Yes, they will ask for bottled water, that too of Nestle or other International brands. Sometimes they might even ask for sprinkling water.

4- Slangs

“Yo dawg, Wazzup!” Oh an overseas Pakistani living in UAE or UK will use American slags 🙂

5- Tissue Papers

They are always looking for tissue papers and rolls. “Ewwwww no toilet roll? how do you people go to toilet?” I’m sure they never used it when they were living in Pakistan.

6- Seeing a donkey on the road

“OMG LOOK! There’s a Donkey on the road. Oh, is this a zoo?” YES! Pakistan got donkeys and we even send some overseas :p

7- Spicy & Oily Food

“Yummy! I missed Chicken Karahi, Daal Gosht, Sabzi, Chapal Kabab… Wow Wow Wow”, but within few minutes all the Pakistani food becomes too spicy and too oily.

8- Driving Car

“How do you people drive a car?” Yes! Overseas Pakistani will start reciting Quran when on the road thinking anyone can hit them any second. They are most scared of the bicycles and motorbikes.

9- Branded Things

They still can’t pronounce Louis Vuitton, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana but will talk about them 🙂

10- Mosquitos

“You kidding me! There are so many mosquitoes in Pakistan. Can you please save me?” They will go to the most expensive supermarket and will try to buy a mosquito repeller.

11- Too much noise

“RRkkkkk! Why do you people talk so much?” – And everyone in the room starts staring at them. They can’t bear the noise now and forgot how they were living in a combined family system with 20 people in one house.

12- Everything’s dirty

“Beta! would you like to have Dahi Bhalay?” … “No mom! they are so yakh dirty in open air with so much dust.” … Yes! now everything’s dirty in Pakistan 🙂

13- Pollution

They can’t bear the pollution. Even the overseas Pakistanis living in China will say that. And by the way, US is among the top 3 most polluted countries in the world.

14- “… back in States”

“There, its not like that..” (Wahan to aisay nahi hota…) or “Back in States we used to …” (America mein to hum …) Yes there everything will start with “back there”.

Well, these are some of the points that came to my mind and thought to share it with everyone. People living aboard (usually) are without families. So living alone changes their life and they are not used to of all the noise. Water is one of the major issues that can upset your stomach even if you travel from Lahore to Karachi. Driving rules are totally different in some parts of the world where cars are supposed to give way to bicycles and motorbikes, but if we start doing that in Pakistan, you will never reach your destination.

If you would like to add some points, please do write them in comments. Lets see what I missed out 🙂

[image credit: reuters] [source: 1 ]