Karachi Chronicle: Which is better: a job or a business?

The month of March began with an inspiring Economic Co-operation Organisation's 13th summit meeting of 11 member states in Islamabad. The theme of the Summit was 'Connectivity for Regional Prosperity'. Translated, it means jobs, trade and business opportunities. The prospects should have generated a lot of enthusiasm in Karachi. Perhaps it did in the oldies of my generation, but among young Karachiwalas there was zero interest. The majority lack the guts of the pioneers who made this city the economic hub of Pakistan.
They cling to safe jobs in banks and corporations, in medicine, working for builders of posh gated communities or the horrendous high rises, or malls or fashion designing etc. 'You have to have the guts to lose a lakh to make a fortune', said my grandmother who believed, and preached to all of us, that it is better to be your own master than make (for her) a pittance in monthly pay from a job you do for others. In those days a lakh rupees was a lot of money; Hussain De Silva apartments in Garden West cost Rs 25,000, my cousin's Ford Falcon cost Rs 16,000, the country's annual budget was calculated in lakhs not millions and billions. She told my younger brother 'Chappal ki dukan khol ke baitjana, kisi ki naukri na karna.' In the business community there is no shame to have a business as lowly as selling Peshawari chappals. But today's young people look for jobs that give them status. They don't dream of setting up their own enterprise. 'Its too risky,' they will tell you.
But I have been pestering the younger generation among my family, friends and even colleagues to consider the opportunities opened up in the countries surrounding Pakistan. They are all brotherly Muslim countries: the republics of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and Iran. The mentality in Pakistan is that such regional corporation for economic prosperity is to be dealt only at the level of governments. This may be in the case of big projects such as the gas pipeline, but surely there is opening for people-to-people connectivity.
The surest way to being people-to-people contact is through Tourism. It was one of the areas of connectivity, besides trade, energy, investment, industry, social welfare and environment at the summit. Except for Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey, Pakistanis are ignorant of the other ECO countries: there is so much to know, such as their food specialties, favourite pastimes, sports, folktales, crafts, history and traditions.
In Karachi there are just a handful of genuine travel agencies and hundreds of large and small so-called tour operators whose business is simply to facilitate trips to Makkah and Madina for Hajj and Umra. Tourism need not be an expensive proposition. Next door in India thousands of middle-class and lower middle-class visit the sights in their country. I know of a government school teacher of Pune who has seen all of the northern part, including Agra, Rajistan, Delhi, Ajmer all on a shoestring budget. They travel mostly by train or bus, stay at rest houses, Dak-bungalows or the sarais, which provide basic amenities, cheap food and large halls to sleep in. They travel light. My friend says in her group they carry a cloth satchel in which there is one change of clothes: a sari, petticoat and blouse, toothbrush, comb and soap and a small towel. I am told Gujarati businessmen sponsor tours of their middle-class citizens to other countries, especially Indonesia. And don't forget the American Hippies who travelled also on a shoestring budget.
Language need not be an issue. Everywhere people understand the language of money. You buy a Souvenir, the seller will hold up five fingers or more and you know how much it costs. Look at the Chinese working in Pakistan. Do all of them know Urdu or even English?
The ECO countries not only have potential for private enterprise, there is also their history which connects us to them just as faith connects all the countries. Travel is not just an adventure; it is enlightening and inspires art, literature, a sense of friendship and tolerance for the way of life of others. Of all the youngsters I pestered to launch tourism business for the middle-class to travel to the ECO countries, only one showed interest. But I tell myself, it's a beginning.