Turning the page

For decades now, oil and gas-rich Qatar has been a land of opportunity for many. Chasing their dreams many have landed here during the past three to four decades and made it.
There are stories of expatriates starting out with small-time jobs and making it to the millionaire club, owning grand businesses today. The unprecedented construction boom that Qatar has witnessed in recent years has particularly attracted people from nearby South Asia.
Leaving their homes and families behind, hundreds have been coming to Qatar over the years in search of better livelihoods. For many it has been a life-changing event. Jaswinder Singh Kala, a carpenter from Shahkot, Jalandhar in India, is one of them.  
Arriving 24 years ago when he was only 23, Kala has been able to build a nice house back home, send his sons to better educational institutions and support the family’s better lifestyle.
It was in Doha that he bought his first personal car —changing five of them thus far — and learned to speak different languages and indulge poetry. An active participant on radio talk shows, Kala is well known to the literary and media community around town. He has also won awards while participating in different radio programmes.
Unlike thousands of workers, who remain confined to their work circle for years, Kala has explored Qatar across its length and breadth.  
“There is a reason why I have been here for a quarter century now. This country has been very good to me and I love it. I put a Qatari flag in every car that I have bought and this is my fifth car,” Kala points to the white Mitsubishi Lancer while speaking to Community in an interview.
Kala mentions the buildings and construction sites where he has worked as a carpenter, including the camel-racing stadium in Shahaniya in the city’s outskirts besides scores of hotels and office buildings.
He speaks fondly of the times when he first arrived, a bachelor with no beard. He now sports one and it has more grey hair than black. “There used to be only Sheraton Hotel here, a Salam Market and another tall building towards the Msheireb area. The Corniche also was very plain and empty,” Kala recalls.
The road leading to Wakrah and Al Khor were single roads and there were dirt roads leading to the desert and beaches beyond Wakrah and others.
Kala recalls the arrival of the “mighty Land Cruisers.”
“They started arriving before the 2006 SAF Games that Doha hosted. But after the Games, Land Cruisers were everywhere. In the previous years, this car Toyota Cressida was very popular. But I do not see it much here now,” he says.
Today’s Qatar, he says, is totally different. It has transformed into something “amazing.” Back then, he says, he never thought Doha would become something like this with more than 100 skyscrapers.
“I had never thought I would have a car of my own. I had never thought my life would be like this and I had never imagined that so many people would know me,” says Kala.
It was in Doha that he first listened to the radio after buying his first car — a decade after his arrival. His sponsor, who he says is a very kind man, graciously arranged for a permit for him to obtain the driving licence at that time.  
“I remember it was Nissan that I had bought for QR4,000. It was very simple and did not even have AC. I kept it for three years. Since then I have tried many Japanese and European cars and now I have Mitsubishi,” he says of his upward mobility.
Meagrely educated, Kala could only speak and write Punjabi, mostly in Devnagri script. While he still writes in his native language, he has learnt to speak and understand Urdu to the extent he can appreciate poetry.
Qatar gave him his first car; the car introduced him to the radio which acquainted him with Urdu. He would listen to talk shows and participate in them, answering quizzes. He has won five different prizes in different categories and met with almost all the show hosts and anchors at Qatar Radio Urdu FM 107. Kala now is a small-time poet as well. He often narrates his poetry for hundreds of listeners on the radio.
“All those listening to the radio know me. Even when I was recently at a mushaira (poetry symposium) and I told people my name, many of them made selfies with me,” says Kala. He is a big fan of Pakistani icon Amjad Islam Amjad and managed to take a photo with the poet at the recently concluded Aalmi Mushaira.
Inspired, Kala now does poetry. He recently wrote a couplet for Qatar in Punjabi.
Sat Sri Akal te Salam akhiye/ Saray he banray khas kinhun aam akhiye/ Maan baap di duawaan naal sohnra mulk eh naseeb hoya/ Rab agay duawaan subha sham akhiye
(I say blessings to everyone/ All of them are special, none ordinary/ Thanks to the prayers of my parents, I’ve been blessed to be in this country/ I thank God for it day and night).
Kala says he made some of his best friends in Qatar and some of the best ones were not even from India.
“My best friend here is Master Shafiq. He is from Pakistan. We lived together here in Qatar for many years. I also have many friends who come from my hometown in India. I have had a real good time here,” says Kala.
He has even visited Pakistan to see the Sikh holy places besides visiting his Pakistani friends. He has also toured many cities in Pakistan from Gujranwala to Peshawar. When planning to visit Pakistan, he recalled people warned him not to go as “it was not safe”.
“But when we arrived there, it was exactly the opposite. We were warmly greeted by the people and found them to be very hospitable wherever we went in Pakistan. I will go again,” says Kala. He yearns to visit his ancestral home in Bahawalnagar in Pakistan.
Kala has three sons and the eldest is studying for Bachelor’s in Information Technology. Kala hopes for a bright future for them. He however, wants the Qatari government to grant people like him who have spent more than 20 years here a special visa to bring their families here even for a month.
“It would be a great gesture. For people like me who do not qualify in the salary bracket, there should be a one month special visa so that we can bring our families here for at least a month and show them around,” suggests Kala.
He has literally, made Qatar his second home.