Leafing through the prospectus of University of California at Berkeley, one of the most sought-after US Universities for admissions on the West Coast, with over 85,000 applications for freshman admissions for 2017, I noticed that 6,000 foreign students were enrolled in the university.

This took me back many years when I was enrolled there — at a time when the total foreign students’ enrolment was only in the hundreds.

Most of the students were from South American countries but the 80 from India — including a dozen women — happened to be the most dominant foreign student group on the campus. There were about 40 all-male students from Arab countries and half of that number came from Israel. However, there were less than 10 men from Pakistan and none from China.

What a contrast to more recent times. In the fall of 2015, for instance, the largest number of foreign students at Berkeley were from China (1,802), followed by South Korea (764) and India (505). Pakistan does not even figure on the list of 20 countries in Berkeley’s prospectus — Malaysia is the last on the list with 49 students.

A UTOPIAN WORLD

Attending Berkeley was the opportunity of a lifetime. The university is reputed for its excellent faculty and at one time had seven Nobel Prize winners as part of its academic staff. On campus, one could interact with the best from among the country’s community as well as high-calibre international students from various countries.

No less instructive was being invited to speak to Rotary and church groups, and invited as weekend houseguests with families in nearby townships. All this helped create an acceptance and ease with different views and, with time, acquire a more studious and less emotive attitude on issues. Seldom where discussions were held on sensitive issues that resulted in emotional outbursts.

In the 1950s the creation of Israel, the Partition of the subcontinent and the Kashmir question were among the hotly debated issues. Arab, Israeli, Indian and Pakistani students were frequently invited by Rotary clubs, churches and other groups in different locations to talk on these topics. Pakistani and Indian students were particularly sought as speakers as they were the most fluent in English among foreign students (due to their ‘British’ schooling in colonial India).

Because of their proficiency in English, Pakistani students would often be requested by Arab students to speak on their behalf. By borrowing content from the country’s first foreign minister Zafarullah Khan’s brilliant speeches in the UN and other international forums on Palestine and North African colonial states, Pakistani students were able to present the Arab case in a manner that would leave the usual heavily pro-Israeli audience fidgeting awkwardly.

Much the same happened in encounters with Indian students on Kashmir — using content from Khan’s speeches demolished the Indian case. More than once, at the end of the talks, the host pointedly remarked: “If a plebiscite on Kashmir was held here and now the vote would be for Pakistan.”

Despite this, there was no bitterness and Israeli or Indian and Pakistani students would be sharing a table at lunch talking amiably and even complimenting each other on the presentations. A few times the Indian and Pakistani students even turned out to be roommates on campus.

THE ‘PAKISTANI SKIT’

Students of many countries would mark their National Day with an event of some kind, and the Indians excelled at it. Every August 15 the Indian students, drawing talent from their large and diverse student body, would put on a song-and-dance extravaganza that was truly dazzling and left the packed campus auditorium applauding enthusiastically.

The best the Pakistani students could do was come up with a skit. I recall they once wrote one about a student in Karachi preparing to leave for America to attend a US university. His friends counselled him on how life in the US would be like even though they had never been there themselves.

One of them says “be careful what you eat there, Americans eat dogs”, another adds “yes they do and they like them hot.” Another student says “most Americans are very rich”, so the travelling student asks “how do you tell a rich American from poor American?” The student answers: “Oh that is easy, the poor Americans wash their own Cadillacs.”

The skit was an instant hit, it attracted a good measure of media reporting and became known as the ‘Pakistan skit.’ It was in constant demand at different events, including the International Red Cross convention in San Francisco which was a major international event. At the end of the event the organiser came on stage to tell us the loudest guffaws during the performance came from General Gruenther, who was then the president of IRC.

Something foreign students in the US will always carry happy memories of is the friendliness and hospitality of American people. The Foreign Students Adviser’s office at Berkeley would always have dozens of invitations from families in various towns at commuting distance from the campus inviting students to be a weekend guest at their homes.

Some foreign students got so attached to their host family, it became the student’s ‘US family’ and it fulfilled the role of one. When it came time for the student to return home, the ‘US family’ would be at the airport with gifts for a teary farewell.

The writer is former corporate executive and can be contacted at husainsk1933@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 29th, 2017