Екатерина Халецкая

I remember the feeling I once had on 2nd or 3rd day in Pakistan.

I was traveling in a rickshaw (local transport - small decorated moving box:) for the first time, observing sand-color houses, armed guards, crowds of people, and waving flags on the sides, with wide-open eyes and wind in the head.

3 days before I was living in a city of 24-hours lights, 17th floor restaurants, 12-hours working day, and life-long careers - all planned year-by-year with % of salary increase.

And - boom! - I am on the other side of the world: sea-smelling, right-to-left writing, and totally overwhelming by its not-yet-discovered nature.

It felt like I was beyond the space & time, as well as the age, lines in the CV, career plan and amount of salary. In the other words, it did not matter how old I am, where I live, and the title that is written on my business card. What did matter was who I am right here, right now.

Pakistani friends did not understand me when I tried to explain this feeling to them: “I have no idea what you are talking about, Katya!” Maybe it is because I was on “another planet”, and they were in their own country they had been living for over 20 years. Or maybe (as I later found out) they were too busy with planning their Masters abroad or applying for “multinationals only”.

Yet I remembered that feeling, and from that time onwards, when I find myself doing years-age-salary-title comparisons with the help of mathematical formulas, I make the feeling live again, and continue walking my way - which is beyond arifmetical logic.