Idrees - Pakistani or Bangladeshi?

He came to pick me at the airport; He was the one who took me to my first ever samudra darshan; He is the one with whom I first had beef in my life; and he was the first Bangladeshi/Pakistani [he claimed he was both] with whom we all developed a good rapport.

Idrees drove Joel and all of us to work and to different places within Bahrain. He handled the car with such dexterity, and I was impressed when he used to take a U turn in a peculiar style near Bayt-al-Quran.

A devout Muslim, he prayed religiously every day. A good cook, he prepared excellent non-veg. We used to be in villa during the end of the Ramzan day to savor the food he and Shabab used to prepare to break the fast.

We used to always tease him for being from an enemy country, with no offence meant। And he too would not spare us. Indo-Pak matches were a hot favorite, even for a not so interested in sports person like me, with Idrees on one side and all the others with India.

Once I caught him singing ‘saray jahan say accha Hindustan hamara’ and he was embarrassed.
He would sometime turn philosophical and talk about religion. When in a pensive mood he would talk about the plight of people in his country. And we shared his concerns as India too faced the same problem – poverty, illiteracy, and the like.

One scene which I will never forget is when we dropped Jenny at home, that time maybe a 5-6 year old kid of Mr. Joel, he looked at her lovingly and commented, she is lucky she speaks English, we are not sure when our kids back in Bangladesh can talk like her.

Idrees has two kids, Neelofer and Nasir. His family lives in Bangladesh, and he visits them once in two years. He has managed to construct a pukka house for his family, has bought a piece of land in his hometown, and now plans to spend 2-3 years in middle east and will return to see his kids grow.