Insight of my Out Look
By Dr. Suryyia Manzoor
It is never too late to aspire for higher things in life and pursuing higher goals. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Never too early or too late! In fact, this ‘too much’ is the term, Mohammad Sohail, has never grasped. Success is something which you can achieve when you start realizing your abilities, energies and strength. Whenever you confront your fears, your talent emerges; confront your doubts and certainty comes forward.
Like many other people he has many sides that are unexplored. His acquaintances and friends only see his party and crazy persona but that is just a few parts of the many. These sides are just little parts that hide the real Sohail, who has gone through many ups and downs and faced many struggles in order to be where he is.
“Yea, I have a laid-back side. I am chill, down to earth, easy-going and friendly person. If you want to grab a cup of coffee and just talk about life, I can do that.”
Born on October 4th, 1983 Jhelum, (Pakistan), Mohammad Sohail comes from a respectable middle-class family of Jarral tribe. Since his childhood he had big dreams in his eyes. Despite being an average student he had big goals, his dreams were extra-ordinary which he knew he would realize one day. He was well aware of the fact that in order to be a successful person one does not need only the best degrees from the best institutions rather it demands self confidence, self satisfaction, setting extraordinary goals, consistency and power to take risk. According to him, this attitude can change one’s life for good. This mindset does not only benefit one but also the people around. From his life story, it can be observed that he has always been optimistic, determined and a visionary person.
He received his primary education from National Foundation School Jhelum, Pakistan. Getting admission in one of the best schools in town— Fouji Foundation Model School, Jhelum –was the victorious moment for him. He perceives it as the most cherished moment of his life. “I was elated because I had achieved one milestone. I still remember those joyous moments very clearly when having been unable to contain my excitement on getting the admission I leaped into the air and exclaimed, ‘I did it!’”, he reminisced. However, it was just the onset of many achievements that were to come in his life. It marked the beginning of the long journey of educational and co curricular achievements with distinctions in sports and debates. His educational career that took its start from Fauji Foundation was preceded by other prestigious institutions like Army Public School and College and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (One of the Asia’s highest ranking university). It served as a prelude to a more illustrious career as a Forest Officer in the forest services of Pakistan after completing training from a well reputed institute—Pakistan Forest Institute.
Being an avid reader, he has read many books and biographies. Among the books he has read, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, Working with sharks by Fouzia Saeed and Cross Swords by Shuja Nawaz are his favourite books.
Reading biographies of the famous and successful people has also moulded his mind and character. Every success story and biography has proved fruitful for him. “After analyzing successful people and their attitude towards life, I became aware of the importance of taking risks for attaining great ideals.” Having an ambitious and focused approach towards life he realized that he had to take some bold decisions. “According to me, one has to have the courage to take decisions which will shape and mould one’s entire life. One must have the nerve to take the leap that might be crucial in their success. And I took this leap! Having the dreams of being a successful person in my eyes, I started analyzing what to do in order to be better than what I was at the time. I wanted to keep moving forward. Noticing each and every detail and observing everything around me carefully, I realized that in order to further groom myself I had to equip myself with latest knowledge. I felt in myself the urge to know more.” Therefore, with this goal set in his mind and with the strong desire to achieve preeminence, he took one such step and while having served at the Divsional Forest office for one year, he left for Germany to pursue higher degree with the dream to complete Ph.D. in future.
Life is full of ups and downs and when you are really close to the achievement of your goals, realization of your dreams and getting success, you get a jerk. This is where you have to brace yourself and prove yourself above all the downs of your life. Mohammad Sohail had to face one such moment in his life. He had to face many adversaries and negativity but determined, strong-willed and passionate as he was he got through it.
“You never know what life has in its stores for you. You can never guess. Life becomes a roller coaster that at times starts going down and then— again down, down and down. You start wondering when the roller coaster will ever go up! Life starts throwing lemons at you. The best way is to catch them like a champion, make lemonade and share it with everyone!
“Everything was going well planned. I was walking the path I had carved for myself. My dream was so close to its realization. After the completion of my MS from Germany with my research focused in Marseille, France and courses from University of Life Sciences, Prague Czech republic I was offered an opportunity to do my doctorate from one of the top ranked university in Michigan under the supervision of Dr. Roth Stein. I always planned to serve my country after completing my doctorate. This was the time when things unfolded differently for me. This was the time when life shot lemons at me but I started making lemonade out of them, friends!
In 2011, the year when I turned 28, I was diagnosed with a kidney disorder, it was certainly a shock that shook me terribly. For a person who had lived his life aspiring for higher ambitions and even attaining some of those successfully, it was something completely incomprehensible at the time.” But having been a science student he knew a little bit of the whole problem. “I knew it was a disease, and, like all other diseases, was treatable. Unlike many other patients, I never gave in to depression. I just could not! I knew I had to fight it. I had to bring the will power from within.”
He had never given in to any situation but as the conditions were changing, the only thing that worried and bothered Sohail was the time during which he could not function as actively and energetically as he had always been. He showed a very optimistic approach here and considered that one year as the most valuable and effectual time. That one year had taught him so much about life, the world and people that the 27 years could not. It taught him the most valuable lessons of his life. Sohail says “the lessons which all degrees combined could not help him learn. That year I found out the strength inside of me. I understood the importance of health. I found the treasure I had in my life. Something which many of us cannot recognize until we have lost it. Something we need to cherish. It gave me idea how many people loved me, I realized my worth in other people’s life. It gave me idea that life is always on stake. Life is uncertain! That point of my life changed me a lot. The already humble side of me turned more down to earth. I understood the key to happiness and content was to live for others; to serve rather than act selfishly. I felt what it is to be helpless. Only then, one realizes in its blazing intensity, the transistoriness of life and how helpless we are in its face! I learnt it all-never to forget again!”
“I always wanted to stay strong so I tried hard to avoid feeling depressed and kept negative thoughts at bay. Now, I knew that health is evergreen. Rest is just watching a movie in black and white. When you are healthy, you can enjoy every aspect, every little thing. But being afflicted by a disease demands a lot of effort to stay positive and strong.”
2011 changed Muhammad Sohail altogether, his point of view towards life, his perspective, his thoughts and personality.
“In that one year time, the thing I learnt most is that Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.’ Past is never where you think you left it. My ailment helped me understand the deluding nature of time. It taught me that today is important. Being here, right now is important. All else fade in front of it. There’s no past and no future. Time is very misleading. All there is ever, is ‘the now’. We can gain experience from the past, but we cannot relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there will be one. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. I feel that our past only makes us nostalgic therefore I do not care much about it but yea I do ponder over my future.
‘The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.’ (Goldie Hawn)
There was a time during his illness when according to him he didn’t expect to recover from operation but as he did, he consider that he have been living on borrowed time since then. He says “Every dawn is a gift to me and I take it in that way. I accept it gratefully without looking beyond it” Amidst all this, he did not let these attitudes affect him negatively. He was willing to forget his physical suffering and all the unpleasantness and distastefulness of his past and present condition just to be able to savour the joy of seeing the sun rise once more, and of being able to work even under the most difficult conditions.
Pain will never leave us. It is frustrating albeit not unbearable. The only way to triumph over it is to put all our energy into eliminating pain by creating happiness. And I never forget that in order to be happy one does not need bigger or momentous achievements.
Sometimes even the pettiest things become a source of unfathomable happiness. At times it happens, when you are lying on a hospital bed waiting for your recovery after an operation. At such a moment, an assuring and sincere smile on someone’s face is all one needs to feel happy and hopeful once again. The most important thing that ensures the happiness is ‘faith.’ Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
Some people can go their whole lives without one killer light-bulb moment, but he has been lucky enough to have enjoyed somewhat two. In order to savour some taste of business as well, he entered the world of business. His idea about business was to start a company Sky Heights Traders, Inc USA, otherwise known as Forester. His health has never hindered his dreams. He executed this idea immediately after his transplant in 2011and became the director of his company. The company also does business as cell phone and PC repair, glitz and glam and sharp edge knife. After spending two years in United States and one year in Denmark he already knew the ABC of business. Soon he realized that his new transplanted kidney would not work longer and luckily during the same time he got an opportunity to pursue his PhD once again. This time he got admission in an old and prestigious university, which is also one of the best universities of Portugal and is ranked among high-ranking universities in the world.
“I moved to Portugal to seek my goal despite the opposition from my family. Country, wealth, high living standard does not matter to me, what matters the most is my knowledge and my efforts towards a better life.”
It is his dream to be recognized for his work. Six months more into his life and he found out that his transplanted kidney had completely stopped working. “Once again I was thrown into that terrible nightmarish situation from which I had desperately tried to escape. I was on dialysis once again. Had it not been for the support and help of my friends, family, Pakistani ambassador in Portugal, head of Chancery, my professors and my supervisors; I would not have been able to pull through this situation. I still pursued my quest for knowledge and took courses while on dialysis.” Here, he was fortunate enough. Where people wait for years, he received a call for another transplant within two months after starting the dialysis.
“At the moment, sitting here in Santa Maria hospital I know that neither Doctorate nor Portugal nor Europe is my destination. I have not realized my final goal as yet. Someday, I might be writing a second volume of my life story. When the time comes, it is possible that I might or might not have achieved my ambitions and realized my dreams. I am not sure what happens, albeit one thing I am sure of is that I do not want to die without making any contribution towards the betterment of humanity. I might fail in my endeavors but at least I will have the satisfaction of trying. I simply want to do make my contributions towards humanity; if not on a major big scale at least on a baser level. I will have the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile.”
He also expressed his gratitude to his doctors, the hospital staff and administration for their sincerity, care, devotion punctuality and higher sense of professionalism. He is of the view that in Pakistan, there is still a need for interaction between patient, doctor and staff. There is a dire need of a healthy connection between them. During the past 10 years, he has experienced medical facilities of Pakistan, Europe and USA. His keen observation made him feel the need to work towards building a healthy relationship between patients and doctors. According to him, having a healthy connection already cures half of the patient’s ailment. “I know many of my Pakistani friends from medical profession will not agree but there are plenty of debatable points. But I always think, there is a room for improvement. We can still improve our medical system with efforts, determination and sense humanity.”
Sir Winston Churchill once said that ‘a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’
Muhammad Sohail plans to open a kidney centre in his district Jehlum and we wish to see him in politics too which is his biggest dream. Our country needs highly motivated, determined and educated people and I see all such qualities in him. In my discussion with him, he ended up his conversation with the view “I chose to see opportunity in whatever life threw at me. And today, I am satisfied and confident. Therefore, we must never give up, be determined and stay focused. Moreover, in this short life, we must start each and every day thanking God for allowing us to see another day. Tomorrow is not promised, Yesterday will never come back. What we have is Today so we must live it to the fullest, and in the best way possible. Be kind, fair, but most of all LOVE one another.”