Chronicles my thirty yeara struggle to pursue my childhood dream to immigrate to US and own a business.
At the age of fourteen, Maqbool Qurashi reads a newspaper article on immigration to the United States and is immediately enthralled. Shortly thereafter, the partitioning of India into Pakistan and India, the sectarian violence tears the family apart, driving Maqbool and some members of his family to Pakistan. Finding his way to England, Germany, and finally America, his ingenuity and perseverance eventually allow him to attain an executive position in the emerging field of cable television, becoming the owner of two patents and a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.
An uplifting story about the strength and resolve of the human spirit, Maqbool Qurashi’s tale will strike a chord with anyone who believes in following their dreams. From the most unlikely of circumstances amidst the chaos of political unrest and civil war, through the support and loss of his father and the belief of a family, Dream Chaser is an astounding tale of one man’s life journey filled with tragedy, love, loss, and triumph.
Excerpt
Maqbool Qurashi and his family live in the city of Jammu in the state of Jammu and Kashmir prior to and during World War II. In 1946, the war over and Maqbool now fourteen, a newspaper article inspires him to dream of immigrating to the United States. As the United Kingdom partitions British India into India and Pakistan, however, Jammu and Kashmir are caught in the middle and escalating sectarian violence forces their family to escape to Pakistan, changing the path he had envisioned. He is further derailed when his father is killed in the tumult, and after the loss of his sister to disease a short time later, Maqbool’s dream follows yet another unusual path. After having to impersonate as a doctor in his brother’s clinic and failing in his attempts to join the Pakistani Air Force and to launch a singing career, he eventually goes to study in Great Britain. There he marries Reinhild and not long after the birth of their son, Maqbool finally receives his immigration number to the United States. After an interminable wait, he is granted sponsorship when a wealthy American hires him and his wife as domestics. Working full-time and studying in every spare moment, he is eventually hired to an entry-level position at the company owned by Milton Shapp, the father of the cable industry. Again showing his spirit and tenacity, Maqbool uses a small tax refund as seed money for his own company, which he grows into a publicly traded corporation on NASDAQ.
A story of heartbreaking loss, tremendous courage, and an indomitable spirit, Maqbool Qurashi’s life is a testament to the transformative nature of hope, belief, and opportunity. Imbued with humility and a sense of wonder at his own path, Maqbool seeks out the defining moments of his life with a quiet, unflinching honesty, providing a blueprint for the mindset necessary to anyone reaching for the American Dream. Extraordinary on every level, Dream Chaser is a reminder that what appear to be roadblocks are only detours, and that anything is possible for those who believe.
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