What luck to pick up a promotional flier for Club Masala -- the first Indian subcontinent cable TV network operating in Japan -- in a branch of the curry chain Samrat. Interesting, I thought, and zipped off an e-mail. Now here I am with its president, Nofil Iqbal, who, it transpires, was born in Pakistan.
"I was brought to Japan 26 years ago when I was 6 after my father was transferred by PIA International Airlines." (A couple of years ago, after being told no foreigner could head up a media business here, Nofil applied to become a Japanese citizen. By the time he found out the rules had been changed, his papers had gone though.)
When he was 18, his parents sent him back back to Pakistan. "I couldn't speak my native language. I knew nothing about our customs. With no access to my culture in Japan, I'd become lost in transition." Four years at a college based on U.K.-U.S. traditions changed him enormously, he says. "There was so much new stuff to take on board. Western culture, Islamic culture . . . which was correct? Both, I learned."