Ghalti Kahan Hui?
One brother shared his short story and asked where he went wrong, hoping others could learn from his experience. He said, “Sir, I got a modest job, and then I got engaged. When it was time to get married, the girl’s family demanded that I first build a house—demolish the old one and construct a new one. It was impossible to build a house with the money set aside for the wedding.
When the money fell short, I borrowed from relatives. Since I was already in debt, how could I afford the wedding? The girl’s family pressured me for the marriage, so I took some loans from friends and the bank for the wedding. Now, how could I manage the loans for both the house and the wedding with my salary? I thought about going abroad for work. The medical, protector visa, ticket, and residency permit altogether cost ten hundred thousand rupees. I sold my mother’s and my wife’s jewelry and borrowed a bit more from my in-laws and came to Saudi Arabia.
I estimated it would take me three years to pay off all the debts before I could return on leave. I have no skills, and I’m doing a minor job for twelve hundred riyals.
Right now, I still have to repay the original loans. After that, for many years, whenever they need money, I’ll have to lend them more in return for their initial loans. If I don’t, I’ll face disgrace—because when I was in trouble, they helped me, and now when they need money, I won’t be able to provide it.
He said he was in deep depression, thinking about how his life got buried under debt, leaving his pregnant wife after a new marriage and coming thousands of miles away for several years.
In my observations, I’ve seen many similar stories. A middle or lower-middle-class guy often finds himself stuck in a quagmire of debt while trying to get married and build a home. One common aspect I noticed is that such guys often lack any skills that could increase their income. They have only modest jobs and limited education, which is worth no more than thirty or forty thousand rupees a month.
In my opinion, this brother made two mistakes. The first was the huge mistake of insisting on building a house; he could have married in the old house. The second mistake was going to the Gulf without any skills or marketable education because life without skills in the Gulf is extremely challenging.
