# The journey > A short memoir in ten chapters. Childhood in Multan, the years that almost ended my education, the lab where I came alive, Dubai, Qatar, Emirates, the layoff, two failed partnerships, and the founding of DevBatch. Source: https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/ --- Most of what I write on this site is about the work I am doing now. This section is different. It is the story before the work. I wrote it down because I had asked myself, more than once, what to tell my children about how I came to be the person they know. It is the answer. I have organized it as ten short chapters, each ten or fifteen minutes to read. You can start at the beginning and go straight through, or you can jump to whichever part is useful. The chapters are short on purpose. They are also honest, which is a different thing from impressive. Names of family members beyond my father are not used. The reasons are religious and personal, and I have written about them in [What's in the name](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/whats-in-the-name). My father is named because honoring him is the point. 1. [ 01 10 min ## The childhood that bullied me A village school, then a courtyard in Multan, then the school where I learned what it felt like to be invisible. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/childhood-that-bullied-me) 2. [ 02 10 min ## The boy who could not pass Four years at the elite school in Multan, sitting at the back of every class. The tutor who lived with me for two months and the morning I scored second in the board. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-boy-who-could-not-pass) 3. [ 03 12 min ## The vagabond and the slap Three years at Government Science College where I attended ten classes total, and the morning my father stopped my drift in one second. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-vagabond-and-the-slap) 4. [ 04 10 min ## The lab where I came alive A newspaper advertisement, an admissions office, and the first afternoon I sat in front of a computer keyboard. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-lab-where-i-came-alive) 5. [ 05 10 min ## Lahore and the BCS Hostel rooms, semester systems, second in the batch, an interpreter from Pascal to Fortran, and an internship in Rawalpindi I followed because I admired an artist. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/lahore-and-the-bcs) 6. [ 06 12 min ## Two weeks in Dubai Landing on 29 November 1999, sleeping in a stranger's house in Ajman, and finding the first job before the cash ran out. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/two-weeks-in-dubai) 7. [ 07 14 min ## Pioneer House and after Five years of Dubai. The friendships that shaped me. A marriage. A job offer that became a visa ban. The long way back to Pakistan. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/pioneer-house-and-after) 8. [ 08 12 min ## Qatar and the health cards An email out of nowhere with a ticket and a visa, an oncology software system, and the project that took me from programmer to project manager. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/qatar-and-the-health-cards) 9. [ 09 14 min ## Emirates and the fall The dream job at thirty-two. The post-crisis layoffs. The UK skilled migration application that was rejected on a clerical reading. The lowest professional point of my life. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/emirates-and-the-fall) 10. [ 10 15 min Latest ## Two partnerships and a name A drying-room office in Lahore. Two partnerships that ended badly. The third try, alone, that became DevBatch. ](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/two-partnerships-and-a-name) Next step ## If this was worth your time, there is more of it I read every message that comes through the form. Specific asks get faster replies than open-ended ones. [Start a conversation](https://waqaspitafi.com/connect) [Read more writing](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings)