The other day I met a guy who was grilling steak on company’s grill. He looked every bit immigrant. Mostly west Asian. His name on the badge he wore appeared as Bach Khaalki something like that. He looked at me and smiled.
It was all smoky and smelt grilled beef everywhere. It was shiny and sunny outside. He made a small talk about weather. I responded. Asked him if he thought it would rain.
“Oh about Michigan nothing can be said for sure”
“Where are you from?” Out of curiosity I asked.
“We are Chaldean”
I stumped. Chaldean? Never heard of it before. For a moment I thought might be some Native American ancient tribe either from USA or Canada. Such was my ignorance.
After a moment on a pretext of call on phone, I moved aside and quickly googled to save myself from embarrassing situation.
Google taught me they are the Christians in Iraq who spoke the language Jesus spoke — aramic. Last existing tribe of that ancient era who were the first Christians of the world.
Armed with this information I went back to my new acquaintance. Ever smiling, as if he knew me from past life, I asked him straight “I am sorry I didn’t get you, when you said you are Chaldean. What is it? Where is this place”.
He said exactly the same things google taught me, but in interesting way. He said they are Aramic speakers. I probed him further.
“Do you still speak Aramic at home?”
“Of course yes” with a smile and pride. To prove his point he spoke in Aramic asking, how am I doing. It sounded more like Arabic to me. I told him so.
Yes he said it sounds more like that. He informed me aramic like Arabic is Semitic language.
He said they migrated some 40 years back when Saddam Hussein unleashed atrocities against Chaldean Christians. He and his tribe found second home in USA. He misses his home.
To my astonishment he felt bad that Saddam was hanged. He said here (in USA) every Tom Dick Harry carries a gun and unleashes violence but rarely get death sentence. Mostly they end up in life sentence. And fierce independent ruler was hanged under a rigged up legal system.
I pointed out the contradiction that they (his tribesmen) were persecuted ppl under Saddam. To which he countered that “ he was better I feel now compared to present regime. It wasn’t this bad!”
It was getting long and interesting. I had other boring office meetings lined up. Bid him adieu and went in