Being Canadian and a desi too
By Kumkum Ramchandani
You know why I love living in Canada? Because I can be a Canadian yet not relinquish my desi identity. I live in Mississauga, 30 minutes from downtown Toronto, a booming city (Canada's sixth largest) where the economy is being pumped up in a large part by the high proportion of 'visible minorities'. Almost 40 per cent of Mississaugans are 'brown' or a similar colour.
Being Canadian means that I can go to any of the two neighbourhood Indian stores and buy paneer and aloo parathas. During Ramadan, my neighbourhood stores (appropriately entitled Mr.India and Raj India) sell dates and sherbet at special rates. For iftar, there is biryani and shami kebabs. Even though I watch ice hockey and dejectedly but loyally cheer on Toronto's Maple Leafs (the most frustrating team ever), pour maple syrup on my pancakes and eat maple walnut ice cream, I can buy the most delectable samosas ($1 for 3) and gulab jamuns too. I watch Corner Gas on TV (typically Canadian wry comedy) and buy Kal Ho Na Ho ($2.50). I can buy goose down jackets for winter or pashmina shawls at the Punjabi market.
When I go to the neighbourhood park for a walk, I see many ladies in salwar kameezes and socks and trainers, which brings tears of nostalgia to my eyes. On festivals, we desis come out in all our finery. When 100,000 Sikhs march festively on the streets in traditional garb, the Mayor of Mississauga says its the most beautiful sight she has ever seen. Recently she wore a sari and bindi. She's 85 but did bhangra with an Indian troupe.
A lot of talk has been going on about Canada's multiculturalism, which is an actual federal policy. It differs from America's 'melting pot' concept in that it allows us to adopt Canada as our country but be proud of our own culture as well.
After 9/11 (which has become a favourite whipping horse), multiculturalism has come in for a bit of beating. Critics say that it is vague and does not instil a sense of national identity. They say it causes ghettoization and marginality. What they fail to take into account is happiness. We brown and similar coloured Canadians live in peace and harmony. We respect each other's cultures and simultaneously adopt Canadian ways.
Take my street for instance. We have Pakistanis, Sikhs and Guyanese Indians. But we also have Ukrainians, Chinese, Italians, Portuguese, Puerto Ricans, Koreans and white Canadians of Scottish descent. On Diwali, we light diyas and burst firecrackers. On Canada Day, we meet in the park to light more firecrackers. On Halloween, we buy sweets and crisps to fill those bottomless sacks of trick or treaters of different ethnicities. My immediate neighbour, a white lady married to a black gentleman, keeps Christmas cookies outside my door in December. My Italian neighbour from across helps me shovel the snow on my driveway. We mow each other's lawns and keep an eye on each other's kids.
There are certain icons that mark this country's rich diversity. Caribana, celebration of the people of Caribbean descent, is a rich colourful noisy pageant visited by a million people each year, our own desi Masala Mehndi Masti has burgeoned in size and become an annual feast, Carrassauga in Mississauga is another annual multiethnic entertainment where every community has its own pavilion, the list is endless.
Canadians are one of the most giving and charitable people in the world. They are tolerant and interested in other cultures. Imagine, even after 9/11, most Canadians (over 70 percent if the figures are to believed) think that immigrants provide positive benefits to the country.
True, there are certain unsavoury elements who create racial strife but that is true of every society. Over here, even these bad seeds realize they have it good so their dissent is pretty token in nature. There are certain blimps of a federal nature like land rights issues of native people (the “other Indians”) and of course the Air India disaster. But on the whole, Canada is a haven of peace in a world riddled with strife. But typical of the diffident Canadian nature, this is not talked about enough. But I am desi and I can.....
