My first post - let me first address the issue that has been bothering me almost ever since I started with my new life here.
Like every other newly wedded girl who sets foot on this part of the world, the so called glorious west, I too had a cartload of dreams when I landed in Canada. When I exited the airport, the clean unpolluted air seemed to welcome me to a life full of style and comfort. My drive home was even more impressive what with the clean multi-lane roads, the highly regulated and disciplined traffic, the sky scrapers, the flashy cars and the smooth sailing of our own car. I was, at that point of time, fresh from the influence of the narrow roads, the incessant honking, the highly ruthless drivers, autos and cyclists leaping out in front of your car as if appearing out of thin air, the pits, puddles, bumps and the unnecessary speed breakers making you wonder if you are taking a rollercoaster ride. ......'Smooooooooooth is the word to describe life' I thought.
The next couple of months were all a treat to my senses - Trip to the Niagara, Camping(something I had been dreaming of doing from the time I was a teeny weeny kid reading Enid Blyton), Dining out at fancy restaurants and trying out every cuisine you can name, Shopping, The sweet nothings between me and Nish especially after the months of separation immediately after marraige when I waited for my sponsorship to get through and get my Permanent Residentship, The systematic way everything was organized, be it grocery shopping or getting a car wash at the gas station or offices pertinent to govt. issues or forming a queue to board a train or standing in line to buy tickets for a movie......... 'Wow this is the way to live' I thought.
Not that I didnt like life back home or I didnt miss home. Ofcourse I did. But this new way of life - no crowds, no mess , no hazzles, everything neat and clean and organized and a husband who adored you, added a new freshness and zest to life.
Few months gone before I realized it and now I'm coming back to reality and thinking about what I am going to do here and how I would go about launching myself here. What do I do? Simple - Go to an employment agency specifically meant for immigrants, they'll tell you all that you want to know, lots of them around and they are all funded by the govt. and you dont have to pay a penny - Great!!! So off I go, get registered, meet my counsellor. You are a great candidate she says, good qualification, good english, good communication skills, good personality, you are so marketable and you'll find a job in no time. Even better. We have a trip home in a couple of months, so its better to just grab some job that comes by and then after we are back from the trip you can try for a job in your specific field - Agreed, no problems. A week or two go by and I am called for an interview and lo and behold!!! I am hired! Customer Service Representative for one of the biggest retail chains in Canada and the US. 'You are smart and qualified - your credentials and skills are really appreciated here. Great place to build your career and future, no stumbling blocks' ..........I thought.
I work for a couple of months, go home on vacation, return, resign my job and set about starting to apply in my field of interest and expertise. The killing winter and recession sets in and it all begins...... For weeks and a couple of months I go to agencies specializing in IT employment(its not easy going around in the biting cold by yourself), cold call IT companies, apply online, write up half a dozen diferent formats of resumes. Result - just one interview call and after three rounds of interviews and getting down to the final three, the job goes to another candidate. Reason - hes more experienced than I am and in the present economic situation that candidate is willing to take up an entry level position even though he is qualified for a higher level.
Why didnt I get any other calls? Your degree is not Canadian and your experience is not Canadian. So you have to try a lot more than the natives do. Its difficult to get your first break at a professional level here. So thats the catch. .......'This is not how it was supposed to be' I thought. A sense of apprehension engulfs me.
My career aside, I try to learn to be independant here. First step - driving classes. I had already done my written test and I had the first level license. You cannot rely on public transport all the time and at all seasons and from my experiences this winter, I knew thats very true. Driving automatic cars is very easy, theres no clutch, no gear, just the gas and the brake pedals, thats all, Nish encourages me. Attend class room sessions and on road lessons. On attending class room sessions, I know how stringent the traffic regulations and the penalities are here and I have butterflies in my stomach. My first on road lesson - break hard, you fail the test, who has the right of way at intersections, do it wrong you fail the test, wide left turns, narrow right turns, 3 point turn, parallel parking, changing lanes, you cannot honk without proper reason, mess any of these and you fail the test.........Oh what, what wouldnt I give to drive the way I want and honk my head off if I want to? Anything!!!
What wouldnt I give to just jump out of my house onto the street and visit my neighbour? to lean over my compound wall and have a chat with the cute little girl next door? visit my granny living next street when I felt like it? hop onto our car and order the driver to take me around? call up and take an auto in case the car is not available? buy stuff at the stationary on an empty pocket and promise to pay later? call up the boutique and ask them to keep the outfit reserved for me? refuse lunch and fuss around and have amma asking me what else would it be that I wanted her to cook for me? leave all the dirty dishes and the cleaning up for the maid? order my brother around? get into an aurguement with amma or appa? fool around with my cousins and some of their cute kids?............Anything!!!
What is it that I have at home that I dont have here? freedom, treatment of a first grade citizen, my near and dear ones, the feeling that I am home and a sense of belonging.
What does the future have in store for me here? Will I be able to achieve my goals? How much will we be able to earn and save at the end of it all what with most of the earnings sucked away as taxes? Will my kids grow up the Indian way as I would like them to or will they grow up to be the Non Residential Indian Confused Desis?............I dont know.
What I do know is when the time frame that we have in mind is up, which is not anytime in the near future, me and Nish will fly back home and settle down there for a peaceful retired life......What come may!!!
So much for the so called pomp and glory of the west!!!
BTW, I do have alternate plans for my career that I am slowly working on and the sweet nothings still continue:)
Like every other newly wedded girl who sets foot on this part of the world, the so called glorious west, I too had a cartload of dreams when I landed in Canada. When I exited the airport, the clean unpolluted air seemed to welcome me to a life full of style and comfort. My drive home was even more impressive what with the clean multi-lane roads, the highly regulated and disciplined traffic, the sky scrapers, the flashy cars and the smooth sailing of our own car. I was, at that point of time, fresh from the influence of the narrow roads, the incessant honking, the highly ruthless drivers, autos and cyclists leaping out in front of your car as if appearing out of thin air, the pits, puddles, bumps and the unnecessary speed breakers making you wonder if you are taking a rollercoaster ride. ......'Smooooooooooth is the word to describe life' I thought.
The next couple of months were all a treat to my senses - Trip to the Niagara, Camping(something I had been dreaming of doing from the time I was a teeny weeny kid reading Enid Blyton), Dining out at fancy restaurants and trying out every cuisine you can name, Shopping, The sweet nothings between me and Nish especially after the months of separation immediately after marraige when I waited for my sponsorship to get through and get my Permanent Residentship, The systematic way everything was organized, be it grocery shopping or getting a car wash at the gas station or offices pertinent to govt. issues or forming a queue to board a train or standing in line to buy tickets for a movie......... 'Wow this is the way to live' I thought.
Not that I didnt like life back home or I didnt miss home. Ofcourse I did. But this new way of life - no crowds, no mess , no hazzles, everything neat and clean and organized and a husband who adored you, added a new freshness and zest to life.
Few months gone before I realized it and now I'm coming back to reality and thinking about what I am going to do here and how I would go about launching myself here. What do I do? Simple - Go to an employment agency specifically meant for immigrants, they'll tell you all that you want to know, lots of them around and they are all funded by the govt. and you dont have to pay a penny - Great!!! So off I go, get registered, meet my counsellor. You are a great candidate she says, good qualification, good english, good communication skills, good personality, you are so marketable and you'll find a job in no time. Even better. We have a trip home in a couple of months, so its better to just grab some job that comes by and then after we are back from the trip you can try for a job in your specific field - Agreed, no problems. A week or two go by and I am called for an interview and lo and behold!!! I am hired! Customer Service Representative for one of the biggest retail chains in Canada and the US. 'You are smart and qualified - your credentials and skills are really appreciated here. Great place to build your career and future, no stumbling blocks' ..........I thought.
I work for a couple of months, go home on vacation, return, resign my job and set about starting to apply in my field of interest and expertise. The killing winter and recession sets in and it all begins...... For weeks and a couple of months I go to agencies specializing in IT employment(its not easy going around in the biting cold by yourself), cold call IT companies, apply online, write up half a dozen diferent formats of resumes. Result - just one interview call and after three rounds of interviews and getting down to the final three, the job goes to another candidate. Reason - hes more experienced than I am and in the present economic situation that candidate is willing to take up an entry level position even though he is qualified for a higher level.
Why didnt I get any other calls? Your degree is not Canadian and your experience is not Canadian. So you have to try a lot more than the natives do. Its difficult to get your first break at a professional level here. So thats the catch. .......'This is not how it was supposed to be' I thought. A sense of apprehension engulfs me.
My career aside, I try to learn to be independant here. First step - driving classes. I had already done my written test and I had the first level license. You cannot rely on public transport all the time and at all seasons and from my experiences this winter, I knew thats very true. Driving automatic cars is very easy, theres no clutch, no gear, just the gas and the brake pedals, thats all, Nish encourages me. Attend class room sessions and on road lessons. On attending class room sessions, I know how stringent the traffic regulations and the penalities are here and I have butterflies in my stomach. My first on road lesson - break hard, you fail the test, who has the right of way at intersections, do it wrong you fail the test, wide left turns, narrow right turns, 3 point turn, parallel parking, changing lanes, you cannot honk without proper reason, mess any of these and you fail the test.........Oh what, what wouldnt I give to drive the way I want and honk my head off if I want to? Anything!!!
What wouldnt I give to just jump out of my house onto the street and visit my neighbour? to lean over my compound wall and have a chat with the cute little girl next door? visit my granny living next street when I felt like it? hop onto our car and order the driver to take me around? call up and take an auto in case the car is not available? buy stuff at the stationary on an empty pocket and promise to pay later? call up the boutique and ask them to keep the outfit reserved for me? refuse lunch and fuss around and have amma asking me what else would it be that I wanted her to cook for me? leave all the dirty dishes and the cleaning up for the maid? order my brother around? get into an aurguement with amma or appa? fool around with my cousins and some of their cute kids?............Anything!!!
What is it that I have at home that I dont have here? freedom, treatment of a first grade citizen, my near and dear ones, the feeling that I am home and a sense of belonging.
What does the future have in store for me here? Will I be able to achieve my goals? How much will we be able to earn and save at the end of it all what with most of the earnings sucked away as taxes? Will my kids grow up the Indian way as I would like them to or will they grow up to be the Non Residential Indian Confused Desis?............I dont know.
What I do know is when the time frame that we have in mind is up, which is not anytime in the near future, me and Nish will fly back home and settle down there for a peaceful retired life......What come may!!!
So much for the so called pomp and glory of the west!!!
BTW, I do have alternate plans for my career that I am slowly working on and the sweet nothings still continue:)
6 comments:
Ha haaa !! How very disturbingly real !!!That's life in the west deifned-in-a-nutshell for ya! You captured it all in a single post! India may be polluted,crowded,not-so-disciplined, but after getting a hint of life in the oh-so-clean-and-disciplined-and-easy-going west, I think it goes unsaid that there's something terribly missing here which holds life together back in India;the people;the love.Great way to start blogging. Keep at it.Hey, you could try out free templates from cutestblogontheblock.com.Mine is from there. :) Good Luck babes, with your blog, with your job hunt and of course, with life away from home.:)It could be fun after all! :)
Thanks a bunch purple heart, I needed that and I'd be sure to try out templates from that site.
That's one good post..I can relate a lot to my 1 year stay in US esp the driving part..It was a nightmare..But one thing I've noticed and experienced is our country fellowmen and women are more closely knit over there than in our home country...I haven't even seen my next door neighbor here in Bangalore though I've been in this apartment for 5 months.Good luck with your blog
Yea S,its only when you're else where that you tend to stick more to your own people and long for company of the kind you can identify with,human nature I guess.
Oh my!!! a really gud one!!! didnt know u write so well.. U have scripted ur lovely life in the name of blog... I think i need to give a second thought for my trip to the west, looks too scary. lol...
Thanks a lot Sri, I need those boosters to keep me going.keep visiting me:)
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