Confessions of an Immigrant- 13

365 days Theory

I had thought before that I won’t be there at one place for a long time. I had a plan for 180 days theory just like Sachin Garg’s book. But all went in vain. I felt a strong ephemeral connection with the place I was living that whenever I plan to move out, I end up moving in again in that same place. This has happened thrice. And finally, I am leaving the place. Technically, it’s been 358 days since I have been living in this house.

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Now I have moved to Brampton, the Minnie India. The relocation is the toughest segment in a person’s life. I felt the same here when I was leaving India. The zeal of emotions overpowered me. A connection theory revolves around this. Whenever I used to plan to leave that place, I had always changed the decision but this time the decision turned into an action. I lived there for one year. The memories that hover over my mind are ethereal. The time spent with roommates, trying different restaurants, shopping, showing dresses to each other, sharing emotions and giving endless advice and at times fighting too. All these became parts and parcel of our life. The separation was difficult but still, it was never a goodbye, but always a reason to talk again and again.

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Brampton, the new phase sounded ecstatic but came out to be tough. The same thing, finding the routes were a roller coaster ride. I can’t believe that using Mr. Google can also make me lose my way. The reason being, Mr. Google never tells that the area I am going to have a ravine or a construction zone. Mr. Google will be Mr. Google, isn’t it?

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There are different modes of transport here. Zum Bus stops at Zum stops only, whereas for reaching other places or interiors of the area, you need Brampton Transit. If you want to travel Mississauga, then Mi-way or Zum comes to your rescue. Further, if you want to go to Toronto then Go Bus or Go Train is the best. These transits actually baffle my mind as in one day sometimes you have to take all the transits. My travel revolves around two cities: Brampton and Downtown henceforth, I take Brampton Transit, Go Train, Subway and TTC Bus. If I make any passes, then they come out to be a wastage of money, so I use Presto which can be used in all the four places. Now I have connected my Presto with student ID so I get 18% discount.

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Talking about the Brampton Transit, the frequencies are much lesser here. One bus comes after every 30-40 mins or even after an hour. If you miss your bus, then you are late. So, it is better to plan your journey one day ahead. Should I boost my reaching college half an hour before in spite being living almost 2 hours away! Most of my classes start at 8:30 so I get up at 5:15 and reach my bus stop at 6:10 where my bus comes at 6:19 and by 6:26 I reach the Go station. From there, I take 6:32 Go train and reach at 7:25. Then I take Southbound subway followed by another Eastbound Subway. I reach Pape station at 7:50 and then the final TTC I take. Mortimer Avenue is just 2 stops away. You can walk too but in mornings, you are sleepwalking, so I take that. I reach at 8:05 and I have my breakfast. This is my routine. The journey is tiresome, but I get some sleep in that time. I cannot believe myself that, I do all of this. I am not a morning person and here I am getting up early and managing everything. Sometimes, I like to give myself a thumbs up for being courageous to do that.

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Perks of traveling in Go train can be sleeping, reading and writing your thoughts while experiencing them. I met many amazing people while traveling and got to learn so many tricks.

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My uncle is my train buddy. I am almost flabbergasted by his tricks, but I feel they are perfect. He takes the third compartment while going and takes the first compartment while coming back. On being asked, he told me his theory of compartments. He says that the third last compartment opens at Bay Street from where he can take the Southbound Subway easily while coming back, the first compartment opens near the parking side. It sounded weird but when I tried it, made some sense to me. Mostly, students and working-class travel on Go train.

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Then I had an encounter with an HR Professional who always takes the fourth compartment from the last. I happened to sit there so I met her. She cleared so many notions about the HR field. My previous course was Human Resource Management, so I was curious about this field and her work culture. She told me that this field involves writing too and I was unaware of this fact. Meeting with her came out to be knowledgeable.

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Also, I met this Pakistani lady who told me about her experiences in this country. She told me that she had been in Canada for 45 years and I was wondering how she can live here for so many years. She told me about her family and about her languages. She speaks such an amazing Hindi and Urdu. Despite being 75 years old, she likes to travel. She had come to Brampton to meet her daughter and she was going back to her son. She talked about the people of Canada and how beautifully this country accepted her and her family. The Go train experiences had been fabulous, and I feel that my other write-ups would include Subway and train journeys as my most of the time is spent here.

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Talking about the bus drivers, they are helpful. I happened to take Zum bus once where I asked about the stop from the driver. I told him that I was new. He welcomed me and told me about the Zum stops and the helpline numbers where can I call if I lost my way. There was another bus driver who helped me a lot. I was running late for my work in Mississauga. I had to catch another bus and I had missed it in front of my eyes. The driver had no passengers to drop, so he helped me catch the bus. He took me from another side and I could catch the bus.

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Brampton city has been friendly, helpful and amazing for me. I never felt so positive and lively after coming here. I feel that my decision of coming here, despite the distance has been fruitful. I hope things go positive this way.

Confessions of an Immigrant- 12

This rant is dedicated to Indo- Canadians who did every possible thing to let me down. When I was leaving India, my dad told me,” Beta! Be with your own people as they will help their own community.” I was pretty sure that his advise will be worthy for me in this new land. But when I entered the doors of Canada, my uncle told me something which was entirely opposite of what my dad had told. The very next day he took me to a bank where I was supposed to open my account. He took me to an Indian lady and asked her to help us in this context. To my surprise, she said that they were closing in 45 mins so they wont be able to attend us. My chachu was upset with this thing. He took me to another branch where he complained about that lady. He is very particular about these things and he knows how to get things done. Then we were entertained by the manager who guided me with all the things related to bank. He was satisfied with his services and appreciated him. After all this, he told me,” See Beta! You are in Canada and learn one thing that in Canada, your own people will let you down and with this instance what he said sounded correct.” I was in a dilemma and had so many thoughts that were fiddling over my mind. I thought not all people are like that. I was full of faith and positivity during my initial days in Canada.

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But thanx to these so called Indo- Canadians who badly proved me wrong with every step I took. Now I am almost an year old in this country. I help all those people who are planning to come to Canada. I dont give them false hopes but a reality check about these great people. In this one year, I realised that such people will never let you rise. So, who are these people? They are those people who are now Canadians but cannot change their so called contaminated minds. They reward you with their taunts, discourage you with their high status, crush you with their own praise and mock you at your Nationality when they themselves belong to that clan.

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When I was getting out of TTC bus, I was almost about to slip because of snow, when an Indo- Canadian remarked as a ‘Stupid Indian.’ That was the first attack on my Nationality by my own people. I just gave a staunch stare and went out.

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The next instance was an EPIC! I overheard a group of ladies talking to each other. They were saying that these days every other person is coming to Canada. They are making our Canada a village, so called Villagers who just want to get PR. Wow! What a remark, right? I was wondering that these women were calling our India a village, then who are they? Are they not villagers, who came much before us and now have a PR, so that they can give their own Nation this remark? Hats off to their sensibility.

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I have met great people in Canada who left no stone unturned to let me down. Be it at work place, college or any other place. I would like to thank those cheaters, rascals,morons who have not only let me down but also their own community down. When other people gave their introductions in college, they said they were Brazilians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Canadian but when people of our Nation gave, they said we are from Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, South but very rare said that they were from India. The only similarity between India and Canada is that they are multi-cultural countries and respect everyone. Then why in Canada we cannot come as a whole and say we are from India? Afterol, it is our Nationality. Here we are representing our country, not a particular cult or community. Learn to respect each other for God’s sake.

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Coming to Racism, forget others, lets talk about our own people. My Tamilian friend was beaten by a group of Punjabi students because he had won a certain game. Two Punjabi guys gave a racist comment on my friend who had a darker complexion, thinking that she is a Negro and doesn’t understand Hindi. I was refused a job because I am a Punjabi and have a fairer skin. A Chinese girl was beaten brutally infront of a gas station by some Indians because she was a Chinese. A Gujarati guy made racist comment on two Punjabi girls. My resume was thrown in a garbage by an Indo Canadian Restaurant owner because I am an Indian. Punjabi owners hate to keep Punjabi students at their basements. Superb!

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To add more, I have some splendid personalities with super judgemental powers. They judge on stupidest things. They think that you have befriended them because you want to go in their car. Moreover, such people think that you are using them to get their things done but in reality you are just looking for a friend. Salute to their mentalities!

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Why we Indians hate each other in Canada? This is because there are people among us who have painted this picture. After meeting such people, even now I hate such double faced cheap people. They die if you rise. They will burn to ashed if they get to know, you have a job or you have some money to support yourself. It is a shame on these people who have let me down. They thought that they will break me but sorry to you folks! You have made me stronger. With every taunt you gave me, with every betrayal you gifted me, with every demotivation you bestowed over me, has made me a survivor. Today after an year, after all those endless sufferings, struggles I have realised that these bad things were meant to happen. This is because God wanted me to show the other side of the coin. My notion, that this world is full of beautiful and good people finally breathed its last breath. I know that this world has some good and more of bad people. It is either right or either wrong.

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Moving forward, I met some wonderful people here who added positivity in my life. They are my extended family in Canada. They were always there to support me, provide me links, give me reality checks, guide me and their struggle stories made me realise that they also went through these trials and tribulations, so I am no indifferent from them. It is parts and parcel of life. This is the reason when I meet a new Immigrant, I tell them the harsh realities so that they are prepared for the worst. Canada goes with no trusting anyone, no showering favors on anyone policy. Stay away from such double faced, insensitive Indo- Canadians.

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My one year of frustration is gone. I have thrown  away negativity,stress out of my system and now I am ready for the new challenges. So dear troubles, please do come my way so that I can kick your ass off and move forward as a stronger entity.

 

Confessions of an Immigrant- 11

Hello beautiful people,

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I hope you all are doing amazing in your lives and many of you might be missing my updates on Confessions of an Immigrant. Well, past few months have been super busy with assignments, final exams and with this, I have successfully completed my semester as well as the course. So, now I can say a Very Happy New Year to you all. You might want to know how my New Year was. Isnt it?

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Well, for the first time I was alone on 31st December, 2017. I spent the last few minutes alone at my place and cut the cake. I wished my family and talked to people just to get over my loneliness. Coming to resolutions, I have not made any till now. Winters have taken a hault in my life. Earlier I was dying to see the snow, feel the first touch of it but all went in vain when I got terribly sick for a week or so. I couldn’t enjoy the snow and trust me guys, living in -20 temperature is terrible. I was wondering that my friends in India cry over 17 degree, what will happen to them if they have to witness this period. Now, I badly want this stupid snow to end. One more thing I learnt here that diseases, flu in Canada are way too different as compared to India so if you are in Canada and in this weather then you better take a flu shot when you are perfectly fine. It is free of cost and anyone can take it from Shoppers Drug Mart.

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Winters are depressing to be frank and this cold climate makes you really lathargic and you tend to miss your classes but we couldn’t even do that as we had those stupid in class assignments which were a matter of life and death for all of us. Thanks to these in class that actually passed all of us.

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These past few months have been hectic and many new bombs were exploded on us. I got to know about people, their true colours and what not. It was terrible knowing the fact that the people you felt were close to you, came out to be stupid morons or rather say back bitchers. I have met new people as well who were gem of a person. Not only this, I realised that our teachers can be good and worst at the same time. We praised and cursed at the same time.

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I just went to Stratford for a quick vacation where I learnt playing Bukaro game which was as hilarious and brainy. I played it with my other set of family and we almost spent 4 hours playing that.

Not only this, my friends have named me Miss Accident Prone as I have fallen on snow almost 4-5 times. It sounds hilarious but the after pain is excruciating. All thanx to my fear to walk on snow. Thankfully my bones are not broken. Lol.

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I have developed connection with writing poetry on Yourquote which is my solace these days. Homesickness is not that much these days as I feel more attached and connected to my family. When I do video chats with my friends, relatives and others, I feel so better and charged. You all are my support system and I feel healed.

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My search to find the best place for eating Butter Chicken is still going on. I tried four restaurants which turned out to be extremely stupid and they surely turned my mood off.

Motivation comes in all ways. So, there was a training session where my team had to teach the whole class how to make Chinese Paper Lamp and I wished everyone Happy New Year in Chinese. The training session was fun and I learnt that I am a confident person and handle a session very well. The team work and spirit taught me many things. I got close to my team and learnt alot from their ideas and skills.

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One more thing happened was my old connections. I am reviving my old friendships, connections and meeting my old friends who are coming to Canada and who have been there already so that makes me more happy these days. Time spent with them has been amazing and would love to do that all over again and again. Cheers to old friends and their friendships.

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This year I am surely planning to visit Niagara Falls. I hope this happens soon but will definitely go in summers as in winters they are frozen.

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That is all I have to convey, will be back with another story and discussion issue.

Confessions of an Immigrant- 9

It took me 5 months to realise that writing confessions on my blog gives some sort of peace to me. My tired mind gets relaxed while writing it. The past two months have been a roller coaster ride. I hardly knew what the hell was I doing and where I was going. The non stop assignments, tests made me so busy that I didn’t even get a single minute to think like what the hell was I doing with my life.

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The days in Canadian lifestyle have never been good for an immigrant. At times it is the never ending homesickness, the grief of losing your loved ones, the situations, managing finances, trusting wrong people and to add more, the jobless times. There are times when you feel homeless inspite of living in an apartment. Sometimes you are so alone in your class. You have a company of 39 more classmates still it feels lonely. Only at the time of in class you realise you have classmates as thats the time you talk to them.

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In this one semester I guess I have lived those segments which I have never went through in my past 21 years. I ended up meeting wrong people at wrong time and made mistakes which could have avoided. I won’t say I am sad, upset or depressed. In fact a feeling of aggression hover over mind where I badly want to do soemthing but I can’t. I try to mend the broken pieces of my life but always end up breaking new pieces. Every time the struggles are doubled or tripled. When we were in school we were taught two things, “HELP OTHERS!” ” BE A TRUE FRIEND TO SOMEONE WHO IS IN NEED!” Well, thankyou my dear teachers for these two things but unfortunately in Canada the situation is reverse. Canada goes with three rules, “THINK ABOUT YOURSELF!” “NEVER HELP OTHERS!” “NEVER TRUST OTHERS, NOT EVEN YOUR CLOSED ONES!”

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After going through a major down phase I realised this thing. Sometimes you learn by falling down. But what you learn from that downfall makes you. It is your life and you make the best out of it. The exam phase taught me one thing about teachers. They are generous in giving marks and adjusting the scores. These assignments actually saved us. Even in Canada bad things happen to Teachers. They are misjudged. Here also, our teacher was accused of something which for which she was not at fault. She was hurt and left the college. She performed the duty of a true teacher by conducting the exams. She could have left the job immediately. But she never did. When she hugged me and cried, that was the moment I realised, how dedicated she was. The whole semester she was telling us about the major assignment and she gave us extensions for that. After all that struggle and hardwork we got our grades but what she got? An accusation! I have never seen such a behavior and ached my soul. This incident actually made me respect her even more. Before going she told me, Surbhi, now you have a story to tell to your readers and here I am writing about her. I can only say, I will miss you Mila.

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Today I was in my most bad spirits when all of sudden out of the blew my friend called me. She knew I was not in a good mood. And to make the mood light she asked me to tell everything what was going on my mind as she has gone through all those things in these 3 years so she can imagine my situation. I felt light after telling her my thoughts and made it lighter by telling her about her situations and how she found a way out. She made me realise that there is a way out to everything. Its just you need to figure them out and sort it in the best possible way. At times you have to put a major cut down on things you want to have and at times you need to sacrifice your sleep to earn something. Hard work pays off. She cited those girly examples which actually cor- related to the things. I felt a bit sorted in my mind while talking to her. So immigrants, if you ever feel in that situation, talk to a friend, listen to a song. For me its talking to a friend who has gone through so much and writing my thoughts out so that I can be at peace.

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Parents are always with you. Sometimes you end up making mistakes but its parents who will listen to you, love you and give you the right direction. Your parents are your family and trust me, nobody will come to rescue you or help you when you will be in need. At times, you can manage on your own but then their are cases where everything can’t be managed on your own. Maybe its best to talk to them and tell them how you feel about them. Since you are away and busy, you can’t tell them how much you care about them, you can’t express your true emotions. At times you need to tell them the best things that has happened to you but back home its night and you have to wait for the morning. Now in morning you are late and you are unable to call them and tell them the news. Then the news become a casual story. And here comes the misunderstandings. Love is on both side but this stupid moron distance and time gap acts like an evil. Same goes with friends and relatives. The best taunts you ever hear is “You have gone so busy or you have forgotten us.” Nobody has ever forgotten you, you will always be there in the heart, its just the time and priorities which have changed.

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I have cleared my semester1 and now one more to go. Things can be harsh and harsher but you should know that you are a fighter and you have to fight every battle alone and inspire yourself all the time because your parents, friends and relatives will never be there with you all the time. It is you and you only who has to work hard, make them proud and bleed till you succeed.

Episode 3- Classics or New Age Romantics?

My teachers have always advised me to read classics as according to them, if you want to improve or learn something then its the classics that are important. They call New Age Romantics a crap because they think all they have to talk about is, love story, breakups, patch ups, sexual content and many more. Follow This post and stay tuned..:)

My teachers have always advised me to read classics as according to them, if you want to improve or learn something then its the classics that are important. They call New Age Romantics a crap because they think all they have to talk about is, love story, breakups, patch ups, sexual content and many more.

I am not challenging my teachers because I respect my teachers a lot but I always have one question that hovers over my mind. It is big confusion time for me as I belong to a group of New Age Romantics while my teachers belong to a time where they have read only classics. So for them this simple, cool hi-fi language is not appropriate. They don’t approve of the slangs used these days. I was talking about the question so I shall come to that.

I feel that what these mind blowing classicists like

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Confessions of a Bibliophile

Confessions of a Bibliophile on Kaffeinated Konversations.. stay tuned for more updates guys.. follow my Confessions.. it will be posted every Sunday ..:D

Episode1- Marry Me Nolan Parker

If you are reading this confession then you are in love with books. Have you ever fallen for the characters in the novel? If your answer is Yes, then you are reading the right article.

I am in love with characters to such an extend that I can imagine them in my life. I can imagine that ruthless, handsome Heathcliff staring at me. I can feel the care of Augustus Waters. I can inhale the heavenly touch of Nolan Parker. And not to forget my dream teacher, Rowan Masters. I am in love with them all. Well, that is called the novel effect. It is a moment of happy dance for the authors if you remember their characters. The popularity of a character is a biggest achievement for the author.

Books are magical guys. Most of us say that books are our best friends but…

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