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| Mahrukh |
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| Che |
Che’s mental health struggles continued and yet he steadily made progress. He completed his high school but had to drop out of the college program in broadcast journalism.
Much to his parents’ surprise, he began working at Blue
Jays on 8 April 2017. He was still
a few months short of 20; and he found this job without anyone's assistance,
applied for it and got it. It was a minimum wage job, but it was a proud moment
for his mom and dad.
Our house was slowly become a home. Mahrukh
single-handedly transformed it by adding bits and pieces of furniture, house
plants, home appliances and a million other things that gave it a distinct
identity that was a reflection of her personality.
By 2017, three years into my second job in
Canada, I was in a dilemma – whether to continue in a steady employment or look
for something that better fitted my abilities and aptitude.
 |
| My colleagues at a baseball game in a playing field behind our office |
What kept me in the job was the company of my
many colleagues. I enjoyed my daily interactions with all of them, especially
with those with whom I could talk about issues of contemporary relevance.
In particular, I cherish the memory of debating
with one colleague who read my novel with interest and eagerly discussed
critical aspects of the story; she gave me a memoir of a pious Muslim’s
decision to convert to Christianity.
I continued to supplement my
income by doing freelance for Anand Raj Giri, a publisher based in the Middle
East, and content writing for the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.
OOO-----OOO-----OOO
In
2017 Jagmeet Singh was elected leader of the National Democratic Party. He is
the first non-white person to lead a political party in Canada. It is unlikely he
will ever be the Prime Minister because there is a glass ceiling that
non-whites will not be able to breach for a long time to occupy the Prime
Minister’s post in Canada.
Jagmeet
Singh’s ascension opened old wounds and created new ones. Singh is a vociferous
critic of India’s record on human rights, especially of India’s treatment of
its minorities. On this issue, Singh finds broad acceptance from different
segments of Canadian and Indian voices.
However, his refusal to unequivocally
condemn the terrorists responsible for the 1985 Air India bombing continues to
rile the political establishment in both the countries.
In
1984, I was in the Punjab for all summer, living with the family of my friend
Rajinder Singh Bhelley, a Sikh, in Mandi Gobindgarh; that visit and prolonged
stay changed forever my perception about the Punjab situation and gave me an
insight to understand the incidents that changed India’s history in 1984.
There
is no denying the significant impact the anti-Sikh riots in India in 1984 have
had on the Sikh psyche globally, including and especially in Canada.
Surprisingly, the impact is palpably noticeable even on a generation that was
born in Canada and after 1984 and did not have any firsthand experience of the
crisis that engulfed the Punjab in the 1970s and the 1980s.
The
Indian state imploded politically, allowing the Pakistan-backed extremists to take
control of the state, leading to an unimaginable carnage of both the Hindus and
the Sikhs. India’s Indian National Congress party is to be held responsible for
fomenting the problem, if not creating it.
But
a lot of water has flowed down the five rivers of the Punjab, and the
separatist sentiments that were ingrained in the Sikh psyche have all but evaporated.
At present, and for at least two-and-a-half decades, the demand for a separate
country for Sikhs – Khalistan – is only heard outside India.
Over
the last decade in Canada, I’ve often been surprised to see some prominent Sikhs
identify themselves on the basis of their faith, and distinct from
Indo-Canadians. Canada gives right to its citizens to hold an opinion and
express it freely even if it is at variance with that of the majority.
This
freedom is politicised. In the name of free speech, a vocal section of the Sikh
population has turned the legitimate campaign for human rights of the religious
and caste minorities in India into a political weapon to influence the outcome
of Canadian elections.
OOO-----OOO-----OOO
The
Harvey Weinstein’s case exploded in 2017 and unleashed the #MeToo movement
globally. This is a political movement that has changed the power equation in
favour of women, especially in the workplace.
Nearly
all men are guilty of impropriety in their interaction with women colleagues in
the workplace. And for men to behave
properly is the least that a constantly changing work environment requires,
especially when women are constantly proving themselves better at everything
that men do.
As
in any revolution, the changes that the #MeToo movement will bring about will
unfold over the next decade or so. The first and the much-needed change will be
the end of discriminatory pay structure and implementation for equal pay for
women. But for the revolution to make any meaningful change, it will have to
become truly universal, and not be limited to the socially developed western
democracies.
OOO-----OOO-----OOO
At
the Toronto International Film Festival, I saw Anurag Kshyap’s Mukkabaaz and
Hansal Mehta’s Omerta, and I saw Sachin – a billion dreams on a newly-installed
Android box at home, a technology that welcomingly subverts the stranglehold of
cable television on home entertainment. Shabana Azmi came to Mississauga to
perform Broken Images (written by Girish Karnad), and SWATRI group staged
GRAMMA.
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