HELLO JI!
LOVE YOU SNOW MUCH, CANADA!
Would I exchange my cold corner of the planet for any other? I think not. Image credit: VENRICK AZCUETA on Unsplash.
Once upon a time, Indians abroad used to be annoyed when subjected to questions about snake charmers on the streets of Indian cities and about the Indian rope trick. Now with Indian IT professionals having basically taken over the industry worldwide, they are on relatively safe ground.
Canadians? Not so much, when it comes to questions about whether one sees polar bears on the streets. My neighbour Dorothy used to return from visiting her daughter in New York mighty irritated by the questions she dealt with about the cold from her daughter’s neighbours. “They are in New York, for Pete’s sake!” she’d exclaim, “they know cold!”
It doesn’t help that people like me fuel this “wild” image by sharing images of coyotes out for a stroll behind our home.
Or Jon Stewart on Canada: “I don’t trust any country that looks around a continent and says, ‘Hey, I’ll take the frozen part’.”
Or learning that The Last of Us, set in post-apocalyptic United States, was filmed in Alberta.
I used to think it’s a “newcomer thing”, sending home reports of just how cold it can get in Canada. And how Canadians embrace that cold. I recall sharing stories of how our neighbour would bundle up her newborn and walk to school with the baby in a stroller instead of taking the car to pick up her older child. “We both need some fresh air!” she’d say with a smile.
How teachers went through the daily routine of taking all the little ones out for the short recess in what I saw as inclement weather. They’d help them put on their layers, the hats and mitts and winter boots, and then watch over them as they ran around in the snow, building snow forts and making snow angels. Back inside, the routine would play out in reverse, helping the kids remove everything, putting damp mitts and hats on the radiant heaters to dry, lining up the boots in trays. And mopping the floors from the slush that was tracked in.
And how our sons learned to camp in the snow as Scouts.
Friends and family visiting from India are astonished when my husband puts on a jacket – over shorts – and steps out to retrieve the daily newspaper from the driveway in peak winter.
Which brings us to why no one questioned how the poor female actors in old Hindi movies pranced around in the snow in chiffons saris, sometimes barefoot. I kid you not. Watch YouTube videos of Palkon ke peechhe se kya tumne keh dala from the movie Talash and you’ll see Sharmila Tagore doing just that.
I wish winter wouldn’t last this long, but I also have feel-good, heartwarming stories of our winters. Like that of the neighbour who clears our driveway and that of others on our street with his snowblower after a major storm and waves off any attempts to thank him.
Would I exchange my cold corner of the planet for any other? I think not.
Happy New Year! Stay warm!
Shagorika Easwar