Life
Why I avoid people from my country?
‘You have been in Canada for a year and you still don’t know anyone from your community?’ asked an Indian co-worker in a tone that told me it was something I failed to achieve.
I said no and for the next hour thought about ways to explain myself to him.
Then I decided not to.
How would I be able to explain to him that for a year I have been deliberately trying to avoid people from my community?
Yes, I can explain all those reasons to myself, my wife, and if I am a good enough writer, to you, my reader. But to someone I have known for a month and who asks me the question as if I didn’t know Tim Hortons yet, how would I ever be able to explain myself?
I started avoiding people from my community (in this case country) as soon as my wife and I left the only international airport in Nepal last April. No…wait…that would be a lie… I have been avoiding people from my community other than my family for twelve years. But I think I should come back to that later. (I always wanted to do this coming back later thing.)
As soon as we took off from Nepal, I aggressively began avoiding the people of my country. Such that, in the Charles de Gaulle airport, a guy from Nepal asked me for a lighter in English. It helped that I look like an…
