Shed some light....

Author Name: Harsha.G.V.
Age: 24 years
Country: Currently in Canada

I was returning home from office. It was a late Friday evening and it was fully dark in Toronto. The bus in Toronto does not stop in front of the bus shelter but stops at a distance from it. But still I went inside the bus shelter just to keep myself warm. There were 2 blacks in the same bus shelter and that made me somewhat uncomfortable. The bus shelter is just 5 feet long and 8 feed wide.

If it was summer I would have never gone inside. I know it is not right to form opinion about any community but somehow, there is an instinctive fear for the blacks. Especially, the blacks in Toronto are a socially backward group. Their areas are constantly in the news for shootouts. But still, I had to make the decision. There was just a probability that the blacks would harm me, but the cold would harm me for sure. Therefore much against my wishes, I went inside the bus shelter.

There were 2 blacks and one was an elderly person. That made me somewhat comfortable. The feeling had no logic, but I thought I could handle an old black even though my physique was nothing compared to his.

Then the other one was just like the typical demon of a nightmare. I was praying for the bus to reach soon, when the elderly black said good evening. I returned the pleasantry with an unwilling smile. I found him to be unusually friendly and that only increased my fear. All the while I kept on sporting the same horrible smile. After some time, he started complaining about the Toronto weather. He said that this was not the case in South Carolina. That was when I realized that they are from US and not from Canada.

Now, the other demon asked me for some directions. I am myself new to Toronto, but I did not want to show that I was new. I wanted to show off as a native. So I gave them some vague directions to get to the place and started to talk about the city. I told them that how the weather is good in summer and other things which I myself had not experienced. Whatever I had heard from others, I passed it on as mine. I basically did not want to tell them that I was a foreigner. I was again scared that they may rob me if they came to know I was new.

I think I am good at giving speeches and convincing people. The 2 of them were convinced that I was a subject matter expert on Toronto and Canada. They thanked me for all the wonderful tips I gave. Then the elderly man gave me his business card. I now came to know that they both were Jazz musicians and they had come here to attend an international jazz conference. I was so happy because, now I was convinced that they were harmless people. Also they had the saxophone case with them which was proof of authenticity.

The bus had still not come and now we three were in a full fledged chat. I was again giving speeches, this time on Hindusthani music. I had my laptop with me, and so transferred lots of instrumental, flute and sitar on to their pen drive. They also gave me some jazz files and they are good.

The bus finally came and we got into the bus. We three sat together in the bus and continued the discussion. I began to see the positive aspects in them. The second person whom I initially described as a demon was such a lively person. He heard the instrumental of "Vaishnava Jana To" and said that this music was so divine. I could not believe that he uttered the word "Divine". Then he asked if I had any vocal music. I told him that I did not give him vocal because he would not understand the lyrics. To this he said that "music is universal and it has no language". I must admit that I was bowled over.

In all this, I noticed that another passenger was keenly observing us. By appearance he looked like and Indian. I pulled him into the discussion by asking if he was from India. As guessed, he was a Gujju from Mumbai.

5 minutes later, the jazz musicians got off the bus and only I and Gujju were left for the rest of the journey. Music was out of discussion now. Then this Gujju started off by cursing all the Maharashtrians of both India and Canada telling how they were opportunistic and how they hated the Gujjus. He went at length singing praises of one Maharasthrian "so called friend" he knew in Toronto.

He seemed to me an interesting character and I was listening to him all ears. He told me that he was initially working in Ghana and before that he was working in Nairobi. He told me that there were 5 Malayalis in Ghana with him and how he was harassed by them for being the only non Malayali.

Then he asked me where I was staying. So I told him that I stayed near xyz. He asked me for the street name. Even he was new to Canada. He had come just 3 months back. So I asked him if he knew abc. To that he straight away said whether I was staying at house no 424. I was taken aback with this question. Now, he told me that he had stayed at the same house just after landing in Canada and one month down the line he had fled as he could not tolerate the owner. To this I started laughing because even I am vacating after one month of stay. Also I was so surprised that in the whole of Toronto I had found this person. Such a coincidence!!

Then he told me about how all other PGs over there were bad and how they had conspired against him. I felt that the problem was with this guy as I had not found anything seriously wrong with others.

I had come to the end of my journey. So I got down from the bus saying good bye to the Gujju. As a parting note he advised me not to give any dues to the owner before leaving. He told me that this PG business is illegal and said "if they ask you for remaining dues, you threaten them with lodging a complaint with the police".

From the bus stop it takes 15 mins to walk to my home. So while walking, I began to think about what all strange things had happened on the bus. I realized that the black, whom I initially thought to be a rowdy, was actually a musician and he talked such wonderful things. On the contrary our own Desi guy, whom I was so happy to meet in this foreign land, was in fact such a miserable person. As I have been saying, I am still thinking……