Back to work today. On the bright side, I\u2019m no longer working a morning shift, so I hope to have some time to get around and see some sights before I head into work. <\/p>\n
I wore my Salwar to work today and everyone was very surprised at how quickly I\u2019ve adopted local clothing. It\u2019s very comfortable and I\u2019m slowly getting used to the stole that\u2019s worn around the neck. All I need now is a set of traditional Indian shoes to complete my outfit. <\/p>\n
Divya has invited me to have lunch in her home on Sunday. She was hoping to have me over during festival, but wasn\u2019t able to until the upcoming weekend. It will definitely be interesting and I\u2019m looking forward to it. <\/p>\n
It was a very long day at work today and I don\u2019t have much non work related information to share. Anand is arriving at midnight tomorrow and everyone is very excited. I think I may be the most excited of all, since it will be very nice to have someone from home to talk to about familiar friends and places. That, and since I\u2019ve run out of chocolate, I could use the additional chocolate bars he\u2019s got stored in his suitcases to share at work! <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been working with Anand for slightly over 4 years and know he\u2019s going to impress everyone with his dedication and work ethic when he arrives. While I\u2019ve worked with him for a while, I\u2019ve learned more about his cultural and family background in Bangalore than in Winnipeg. I guess family is one of those things co-workers don\u2019t really talk about much in Canada. Back home, unless you are close friends, you don\u2019t tend to discuss family or cultural origins in too much detail. Instead, we tend to focus on a persons work ethic and their demonstrated abilities. <\/p>\n
In India, family and strong family relations appears to be prized above all other things, so I\u2019ve learned much about Anand\u2019s background over the last few weeks. Anand\u2019s mother is from Chennai (Madras) and his father is Malaysian. He was raised in Brunei and moved to Canada 8 years ago. This is his first trip back to India since he was 14 and he\u2019s looking forward to meeting some of his relatives in Chennai before he returns home. <\/p>\n
The strong familial relationship is something that is taken for granted in India. Parents provide for their children for many years, and will be provided for by their children as they age. It\u2019s common for many generations to live together, eat together, and pray together. The North American phenomenon of \u2018picking\u2019 your family \u2013 adopting friends as second mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, etc. \u2013 isn\u2019t something you see in India. While we tend to replace existing family that we are separated from due to distance with close friends, in India there is no need as many people live with or very close to their family members and it\u2019s common for those who are separated to make a trip via train, bus or plane to visit family over weekends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back to work today. On the bright side, I\u2019m no longer working a morning shift, so I hope to have some time to get around and see some sights before I head into work. I wore my Salwar to work today and everyone was very surprised at how quickly I\u2019ve adopted local clothing. It\u2019s very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-where-no-flan-has-gone-before"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}