On October 14th, a newly arrived Polish immigrant died at Vancouver International Airport after being Tasered by the police.

Taser is an electroshock weapon that is used by the police to fire a high-voltage electric shock at the victim in order to subdue his muscles. “Electroshock weapon technology uses a temporary high-voltage low-current electrical discharge to override the body’s muscle-triggering mechanisms. The recipient feels great pain, and can be momentarily paralyzed while an electric current is being applied. It is reported that applying electroshock devices to more sensitive parts of the body is more painful.” (Wikipedia)

Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant arrived at Vancouver, Canada after his first international flight. Speaking only Polish, he was left helpless at the airport arrival lounge for over 10 hours. This left him frustrated, he turned violent, and was left dead when the police fired Tasers at him aiming to control the unarmed man. The whole incident was captured by an eye-witness Paul Pritchard on his camera.

While I strongly condemn the Taser incident there is something in the Canadian society that I think is worth appreciating:

• I respect Paul for handing over the video to the police in order to help the investigations. Note that this incident involved the police, who, were also the investigators of the incident.
• I respect the faith a common man has in the police and law enforcement officers here.
• I respect the fact that the police returned the video back to Paul, fully knowing how humiliating and embarrassing it would be - not just to the RCMP, but to Canada itself.
• I respect the freedom of press here and how the matter is being discussed openly and transparent manner.
• Finally, I respect the fact that the common here man believes that justice will be delivered, despite the police themselves being involved in the incident.

The video is here. Content warning.

Indeed, there are many things we (Indians) need to learn…

Image from CBC News

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Ok, this isn’t about the Bigul (adjacent picture) that is played during army parades, I’m talking about Bagels – the donut shaped bakery products hugely popular in Europe and America.

Until today morning, I hadn’t eaten a bagel (I was a Bagel-virgin). I am generally fascinated by bakery products – cookies, muffins, cakes etc. There was this Bagel shop I passed by every morning and naturally I got attracted to it.

Previous week:
Toronto is usually laid back except for the morning rush hour which is very Mumbai style. So the maximum time I take to zoom past the shop was 3.2 seconds, grossly insufficient to see what was inside. Determined to investigate, last week I paused in front of it just to get a better look

“Hey there, good morning”, yelled the lady behind the counter in a machine-like tone.
“I’m just looking”, I said defensively. (Somehow I feed odd to browse or window shop)

She nodded and I started checking out. The smell was good (I’m talking about the shop, not the lady). There were round bread-like donut type objects of different shapes and colors. I looked at the price – “Single Bagel – $ 0.85.” Was it that cheap? Awesome!

Today morning:
Incidentally I woke up late today and couldn’t afford to eat breakfast. So I went to the shop and asked for a bagel.

“Bagel? Sure, what kind?” the lady said (another one today, this one had a thick Turkish accent)
“Ugh… any kind” I looked around clueless.
She simply stared at me.
“Raisin Cinnamon” I quipped (I am attracted to both).
Then she asked me something that I didn’t understand. I asked her to repeat twice. Finally she went to a toasting machine and pointed at it:
“Bagel Toast or no Toast”
“Aha! Yes Toast please” I was satisfied. She let out a grunt (probably thinking – ‘these, foreigners… can’t they learn anything before coming here?!’)

Then there was this Chinese girl in the subsequent counter. She was saying something which I didn’t understand so I presumed it was for someone else and I conveniently ignored her. After about a minute of shouting and yelling with gestures, I figured out she was indeed talking to me.
“What toppings?” (totally different accent)
I gave her the most puzzled look I ever sported. I thought a bagel was something like a cake or a muffin.
Re-framed.
“umm.. anything…”, I looked around to find an array of meat boxes and some green stuff in a corner, “Anything veggie please” (I had no intent of eating raw meat)
“Ok Lettuce? Tomato? Cucumber? What else?”
“Olives, Pickles, cheese – no not the slices, give me this shredded one” I said. This was getting confusing. What exactly was a bagel? a sandwich?
“And honey-mustard sauce, salt and pepper” I spoke like an expert.
“Here you go” she handed me a neatly wrapped pack

I proceeded to pay, but it was at the other end of the shop attended by a huge African girl.
The receipt read $4.10
“WHAT!!??” That was the scream inside my head. Thankfully I stopped converting everything to Rupees, else I’d have fainted. Externally, I just smiled at her while swearing never to come here again.
“No card, only cash” she said pointing to some obscure note on the counter. (She reminded me of Hidimba)
I paid, grabbed the change and escaped back into the crowd. Phew!

The first thing I did at work was to read what a Bagel was.
Wikipedia says: “A bagel is a bread product traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Bagels are distinct from the similarly shaped doughnuts and from the similarly textured bialys, primarily because of the cooking method amongst other differences.”

You may want to read the the (w)hole story, or bake one yourselves.

PS: This story is so unlike me. I generally don’t do anything unplanned, unresearched.

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Before you begin, you must read Gabriel’s The First Ten Things You Need To Know Aboot [tag]Canada[/tag]. She He will address most of your curiosities in a matter-of-fact manner.
Update: Sorry Gabriel! I’ll remember it now.

Now I have been in this country for 8 months and 8 days (wow! how precise!) and it is interesting to note how my perceptions change (and ARE changing) as I live here. Agreed that I spent most of these 8.3 months confined to the business school in what they call the ‘York University’ (YU) campus, I am not as insightful about this place as some other newcomer would have been.

You might have read my initial observations about this place. While all of them are still valid, I have discovered something more.

For instance:

• ALL Canadians are confused about their history period. Once I was talking to a history major about this, and he had an easy answer - ‘I studied American (read US) history at college.‘
• Although the country is independent, they celebrate Queen Victoria day with vigor. Even the oath for new immigrants is a statement of allegiance to her majesty, the Queen of England (or is it Britan?)
• They have this funny obsession about perceiving themselves to be different from the US, but they really dont’t do the job well! For instance, cars are driven on right side of the road, but distances are measured in kilometers. Color is spelled as colour but the accent is very American. Call them escalators, not lifts

The free and open environment in ‘our’ Canada is like a mouthwatering delicious piece of stake that the orthodox setup across the border MUST finish. Hmm… why don’t the two countries merge? By ‘merge’ I don’t mean a peaceful union, but a hostile takeover by the [tag]US[/tag] Republicans. They will then be able to cast their religious, conservative and/or homophobic ideals on a wider territory. Yummy. As a side effect, more people will be under their rule, so the amount of moral sin per person attributable to the actions of the Republicans will be lower. (sometimes the engineer inside me strives to quantify everything… you know what I mean? (that is another over used phrase))

Now I have neither been to the US nor have I spent a long time in Canada, but I can already distinguish an American from a Canadian. Do you wanna know the difference? I think if you can identify people of Pune from that of Mumbai, you can easily spot an American among the Canadians

I don’t expect any nasty comments from the Bush-land saying ‘who the hell is this smart guy’, simply because nobody reads this blog!

to be continued…/

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