It was tired day, with all the journey in the past couple of days, had a very good sleep on my first day in Saskatoon. It was sunny day. I was not allowed to go outside of my room. So, one of my friends helped me getting all the required things to survive for those 14 days. He just dropped at the front door and I picked up the things and moved straight to my room without even moving my head sidewards. This guy from Punjab,India was staying in that airbnb for almost 7 months. We had a brief discussion on the life here is and would be and how difficult it is to secure a job. He has given an a lot failed attempts and has a very negative opinion on Canada and would imbibe in me the same thoughts all over again and again. But I was so pumped up and would not consider those negativity touch the tip of my fingers. I just told my self, everything will be fine. Every other day in the evening, there would be the police vehicle sirens all around the street. I was told the property I took on lease is in west side of the city where most of the natives and first nations reside and create all sorts of havoc around the community.
One day my live on partner banged my door at 10.30 p.m scared the hell out of me to leave the house or the govenrment authorities would come and take you for a hefty fine of $75000 for violationg the state's quarantine rules. My heart was sinking down underneath ground. Sweating like hell. Legs shaking and probably I would have just pissed in my pants. The rule says " the person should be in self isolation for 14 days with out any contact with the outside world, or should not be residing with the elderly people and people with pre existing medical conditions". Just my 4th day in the country, surviving finacial distress, he has thrown a missile on my mind. I was blank. No idea what to do. What if a officer comes to me and says, you have violated the law. What if I get deported. What if they ask me to pay the amount. What if my hand cuffed dragging me to the prison. I should have booked a saperate room. I should not have thought about the discounts this property was offering. With all these thoughts showing up one after the other, I was asleep.
The next day, on looking at his sarcastic smile, I thought I offered myself to him to fuck me hard. I browsed the quarantine rules and read throughly and made him understand but still he insists me of taking another room or relocate to somewhere else. I was reluctant. On my 12th day of quarantine plan, a lady police officer, dressed in black, with a pistol on the side of the waist, looked damn hot like those in the movies, asked my name. I was just staring at that hot lady. On asking for the second time, I came back to my senses, handed over my passport, asked about my health condition and disappered like a thunder. More than me, the punjabi guy was relaxed and I took a deep breath wanted to show this guy my middle finger and shout out loud " FUCK OFF". After 14 days, I wanted to move out of this place, relocated to one of my friend's room on the east where most of the Gujarati community resides. I spent alomost 4 weeks in the house. I occupied the the living room. I secured a job very quickly in a restaurant. That was a quick service restaurant. They did train people in every aspect. I was trained in chopping vegetables. Sorting out the raw non-vegetarian(NV). NV was against my principles and ethics. But I dont have choice. I worked there for about 4 days without any pay and switched over my job to a call center which was work from home.
My initial days travelling by bus, looking around the city, the malls, people, in all I missed my better half throughly. Even for a 2 min walk to grocery in India, we used to go together. Now I'm all alone.
I shifted to a new house on sharing accomodation with Indian people as my previous roomate was moving out of province and wanted to get away with the apartment. So, here I'm, in my new house, shared with 2 other people, located to all the groceries and medical walkby. Started my call centre job, undergoing training, receiving calls, jotting down the case notes, made some mistakes, hanged up the calls intentionally, it was all fun. Continued the job for about 3 months and bought a pre owned Mazda make 2 Lit. automatic sedan car which I made money from the call center. Learning car in a new country was entirely a new challenge in which my landlord from Pakistan helped me alot. They taught me how to drive. where to stop and where no to stop. They were the ones who made me drive confidently. All credit goes to them. They are so nice and warm. They helped me going to a department store, purchasing the daily needs, taking me to the food bank where food is available for free, helping me select the right car, in almost everything.
I did two jobs. Day job was the call center and the night one being the sales associate in a reputed convenience store for three days in a week from 12 a.m to 7 a.m. It was tough. Taking an hour break, switching over to my call center job. Since this was a remote work, I had taken advantage of sleeping sitting before the desktop during our training sesions. There were many frustrated days thinking of the job I was doing against my education, against my experience back home, against my expectations before arrival. I got so deeply hurt getting to know the fact that the employers wanted Canadian experienced employees. How the heck one should one fullfil this requirement? I kept applying for jobs. Finnally I saw a light at the end of the tunnel securing a job in an electronics manfacturing field with a decent pay good enough for myself. I was happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment