Interesting dinner tonight with two colleagues in their 50s.. all three of us connected to south asia in some way, and all discussing how Partition affected our lives in some way. (Partition being the decision by the British with Indian and Pakistani leaders to split the Indian sub-continent into pieces - india, pakistan, and eventually bangladesh). 1947. And when I think of it i always have a weight in my chest at the thought of the violence that ensued and how did they not predict it?*

my manager is from bangladesh, and this other woman is from kashmir, and then of course me, with slightly unusual connections to both india and pakistan. All of our lives shaped by this totally insane decision by a colonial power to just draw some arbitrary lines. It is unfathomable.

We also talked about saving/losing culture... the indian woman raised her kids as americans (24 and 28), while my manager is very strictly raising his daughter as bangladeshi. She's 19, and will still lives at home, will have an arranged marriage, the whole deal. And then me...

Born in Canada, raised very much as a Canadian.. but still will always have my parents' values and heritage as a link to where they grew up. It sometimes makes me sad that if I have kids, they will not have the ability to relate to any of this. We will lose the whole connection in a generation.

Or we could... I suppose everyone makes their choices. After all, here i am.



*where do people put those weights? I'm never quite sure what to do with mine.

9:43 p.m. - 2014-02-11