Leaving family to go on a trip has a different feel than boarding the flight oneself.

As I bade farewell to family at Pearson, Mississauga, Canada again, it was a time to remember and reflect on the many journeys our family has made from here and other ports.

2012-2016: First trip and Initial years: The Ovation days

We first came here in July 2012, to start a new life in North America. We had stayed in Malta for two years prior to that, and I worked in Tripoli, Libya. In the initial years I would board the flight to Tripoli many times a year, working there and supporting my family. We used to stay in Ovation Mississauga in those years. Knowing well the many barriers which the Canadian system has for foreign trained professionals, I decided to support the family through my work in Tripoli, Libya. 

2003 Damascus halts: Notes from my diaries

On my first trip to Tripoli in 2003, I had a break in Damascus.A veteran of Libya helped calm my nerves. He told of his work in the carpet factories in Bani Walid, his origins from Uttar Pradesh and how this work in Libya has helped give his family a different level. 

Over the decades, I had many conversations with fellow immigrants and travelers from India and other countries. They introduced me to the nuances of the Arab world. Damascus is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and has a rich and storied history. Founded in the third millennium BCE, along the Barada river, it was captured by Islamic Rashidun Caliphate under the leadership of Caliph Umar in the 7th century and played an important role in early expansion of Islam. Being part of the Ottoman empire since the 16 th century there are many common links between Damascus, Istanbul and Tripoli.

2003-Initial Hesitations to staying on for thirteen years 

A mentor (Dr.SK) helped me overcome my initial hesitations of relocating to Tripoli. If your father had been alive, he would have encouraged you to try it out for a year, he had suggested. I stayed on for thirteen years, witnessed and participated first hand in the Arab spring-2011 and saw the aftermath of the civil war, NATO bombings and the instability which followed.

Mirroring Kurtz and Marlow- The Horror-The Horror

Just as the carpet weaver from Uttar Pradesh who worked in Bani Walid Libya taught me about expatriate life in Libya, the teachers of the University helped me read, discuss and understand works of literature in a new way. We formed the Tripoli Reading Group which would meet every week to discuss works of literature.

 One of the books my friends and mentors Dr. J and Dr. M helped me understand better was “Heart of Darkness”. Narrated by Charles Marlow, he tells about his journey to the African Congo, to find Kurtz, the mysterious ivory trader. Just as Marlow’s journey into the Congo exposes the brutal exploitation and dehumanization of the native African population by the colonizers, the enigmatic ivory trader Kurtz is a symbol of the corrupting influence of power and the darkness within the human soul.

Kurtz’s famous last words, “The horror! The horror!” encapsulate the moral abyss he has reached. Tripoli Reading group helped us see modern versions of Kurtz- and this horror in Libya in the aftermath of the NATO Bombings. The horror still continues 12 years on.

Earlier perspectives: 

Airports

2014 Mitiga 

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago, the other day…

The slow casual remark of Marlow in Heart of Darkness, written 

by Joseph Conrad,  first published in 1899

https://prashantbhatt.com/2014/08/29/mitiga/

Pearson and other Airports: Thinking places

“Aapke badi baat bahut yaad aayegi”  (roughly translated: we will miss and remember your big deal phrases) my mother in law said as we bade farewell at Terminal 1 of Pearson. This was the second trip of the Senior Karias (my parents in law) to Canada. They first came here in 2018. This time we ventured to United States by road, visited their son and family (Bharat Bhai Karia) in New Jersey and their grandson Sagar Bhatt Karia in New York city (Elmhurst, Queens)

Being from the Northern India Hindi Belt I speak and relate to Hindi in a different way. My in-laws have their roots in Karachi British India where they were born and spent their early childhood and Mumbai area of Western India where they built their life. Phrases like “Mein aapke ek Badi Baat bataata hoon” are common in the Hindi belt of Northern India.

Airports have been thinking places for me over the decades.  In the initial years of Canada, the family would stay in Ovation, Mississauga, and I would board the flight to go to Tripoli. The focus was to sustain and grow the Canadian journey and life from outside. This is the story of many hundreds of thousands of professional immigrants to Canada. Now, in a different phase, I look back at those uncertain years and have a different feel when helping to receive or bid farewell to friends and family from Pearson.

It is at such airports that I have also meditated and reflected on the currents and teachings which other fellow-travelers introduced me to- from understanding nuances of works of “Heart of Darkness” to feeling the layers of history which are woven in the words of a carpet weaver from Uttar Pradesh who worked in Bani Walid.

Have you ever wondered about the difference between boarding and bidding farewell?