2nd Class Citizenry

For a long time now I’ve been hearing people around me talk about how unfairly we, the Punjabis get treated even right here in virtual Nova Punjabia-Surrey. People give many supporting examples to back up their assertions. Sadly it looks like they indeed have a valid case here.

A few years ago someone decided to move far far away from the Punjabi dominated area of Newton to another mostly ‘white’ area of Surrey. When asked why he was leaving he said the establishment has made circumstances so severe for Punajbis living in the Punjabi quarter that they’ll continue to be as ‘backward’ as they are now for a many years to come, it’ll never change for the better and the only way to progress is to get away from all this.

Having thought about this a few times over it’s actually beginning to make sense now. Someone I know who lived in the Boundary Park area for a few years told of how the roads there were cleared ‘even before any snow falls’ but the area north of the 64th never gets cleared no matter how much it snows there.

So last month when it snowed I decided to investigate. After a day of snow none of the Boundary Park streets were cleared by city crews. They were the same as any other area, maybe even worse because there’s less traffic there. The only thing that was salted down and without snow were the sidewalks in front of most houses in that area- Gora inhabited ones from the looks of it. During the winter snows it’s impossible to walk on Nova Punjabia sidewalks without slipping over the uncleared ice/snow. I really feel for the kids who have paper routes and have to risk breaking a leg or two because of people being so careless.

Even though things should be fare for all, I still think things are good the way they are. One should defiantly get what one deserves. I hadn’t thought of this before, but couldn’t it be possible that we’re facing this because we deserve it?

Before complaining about anything we should take one look at how things are done in Punjab and find comfort in knowing it’s still ਰਿਸ਼ਵਤਖੋਰੀ(bribe)-free here. And regardless of what people say they have to go through at plaecs like city hall, things usually do get done fast.

If things went our way everywhere, all the time life wouldn’t be exciting at all. Struggling to get things done is fun. This is what makes you stronger. Good to know second class citizenry provides just this...