I was born to Iranian nationals who had decided to stray from the main religion at the time, Islam. My dad was stamped a spy and my parents fled in the early hours of the morning to avoid being captured and possibly murdered. I was the youngest of five children; I just over two years old.
Through the refuge of the UN, we ended up in asylum in India. We were protected by having a chance to live here without governmental involvement. We were allowed to continue life as if it were normal. It was far from it. We were thankful but we were lost. We didn't know the language but luckily my dad knew English and some Urdu at the time. Soon after, the UN commissioned for my siblings to start school. I begged to go to school like my sisters and eventually, when I was three, I was enrolled in preschool.
It was mandatory to learn Hindi in school if you wanted to learn English. I began learning Hindi at three. My mom says in the beginning, I would come home and cry everyday because I didn't know what anyone was saying. That eventually faded as I learned more and more. I spoke my mother tongue, which I cannot expose for possible safety reasons, I spoke Farsi thanks to my parents and also the Iranian church we attended weekly in India; the congregation was led in Farsi. I spoke Dari as a lot of the children I saw at church were refugees from Afghanistan. I now spoke Hindi and English thanks to school. I picked up some Korean and Japanese (I remember none expect a word or two) from missionaries that came to India and attended our church.
We moved to a new neighbourhood and there she was, my new best friend, who was a year older, and was about five at the time, a pure Bengali girl! We hung out so much so that I began to speak her language to her parents. I still can understand 80-90% of it.
Years later, we were sponsored by a church in Canada and moved here. Life restarted again. And I remember the first day of class, I began learning French. The teachers were impressed by my grammar as they assumed it would be similar to that of a cat. My grammar was impeccable, actually scored higher than any of my other classmates who were presumably Canadian children.
This is why I speak a lot of languages.
I am speaking candidly, if you know wh I am, please do not expose my identity here, as it may hinder the safety of my family and I. If you'd like to contact me, leave me your email, I will get in touch with you.
2 comments:
Forgive my ignorance on this matter, I was born and raised in Canada where these issues do not exist. Based on your previous blogs I am assuming you are in currently in your mid twenties. How 15-20 years later, living in a safe, mostly peaceful country like Canada can dilvulging details about your past still pose a safety risk for yourself and your family. Again I'm not trying to be ignorant but it is something as a Canadian I do not fully understand.
Hello!
I can understand that you may think you are coming across ignorant; but I am not offended one bit.
Yes I have been here for roughly the years you stated above. I was very young when I came here and have felt safe all the time. Though, the walls have ears when it comes to situations where there is a threat placed against your family. That threat could be 10 decades old, but you will feel a little insecure. I would rather be safe than sorry. I may seem a little paranoid, I just would rather avoid the hassle all together. And just to let you know, 6 years after we had left our country, there was a kidnapping attempt with one of my siblings. It was pretty scary. Mind you, it was not in Canada, but it still instills a fear in your mind for a lifetime. I would hate for someone to try to hurt anyone in my family. Also, there are entities that live for these things. Hope that answered some of your questions! Cheers!
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