I was born in a country where politics has never been a straight arrow. We have been struggling for freedom since..I don't know when, probably before my great-grandma was born. We were colonized by the Brits, the French, the Spanish (and god knows who else, I am not really the patient reader of History). After a while, when the Brits were tired of us, we fell into Pakistan's lap. The Pakistanis and we were supposedly brothers (and sisters and non-binary siblings!), so we should have been happy with them. We were mainly counting on our God for that, unfortunately, God had other things on their mind. Pakistanis were our control freak, micromanaging siblings, who wanted to eat all our cupcakes and wanted us to use their washed-up jeans. So once again, we fought. We fought through nine months, and Bangladesh was born. Ironically, we are still fighting amongst ourselves, mainly for the cookie crumbs, cuz all the cupcakes are finished. We fought for what we thought would be a secular country. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something else. Our saviour turned out to be just another dictator. Time passed, and as fairytales often depict, a fundamentalist government rose to power, then fell by the collaboration of several political parties. One after another, ruling parties came and went, and nothing changed. The people we thought were secular turned out to be backing the fundamentalists through the back door, and the people we thought were fundamentalists turned out to be terrorists. It's as complex as "They don't know that we know they know we know." Well, I lied, it's far more complex than that.

I promise I am getting to my point. Let's circle back to Canada, Eh? I made Canada my home in 2015. My daughter was born at St. Joseph's in Etobicoke, and I went to my first proper camping trip to Killerny. Just like Bangladesh, I love Canada dearly. I would fight for Canada's sovereignty, although some might think otherwise. Canada has given me a safe space to wear shorts, ride a bike, and wander around the streets at 3 a.m. Trust me, these were the only dreams I had in my mind growing up. 

When I came here, as a refugee, a group of cheerful and naive enough to be selfless people jumped in to help. I was ashamed of my refugee status, I thought I was betraying my country, had survivor's guilt and thought my situation was not "harsh enough" to apply for asylum. These people surrounded me and my family and showered us with kindness. They held our hands till we were able to walk on our own feet. Pretty much that summed up Canada to me, until I started being integrated into the society. My circle still didn't have a larger radius, however, it gave me a few glimpses. I saw the nice "all immigrants are welcome" lady, who told me I am brave - I stared at her with blank eyes, cuz I didn't think I was brave, I thought I was a coward to be applying for asylum. I held conversations with the middle-aged conspiracy theorist guy who was a jew himself, and a fan of the Hindu religion. I went to have dinner at a contemporary philosopher's place, met with writers and journalists through my friend. They were "fight for a unified diversity in Canada" kinda people. I heard about people who don't like immigrants that much- fortunately (or unfortunately) didn't come across them. I have seen discomfort in caucasian eyes when the "curry-smelling immigrants" crowded the bus, I have seen immigrants complaining about