Newcomer’s chikan comes home to roost
One of the pleasures of living in Canada, I always say to newcomers, is the four distinct seasons we enjoy. For someone like me who loves dressing up, this comes with the added benefit of four distinct sets of clothes.
Because the flannels and hoodies of fall will not keep one warm in winter and the layers and layers of heavy winter wear are hastily packed away come spring.
I pull out my Indian kurtas in June and it feels like a whole new wardrobe because I’ve not laid eyes on them for seven or eight months – since I put them away the previous September!
Another great plus point is that unless I am at a South Asian event, my clothes are never out-of-fashion as these bright kurtas in soft fabrics and often with embroidery or other work elicit compliments from our neighbours as I walk down the street – no one knows that a particular length is so last-year!
When a neighbour said she loved my kurta recently, I was reminded of a conversation in our early days in Canada.
I’d worn a Lucknow kurta to a neighbour’s BBQ and she commented on how pretty it was.
“It’s a chikan kurta,” I said, preening a little. “All this embroidery is done by hand.”
She looked amazed, but I realized a second later that it was the first part of the sentence that had caused the reaction.
“Chicken? But these are all flowers and leaves on your shirt!” she exclaimed.
I spent the next little while explaining the intricacies of chikan embroidery and promised to get her something from my hometown, the seat of chikankari, on my next visit back.
By then, of course, a few other ladies had also gathered around and I ended up picking up several chikan tops for them from Hazratganj on my next visit to Lucknow.
A few of the neighbours moved away over the years but most of them still live in the same neighbourhood and Janet sometimes says we should all get together for a “chicken party”. She still finds it hard to say chikan!
What’s your story? Every newcomer, no matter how savvy or where he or she comes from, has a Fresh Off the Plane (FOP) story to share about their early days in Canada. Do you want to share your story? E-mail it to us at canadaboundimmigrant@rogers.com