If you are a first-generation immigrant, there's no better test of being a true-blue Canadian than bundling up, venturing about your normal business and being happy about it, this winter.
I've passed the test, an opportunity that was not presented to me all the winters since I have come, as they were nothing as severe as this one. From early December to date, we have been hit by very low temps, gusting winds that drop the thermometer like nothing else does and snow falls that have often turned to either slush or ice. While in summer I become somewhat lethargic and a little housebound, in winter, I get sprightly and ready to put on my coat and boots to face whatever's outside, at the smallest chance. Not to forget I was born and raised and worked for more than half my life in the tropics. Of that latterly in a desert environment. I say all this without any exaggeration, to serve as an encouraging example to any intending Goan immigrant whose only bar to coming here is the weather. Interestingly, a friend has a theory which is quite possible, that the only reason Canada has a population of 35 million instead of 350 million (which it can easily sustain) is the cold. Roland. Sent from Samsung Mobile
