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“I swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.”

Repeating these words after the citizenship judge at the Citizenship office at Surrey, BC, I became a Canadian a few days ago, on August 5th, 2009.

“Congratulations!” Proclaimed the judge at the ninety six of us who had taken the citizenship oath. “You are now Canadian Citizens!”

An exciting and a long awaited moment, no doubt, but as I sang “O Canada” in chorus with the rest of the newly anointed Canadians, my mind was fraught with a mix of emotions.

You see, I grew up proudly singing “Jana Gana Mana (Thou art the ruler of the minds of the people)”, the National Anthem of India in school and waking up to “Vande Maataram (I bow to thee, Mother)”, the Indian National song every morning on TV and radio. I grew up reading in history books and watching Gandhi and the many regional movies about India’s freedom struggles a number of times.

As I let this feeling sink, in this post and the next, I reflect on my journey in becoming a Canadian and what being a Canadian means to me. Canada is now my home of choice, as it has been for the past four years anyway.  But that doesn’t change where I was born, does it?

Nor does it change the memories of my childhood, playing in the hot (and to think I’ve been complaining about the 30 degrees heat in Vancouver recently) and dusty streets of Madurai, looking forward to the Chitthirai festival processions in the summer months, visiting the Meenakshi Temple and getting patted on the head by the temple elephant, reading and listening to stories from my grandfather of far away lands, watching hollywood movies and dreaming of one day travelling around the world, and so on. They are part of who I am, and what I have brought to Canada with me.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about Canada’s identity, one of the most recent and interesting ones being the debate between Malcolm Gladwell and Andrew Gopnick last year – “Canada – Nation or Notion?”

My post is simply an attempt at trying to make sense of, and reflecting on my becoming a Canadian. It has been thirteen years since, fresh out of college, I left the old Temple City that is Madurai in pursuit of opportunities and a better life, a journey that has taken me past Chennai, Bangalore, Sydney, New York, parts of New Jersey, Toronto and leading to Vancouver where I now begin a new chapter in my life as a Canadian.

How and when did I choose to come to Canada? To be honest, Canada was not my first choice of country to immigrate to. And Vancouver was not my first choice of city in Canada either. But the way things have transpired, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

As for my journey, I should probably begin with my first and briefest, albeit unintended entry into Canada eight years ago..