For many of my peers in Scotland, this was the first time they finally came to know what “Tamil” was. It was for the first time they realized my name was more than just Kana and also my reasons for shortening it. They also became aware of how my experiences as a result of being a second-generation Tamil-Canadian was different to their own and how my parents war-torn past shaped a lot of my life. To many of my peers, I was the light-hearted Kana before I started my blog and started voicing my very opinionated thoughts on race, mental health, and feminism.
Scotland is very different to Toronto, where I was born and raised in the sense that wherever I looked I starved to see someone that looked like me, despite being surrounded by the most kind-hearted, supportive, and incredible humans. Sometimes I couldn’t keep up with their British and Scottish movie references. Sometimes I longed for someone to tell me how much they enjoyed the latest Suriya movie or to even acknowledge that I was Tamil. Talk about culture shock!
Nevertheless, moving away from the 6ix allowed me to explore my own values on life and why they were important to me. Sometimes it feels like I’m making no progress, but looking back I astonish myself of how far I’ve come.
I teamed up with Meera Kumar, who incidentally found out she was Tamil whilst speaking with me on her podcast. I was humbled to have been able to share my pride in being Tamil- Canadian with her who was only just coming to terms of her roots.
This is one of many new projects I’ve taken up to be unapologetically myself, hope by listening to this podcast you are able to relate to some of my sentiments and hilarity.
*Listen to "Being a Second-Generation Tamil-Canadian" with MK on the Mic.
