Identity and Values Assignment

~I Am The Sum of All My Pieces


Bobby Karmakar

Global Citizenship: From Social Analysis to Social Action

GNED500302.2011M

Professor Amir H. Soheili-Mehr

Tuesday June 28, 2011

Centennial College

1. Identity and Values Assignment

Nationality

My parents were both born in Kolkata India, but I am born proudly Canadian. Being Canadian means I’m a diverse person, I am respected, and I am a proud citizen of a nation that is proud of everything we do.

Religion

Born and raised as a Hindu so I mainly look up to it most of the times. I am openly minded to everyone’s religious backgrounds because every human being believes in some divine powers; whether it is God or not.

Gender

Males from my perspective always think they are like the ‘man of the house’ anywhere they go. Sometimes, females like to wear the pants too in a lot of occasions. When that case happens, tend to have the female take over and let her cope with the situation and come back to the male and say “everything is taken care of” and relax. Sometimes, men like to have women take over!

Race

My whole family is Indian however my older siblings who are married or engaged have other race partners; I myself have an ex-girlfriend who is a different race.

“No matter black, white, or beige, chola, or orient made, I’m on the right track, baby I was born to survive.” –Lady Gaga, Born This Way, Born This Way

Age Group

I am legal, but people think I’m older by the way I look; pisses me off. I am legal but still a young adult who will be 19 in four months after June.

Sexual Orientation

Being straight and single for about 6 months doesn’t really give me a whole lot of power in my society and don’t think it ever will; for now anyways. I am looking for that someone hopefully very soon in the near future but there will be enough time for that and will always be female; mainly because of the fact I am comfortable being hetereosexual.

Family Structure

Parents divorced when I was 5 and all I did was sit and cry; I was only so young to understand anything.

Neighbourhood/ Community

I live in Scarborough and Brampton. Scarborough is where I grew up in and still stay today with my dad. When in Brampton with my mom, the area is cleaner, the society is more breathable, and generally my future home as I plan on moving there after school. Toronto is nice and all but it still seems to me to be corrupt with pollution, and traffic jams on the road while being stuck on the TTC; I have no faith in them. Brampton is more eco-friendly, lots of opportunities for new houses or even a half decent condominium as well it’s not too far from Toronto in my view for work.

Education

A student at Centennial College is something I rarely hear from post-secondary students, especially when leaving high school and a majority of my class said either University of Toronto or Seneca College. Having education is something

Language and Ethnic Group

My family speaks Bengali so I thought that was India’s language and it would be speaking Indian.

2. Identity and Values Assignment

Being Canadian makes me feel as though I have power because of Canada's reputation as a country but as well the characteristics we as a nation carry. Canada is known to be multi-cultural, accepting and are proud of everything we do, for example the annual pride parade. We treat every citizen with an equal right and say to our country and individual society, it's where we come back to being open minded and understanding people's personal views on various topics. Canadians feel tender about one and another, whether it's positive or negative but that's what makes it seem the world so perfect almost and why Canadians are treated with such respect and dignity.

I gathered this information through an assignment I presented for the essay Being Canadian by Denise Chong in my second semester of college. Have a read through her speech when you get an opportunity to, I highly recommend it.

When it came to choosing a destination for post-secondary, it was very bitter at the start of grade 12 but then came the sweetness of prom and knowing I had a place to go afterwards; no super 12 for me. I was head over heels on my dream to be a teacher but more importantly to get there a student at York University. But when the reality came and my university levelled courses, this made me feel as though I had no power to first of all actually getting into the school with the minimum standards. My grades in my first term affected everything of my whole life and made me feel like the biggest loser on the planet. It put me into so much misery to think of myself actually not being able to accomplish anything in life and there I was thinking I was going to do a fifth year of high school (aka super 12). But then I saw the college application deadline on the Guidance department board and it was oddly enough that day; my counsellor on sick leave, the substitute who’s known me before told me to go for it. At first feeling no control, I now feel so privileged with what tomorrow’s opportunities came for. Being able to have a job as part of my program within a short faster period than my other colleagues who are still anxiously waiting to schedule an interview, to find out there’s a writing program I can take, but most importantly to see what I have in my education all together. What a gift and I don’t ever for a moment want to take it for granted.

3. Identity and Values Assignment

My nationality has been with me since the start since I was first of all born in Canada, while being a Hindu and Indian I too was born into but can be considered as introduced to me at a young age; but I’m too used to it to change into something else. It then reminded me of the presentation in my English class in college where I read an essay about what it is like to be a Canadian citizen and how it differs from other nationalities. There was even a contrast I made which involved how I believed Americans disrespected their nationality which turned into a creative debate by an actual American citizen in the class.

Going back through my high school years, more particularly grade 12 was a total rollercoaster. It contained the most fights, drama, stress which I frankly quite enjoyed altogether. Not sure how I got through it but it may have seemed like the good old days, but my yearbooks are nothing but a scary diary that should never be opened again. When it comes to relationships during high school, all I can say is you know your real friends once it’s all over. For example when I decided to go to college, some were over joyed, some superbly jealous, lots didn’t even care. Although it was enjoyable, then leaving it all go to a new step, it a spiritual thing for me but also something ground breaking for new opportunities. Reality is now kicking in….

4. Identity and Values Assignment

I was a newborn it seemed, my mom took me out somewhere.

It must’ve been at my dad’s comic book strip at the flea market.

The woman asked my mom if we were, she said no

All because of the colour of my skin

It wasn’t my mom’s, more of my dad’s

But he wasn’t there at the moment…hah, like that’s ever new.

That was the first time; the second was in high school

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I started to go attend a normal high school.

It was amazing, go blackscots!

I met many new friends, many new stupid people

But that was life and society

One of my high school mates shocked me within the next year

Why would she think that? Any common sense?

Or was she being Mary?

I was a year older than her, even though I took 2 gr.10 courses in gr.9

Then those other gr.9 courses in gr.10…long story

She used to often start conversations with me,

Work on geography together often,

Be regular classmates, say hi in the halls, group work in class

Even lend each other’s notes if one of us were absent

Or if Mary was to slow copying it down

Since she always use to make litter paper, on her notes

silly Mary

What bothered me the most was seeing her when I was in gr.11

How offending of her to have this instinct of me

And she kept it in herself for this long?

How did I find out?

Luckily one of my ex best friends knew about it

but didn’t tell me at the moment

I respected that, for Mary’s sake

But then Mary finally let it out.

She blurred out to Ashley in front of me face:

“Isn’t Bobby Tamil?!”

I was shocked.

She didn’t know I was Hindu

all because of the colour of my skin

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She apologized after she realized she was wrong about me

but she doubted herself

She thought I was joking

No I’m not Tamil

But it hurt me to hear that

Because of how I appear

But I didn’t let that take over my life

It shouldn’t bother me

And it didn’t

3 years later, there’s a record breaking

Term for this

I recommend it to everyone

we were Born This Way!

5. Identity and Values Assignment

High school was over, meaning the drama has ended! I finally started college, and as well so many new people to meet. I was aware that sometimes adults go back to school to upgrade their skills, they lost their job, career change etc. Seeing different age groups in the classrooms was a little bit strange and even awkward. Firstly, I was 17 on my first day turning 18 the next month; being the youngest felt kind of place at times but then even smarter to the ones older than me. What struck me the most was to see a few classmates actually appearing younger than there real age. For example, I thought one girl was 17 or 18 like me but when I asked her something about herself during an icebreaker, to figure out she’s 23 with a 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter hoping to get back in school and get a career. I was astonished to first of all find out she had her son at my age which was freaky but I felt bad to ask her how old she was and to find out her present based on her past and how young she is with her struggles and education at the same time.

6. Identity and Values Assignment

People have different opinions when I mention the name of this person; some may say put some pants on, millions like I put our paws up. Lady Gaga recently released her newest album, Born This Way, and the title track has been released in February. It is about being yourself because we were simply born this way. Having this said, although with criticism faced, this song includes everyone who feels as though they don’t belong because they could be bullied or teased, not wanted, discriminated etc. all due to the fact that we are different. Being different makes us beautiful in our way, and we should never hide ourselves in regret but to simply love ourselves and we’re set; we’re on the right track ‘cause we were Born This Way. Simply, the song can be interpreted in millions of views, as by her little monsters, because people’s different ideals vary and everyone should be open-minded to different views. Perhaps some may collide with others and have similarities or if there are differences, it would be nice to learn why they are.


Click the video below to listen to Born This Way:

7. Identity and Values Assignment

My personal values always challenge me but at some point do get aligned with the area I’m in. Being challenged is great because it gives me an opportunity to think, wake my brain up, and even be up to date with the current events and news happening in the world; which is mainly stuff I don’t know. I never want to get to anybody else’s level for my own sake but also to let the other party know what my opinions and arguments are to a certain topic. I may agree or disagree and they may have opposite opinions; vice versa with me as well.