[Music]
[Music]
I was four years old when I first walked
into my dance teachers apartment the
funny-looking anklets and the bright
yellow walls remain fresh in my mind as
though it was yesterday little did I
know that those funny-looking anklets
would mesmerise me for the rest of my
life for the next 13 years I learned a
beautiful form of art known as birthmark
young ballerina theum is the oldest form
of Indian classical dance it is as old
as time is now let me tell you why my
mother enrolled me in dance classes I
was born in the middle of a civil
conflict in Sri Lanka belonging to the
minority it was imperative for me and my
family to hold on to our cultural roots
and both Natyam met that criteria
perfectly it was a combination of the
Hindu mythology and the Tamil culture
however the war had a huge impact on me
people were dying on a daily basis I
went to school every morning not knowing
if I’d returned home alive and all I
could think of was my family being next
years and years of thinking like this
got me thinking how life would be in a
country where there was no war my
parents sent me to an established school
in Sri Lanka they had a number of
different extracurricular activities
including Model United Nations moderate
admissions is the simulation of the
United Nations however students played
the role of conch delegates they then
come together to draft resolutions and
that then go on to solve some of the
world’s most pressing problems such as
climate change a teacher who picked up
on my fear of public speaking
coached me and sent me to these
conferences
in March 2013 our school got to
represent Canada at Colombo model here
and admissions can you believe it we got
two reps in Canada and by the end of my
research I had concluded that Canada was
the epitome of a happy country people
were always smiling and the Sun was
always shining and no Google does not
show images of the wind and the snow
unless you look for it and I didn’t
in June of 2013 I graduated from high
school and I was looking forward to
attend any university in Canada but the
tuition fees were really expensive so my
parents couldn’t afford the tuition fees
I was on my way to then enroll myself in
a private institution in Sri Lanka
luckily on that very day we met a
professor from Memorial University and
he was willing to give me a scholarship
and that’s how I got to maan in winter
of 2014 as soon as I landed in Canada I
experienced this strange sense of
liberation and freedom I want to have
everyone who moves away from home feels
that way I mean you feel like a whole
new person all of a sudden I collected
my luggages and as I was walking out of
the airport I was treated with a slap on
the face by none other than the wind in
say Jones was quite a long welcome I
must say I was gonna live on campus so I
collected my keys and I opened the dorm
room but my dorm room was the opposite
of excitement it was so empty it was so
empty that I could literally hear the
echo of my own footsteps in that room
and I had never felt never felt that
alone in my entire life
and by then I had come to realized that
I was not the only / by then I had come
to realized that was the room that was
not just empty I was empty from within
wasn’t easy everything around me
reminded me that I was not at home I
looked different compared to a lot of my
classmates I have a different accent and
the food in the dining halls tasted
nothing like what I was used to and a
few days later I received an invitation
to attend the scholarship ceremony to
accept the scholarship that I had
received that I bought me there here in
the first place even though I should
have felt proud of myself I experienced
so much of grief seeing the parents of
other scholarship holders the pain of
not having my parents with me was much
more than receiving my scholarship
itself and by now I had come to realize
that the happy arrangers Canada was
slowly fading away reality was striking
in day by day I started believing that I
had made a mistake I thought that I
should go back home where I was wanted I
thought that my parents would take me
back anytime
but then the bit of determination left
in me convinced me to stay back and I
did I’m really happy that I did I mean I
wouldn’t be giving this debt off I did
go home right I was finally settling in
because the grief had become manageable
at this point they Stern in two weeks
weeks turned into months but my
homesickness remained and that’s when I
heard about the multicultural show at
Memorial University international
students from across the campus were
invited to audition and display an
ethnic form of art and I was so
interested in meeting new people so I
promptly showed of auditions
and started talking to people almost
immediately and I quickly learned that I
was not the only homesick person on
campus there was so many more
international students just like myself
but they’ve all far more determined to
succeed than I ever was I was selected
to perform at the multicultural show and
every two weeks we had these practice
sessions and during these practice
sessions I was bombarded with questions
about multiculturalism I was surprised
because I wasn’t bought up in a country
where there was a lot of ethnic
diversity either so why do people asking
me all these questions I took that
opportunity to reflect and learn why
people felt terrible about me and I
quickly learned that I that they were
not the only people to think that way I
too had assumed that people from outside
of sri lanka knew a lot more about
multiculturalism than i ever did you see
often times we grow up thinking that
there’s no culture in our surroundings
we firmly believe that you know you
should travel the world explore new
cities new destinations in order to
understand what culture tradition and
history really means but there’s so much
of history tradition culture in our own
city or in our own country we just don’t
see it and in my case this realization
dawned upon me after I moved here to
Canada people would ask me so many
questions about birth Natyam or sri
lanka so i had to know a lot of you know
i had to know everything about sri
lankan wants those questions
however regardless of how different we
all are there’s something that connects
all of us na Brasa in bar tanaka means
nine emotions happiness sadness anger
fear disgust compassion love and peace
these emotions are universal all the
human beings on this planet experience
these nine emotions if we all think of
ourselves as teapots of different shapes
sizes and color ultimately we would come
to understand that we would all hold
water likewise as humans we are made up
of emotions and feelings that then
enables us to connect with one another
embrace it and you’ll be pleasantly
surprised by what you can accomplish
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I was four years old when I first walked
into my dance teachers apartment the
funny-looking anklets and the bright
yellow walls remain fresh in my mind as
though it was yesterday little did I
know that those funny-looking anklets
would mesmerise me for the rest of my
life for the next 13 years I learned a
beautiful form of art known as birthmark
young ballerina theum is the oldest form
of Indian classical dance it is as old
as time is now let me tell you why my
mother enrolled me in dance classes I
was born in the middle of a civil
conflict in Sri Lanka belonging to the
minority it was imperative for me and my
family to hold on to our cultural roots
and both Natyam met that criteria
perfectly it was a combination of the
Hindu mythology and the Tamil culture
however the war had a huge impact on me
people were dying on a daily basis I
went to school every morning not knowing
if I’d returned home alive and all I
could think of was my family being next
years and years of thinking like this
got me thinking how life would be in a
country where there was no war my
parents sent me to an established school
in Sri Lanka they had a number of
different extracurricular activities
including Model United Nations moderate
admissions is the simulation of the
United Nations however students played
the role of conch delegates they then
come together to draft resolutions and
that then go on to solve some of the
world’s most pressing problems such as
climate change a teacher who picked up
on my fear of public speaking
coached me and sent me to these
conferences
in March 2013 our school got to
represent Canada at Colombo model here
and admissions can you believe it we got
two reps in Canada and by the end of my
research I had concluded that Canada was
the epitome of a happy country people
were always smiling and the Sun was
always shining and no Google does not
show images of the wind and the snow
unless you look for it and I didn’t
in June of 2013 I graduated from high
school and I was looking forward to
attend any university in Canada but the
tuition fees were really expensive so my
parents couldn’t afford the tuition fees
I was on my way to then enroll myself in
a private institution in Sri Lanka
luckily on that very day we met a
professor from Memorial University and
he was willing to give me a scholarship
and that’s how I got to maan in winter
of 2014 as soon as I landed in Canada I
experienced this strange sense of
liberation and freedom I want to have
everyone who moves away from home feels
that way I mean you feel like a whole
new person all of a sudden I collected
my luggages and as I was walking out of
the airport I was treated with a slap on
the face by none other than the wind in
say Jones was quite a long welcome I
must say I was gonna live on campus so I
collected my keys and I opened the dorm
room but my dorm room was the opposite
of excitement it was so empty it was so
empty that I could literally hear the
echo of my own footsteps in that room
and I had never felt never felt that
alone in my entire life
and by then I had come to realized that
I was not the only / by then I had come
to realized that was the room that was
not just empty I was empty from within
wasn’t easy everything around me
reminded me that I was not at home I
looked different compared to a lot of my
classmates I have a different accent and
the food in the dining halls tasted
nothing like what I was used to and a
few days later I received an invitation
to attend the scholarship ceremony to
accept the scholarship that I had
received that I bought me there here in
the first place even though I should
have felt proud of myself I experienced
so much of grief seeing the parents of
other scholarship holders the pain of
not having my parents with me was much
more than receiving my scholarship
itself and by now I had come to realize
that the happy arrangers Canada was
slowly fading away reality was striking
in day by day I started believing that I
had made a mistake I thought that I
should go back home where I was wanted I
thought that my parents would take me
back anytime
but then the bit of determination left
in me convinced me to stay back and I
did I’m really happy that I did I mean I
wouldn’t be giving this debt off I did
go home right I was finally settling in
because the grief had become manageable
at this point they Stern in two weeks
weeks turned into months but my
homesickness remained and that’s when I
heard about the multicultural show at
Memorial University international
students from across the campus were
invited to audition and display an
ethnic form of art and I was so
interested in meeting new people so I
promptly showed of auditions
and started talking to people almost
immediately and I quickly learned that I
was not the only homesick person on
campus there was so many more
international students just like myself
but they’ve all far more determined to
succeed than I ever was I was selected
to perform at the multicultural show and
every two weeks we had these practice
sessions and during these practice
sessions I was bombarded with questions
about multiculturalism I was surprised
because I wasn’t bought up in a country
where there was a lot of ethnic
diversity either so why do people asking
me all these questions I took that
opportunity to reflect and learn why
people felt terrible about me and I
quickly learned that I that they were
not the only people to think that way I
too had assumed that people from outside
of sri lanka knew a lot more about
multiculturalism than i ever did you see
often times we grow up thinking that
there’s no culture in our surroundings
we firmly believe that you know you
should travel the world explore new
cities new destinations in order to
understand what culture tradition and
history really means but there’s so much
of history tradition culture in our own
city or in our own country we just don’t
see it and in my case this realization
dawned upon me after I moved here to
Canada people would ask me so many
questions about birth Natyam or sri
lanka so i had to know a lot of you know
i had to know everything about sri
lankan wants those questions
however regardless of how different we
all are there’s something that connects
all of us na Brasa in bar tanaka means
nine emotions happiness sadness anger
fear disgust compassion love and peace
these emotions are universal all the
human beings on this planet experience
these nine emotions if we all think of
ourselves as teapots of different shapes
sizes and color ultimately we would come
to understand that we would all hold
water likewise as humans we are made up
of emotions and feelings that then
enables us to connect with one another
embrace it and you’ll be pleasantly
surprised by what you can accomplish
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
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