Arrival in Winnipeg

Introduction:
I am Uma Parameswaran. I plan to use this blogsite to record the early history of Indo-Canadians in Manitoba through a narration of my own experiences and memories of people and events of the era 1965-1985. It will start as a record of my own memories and works but I invite readers to comment on their memories of the people and events of those times so that the repertoire of our memories will expand the historical content. All the writing is mine but my technical assistant is my daughter, Raji, who will help upload texts and pictures.

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My husband and I arrived in Winnipeg on Friday, 23^rd of September, 1966. He had been appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and we had flown from India to Montreal and on to Winnipeg. We were met at the airport by Professor Roy Dowling. He brought greetings and regrets from the Head of the Department, Nathan Mendelsohn, who could not come in person because it was Rosh Hashanah. Roy drove us downtown to Gordon Downtowner Motor Hotel on Ellice Avenue. Having made sure we were comfortably settled, he bid goodnight saying he would see us again on Monday morning and drive us to the University. It was already evening, and so we went to bed early for we had been on the road as it were for about thirty six hours.

The next morning, we went for a walk. The air was already chilly, for us anyway. We turned right onto Portage Avenue, and saw the Hudson Bay store, with the Union Jack waving in the morning breeze. It was a bit of a shock to see the flag that had long been got rid of in India flying high over the land to which we had just immigrated! Somehow, it had never occurred to me that by immigrating to Canada we had opted for the Union Jack!

After breakfast, back in our room, we wondered what to do next. The telephone directory gave us an idea – to look for Indian names. We went through names common to south India and came across a Raman! Rev. P.K.Raman, the page told us, lived on Langside Street, and his phone number was..... So we phoned him. He welcomed us to Winnipeg and invited us to dinner at their house that evening. I can’t remember if we walked there or were given a ride.

Rev. Raman and his wife were most cordial and introduced us to the other guests. Sapan Sinha (1928-2006) was there – his wife Rubena was in India. Dakshi and Ganga Dakshinamurti were there, as was Koruthu (Ken) Eapen who had also arrived recently, sponsored by his fiancée, (name?) There were several others, whose names I have forgotten. As I recall, we were given a ride back at night by the Dakshis, who lived in the new high rise block on Cumberland Avenue. They had a Rambler car – of course as always, there had been car-talk among the men that evening and so I remember their Rambler, though I forget if they really gave us a ride that night or not.

What I do remember is that the Ramans were like in loco-parentis to a whole generation of people who had come from India. Almost every weekend they hosted at least ten guests, and always had a great variety of dishes, vegetarian and non-vegetarian. The guests needed to do nothing other than talk and eat, and only after dinner would Mrs. Raman allow us women to help clean up – this was before the dishwasher age and so we could help scrub the pots and pans while the men talked about what else – cars and Indian politics.

It was, I think, a two bedroom apartment or may be there was only one bedroom, but all of us could comfortably sit around in the living room Over the next few weeks, we got to meet most of the Indians in Winnipeg at their apartment! I doubt there were more than fifty immigrants from India at the time.

Rev.Raman’s hospitality was proverbial. His mother tongue was Tamil, hers Telugu. They did not have children, but in later years they adopted two nieces, Manju and Mazlin, who were daughters of Mrs. Raman’s sister.

I would like to say something about the Ramans in these pages since they were one of the first, if not the first, Indians to settle in Winnipeg. From the Winnipeg Free Press obituaries, dated Nov. 1966 and Nov. 19, 2001, we have the following details about Rev. and Mrs. Raman. (I doubt there was anyone in Winnipeg who referred to them by their first names, Kodandaraman and Sugandha. They were always Rev. and Mrs. Raman to all of us).

Born in Madras on October 15, 1908, Poonamalle Kodanda Raman practised as minister and chaplain in the U.S. and in Winnipeg. Since Mrs. Raman’s obituary mentions that she came to Winnipeg in 1957, I assume both of them came to Winnipeg in 1957. Both were members of the Calvary Temple on Hargrave Street, where they started an Asia fellowship for Christians from Asia. Mrs. Raman was a school teacher in India. In Winnipeg, she worked at the Misericordia Hospital for 15 years. Rev. Raman passed away on Nov. 29, 1996, and Mrs. Raman on Nov. 16, 2001. Both are interred at the St. Vital cemetery.

The newspaper obituary does not mention Rev. Raman's Burma years, and so I record them here as I remember hearing from him.

Born Kodandaraman, he grew up in Burma during the years of the first World War. When Rangoon was bombed, he was part of the huge exodus of Indians who fled on foot back to India. During this time, he was helped by Christian missionaries, and converted to Christianity. He went on to study at a seminary and became a minister. His wife was born into a Christian family.

There are gaps to be filled. I recall hearing from him that he was a child when he fled Burma, but since the Burma exodus was during the second world war, it would make him in his thirties. He would have been a child during the first world war, but Burma was not a site during that war.
There could have been another major disturbance in Burma that drove Indians to flee back to India.