Shifting base - Becoming a Non-resident Indian in the most unexpected way

Today marks the 1st anniversary of us landing here in Canada 🍁and it's still just a subtle realization that we have taken this drastic step of packing our lives into two 50 pound bags to fly into unknown lands with little expectations and nothing but only uncertainties.The plan initially was that... there was no plan and to this date it is difficult to explain how we shifted here all of sudden and became "immigrants" or "NRIs" ... Hell it's difficult to even explain ourselves how we treated our lives with in the past year especially because Canada was never a Plan A or B or Z.

Fall Colours in Mississauga,Canada

The seeds were sown in August 2017 when one of our friends immigrated to Canada and for the first time someone that we were quite familiar with, showed us the Canadian life, the place, the weather, the jobs, the chores and the like. It was precisely the time when we had purchased a new appartment back in our hometown and were giving it all our time and efforts to gift ourselves the interiors and furnishings of our choice. Life was comfortable for both of us Bankers and working in our home cities, each day started with a morning walk and ended with plans of our next vacation trip and about making this blog more exciting.

Toronto skyline

But then, as we read more about how Canada has some of the best cities to live in, how it is one of the more developed countries with high standards of living, free healthcare and education, we started comparing the traffic, pollution, work life balance of big Indian cities with Canada which would obviously tilt in the latter's favour and eventually we decided to try for a Canadian Permanent residence and have it for us "just in case".

View From Plane-CN Tower & Toronto Downtown

Long story short, fast forward to July 2018, we took a couple of months of leaves from our banking jobs (thanks to our generous bosses!) to test the Canadian waters. It was all in a hurry decided precisely two weeks before departure and mainly to attend a 4 week immigration job orientation and training programme organized by a government funded immigration settlement agency. So the plan was to do a soft landing, get done with the orientation and fly back home with some flavours of Canada and eventually immigrate later if at all we would want to....but we booked a one way ticket just to keep our options open.

Night View, Downtown Toronto, Canada

Things didn't turn out the way we were expecting it to be, the program we were about to attend was already full and with no Plan B, we just started exploring the city and the job market pondering over when to book our return tickets. During this time we also realized how beautiful a country Canada is! It took us some time to accept the change and settle down and once we did and once we got some responses from employers here, we gave a thought about - why exactly do we need to go back home immediately? For our jobs, was the answer. And what if we got a job here and resign over email? Not a bad plan B for sure! So this is how our Plan B was formulated without a Plan A. We are grateful to our friends who hosted us here initially but now it was time to move. We rented one of the cheapest options available given the fact that we were spending Indian Rupees for Canadian dollar rent and bill payments which seemed exorbitantly expensive to us.

Hustle Bustle of City-Toronto

Explaining our resignation plans to our bosses back home was another challenge, it must have come as a shock to them. It took us a long time and hassle to have our resignations accepted and along with it we were experiencing our first Canadian winters (the harshest in last 5 years, locals say) and also understanding our new bosses and colleagues here in Canada as we tried to "fit in". It was all too much going on at the same time and a lot of our friends and family were asking us about what's going on with us, and honestly we had no clue.

Winter in Mississauga, Canada

Good Summer Days-Toronto

... And we still don't, but perhaps the only answer to it is - God's Plan (Drake is a Canadian btw!lol). But looking back at it now, we feel this could have been the only way we would have immigrated to a foreign land because the toughest thing is not to start a new life overseas but to let go of all we have back home- family, friends, the place called home, the joyride called car, the favourite food, the favourite places and the comfort of knowing and relating to everything and everyone around you.

Downtown. toronto

Life isn't perfect yet, it never is and neither does it come with a guarantee. But the good thing is we don't regret our decisions and look forward to the many new adventures and challenges that life has in store ahead of us. And our blog to, doesn't come with any guarantees lol, our last blog post was almost two years ago and so we can not guarantee our next post, but we look forward to making more posts especially for folks back home who have been considering shifting here and have many unanswered questions just like we had, a year ago. The good thing though is that there is finally a new blog post and our blog, just like our lives here, is moving slowly, but northwards... We the north!

We The North

Have a look at our Instagram photos and YouTube videos to get a glimpse of our lives here. Apologies for the delayed updates and posts!! But just to make an excuse, it's tough to make time for blog posts when so much is happening around in our lives! But do let us know if you have any questions in the comments!! 😀  August has just begun, have a great month ahead!! Cheers and have a Good Life!

View from CN Tower, Toronto

Thank you for your time!

Khushbu and Pranay