STRADDLING two worlds — one East, the other West — can rock you a little, but for the Batths who run Can-Asia Immigration Consultancy Services Limited, it’s all in a day’s work. The family makes a living out of exporting people to Canada. ‘‘For a better life,’’ says Rupinder Batth, the young director, whose business has grown from one office in Chandigarh in 1997, to 33 all over the country today.Himself an export, who reached the maple leaf country in ’91, Batth cashed in on his initial days of struggle to set up a business in immigration. Now more than a decade later, he and his family are citizens of the two worlds, dividing their time equally between the two. But when it comes to their hearts, there is a clear bias. In favour of Canada. ‘‘India is fine, but Canada.,’’ Navi, Rupinder’s partner in life and business, lets her smile say it all.It’s left to the couple’s elder son Hriday to state the obvious. ‘‘I like Canada more,’’ declares the six-year-old, telling you how he will go back home to Richmond in British Columbia once he steps into Class III. Yes, that’s an arrangement the family plans to live by. So what if this would mean a long-distance marriage for the Batths. ‘‘I don’t want my children to curse me for not giving them the best of education,’’ says Rupinder while his father, Lt-Col J S Batth (retd), CMD of the company, flashes a wry smile.Prod him for his views, and he looks uncomfortable. This Army Service Corps officer is clearly inclined towards his desh, but is resigned to the fact that ‘‘children have the right to lead their own life.’’And the children would rather do it in Canada. ‘‘The quality of life there is incomparable,’’ gushes Navi, who moved from Nawanshehar in Punjab to Canada with her parents in ’91. The couple has nothing but praise for the wintry country, specially when it comes to material comforts. ‘‘What we consider a luxury here is a necessity there,’’ they chime, confessing how they hunger for Canadian pasta, cheese and meat. ‘‘Food tastes different there,’’ chips in Hriday, who wears only made-in-Canada clothes.Criticism, if any, they reserve for India where nothing seems right. ‘‘Take traffic, it’s complete chaos here,’’ says Rupinder, ruing how the lane in front of his office is choc-a-block with vehicles, making parking a nightmare. The legendary red-tape also gets his goat. ‘‘It takes ages to get anything done.’’Navi nips in to remind him of the ‘‘shirk culture’’. That’s a sore point with the Colonel as well. ‘‘People are just not responsible enough,’’ he clears his throat, happy to join in the fiery discussion.High costs, both of essentials and non-essentials like ads, also make the Batths feel homesick. ‘‘Back there,’’ says Rupinder, ‘‘I set up my office with $3,000, here a colour photo-copier cost me more.’’It takes a gentle reminder of their resounding success here to put an end to this Bharat-bashing. Cooling down at once, Rupinder admits there is a bright side to their homecoming, one that has the potential to eclipse their Canadian summer. ‘‘Here, we are held in high regard because we are doing well for ourselves, there no one gives a damn for us.’’ Besides, friends and relatives provide a cloak of warmth that the Batths admit is missing abroad.‘‘There, we are caught between two sets of people — one comprising Indians born and raised there, and the other of those who’ve immigrated from villages. We are left dangling in the middle, never at home,’’ rues Navi.Finally, the rosy picture of Canada begins to get a little grimy. Rupinder admits there were times when loneliness gnawed at him. ‘‘Unlike here, that’s a world of insular neighbourhoods,’’ says Navi, who also doesn’t approve of the cut-and-dried relations that exist between parents and children there. Besides it was all work, no play. ‘‘Here, I have a retinue of servants, there I did everything myself,’’ Navi’s voice has a note of wonderment.Though the colour brown never gave him any serious trouble, Rupinder, who worked with Arthur Andersen, admits he had to battle for acceptance.India is changing, he concedes. For the better. ‘‘In fact, I always tell my friends to invest here,’’ he lets you a know a trifle self-consciously.Wonder if Hriday will also feel the same? Some day?
