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VISIT THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS
RAMESH SETH
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TIMES NEWS NETWORK [THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2006 12:00:43 AM]
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On our first-ever visit to Canada, my wife and I happened to glance through the inflight magazine of Canada2000 on the Los Angeles - Vancouver sector. The cover had a bewitching picture of a snow clad mountain peak overlooking a beautiful valley.
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Abbotsford, the caption said. As we read the article, we wished we could actually visit the place....Imagine our excitement when we managed to do exactly that after three weeks in Vancouver!
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Abbotsford is small town with a population of about 1 lakh, situated on the western end of Fraser Valley, over which looms the snowcapped Mount Baker. It's every bit as beautiful as any picture postcard claims it is! Yet so few Indians know about the place!
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It's just 50 km east of Vancouver, also in the province of British Columbia. And since the roads in Canada are wonderful, it took us under 45 minutes. As we neared the town the magnificent Mt Baker became visible. In fact its lofty peak can be seen from every part of Abbotsford.
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The whole valley is full of flowers, a tribute to not only the wonderful climate but the rich soil of the area. Little wonder that the region is known for its floriculture. It's also known for one more thing: Sikhs!
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Sikh farmers started settling in Abbotsford as far back as 100 years ago as it was an agricultural area and employment could be found in its many farms. A century on, those labourers are now well-off farmers and pillars of the community of Abbotsford.
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The town even boasts an old Sikh gurdwara, which was recently declared a heritage site. The Canadian Prime Minister himself came to Abbotsford to take part in that function!
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Incidentally, Abbotsford was founded at the turn of the 19th century and named after Henry Abbot, a senior official of the Canadian Pacific Railway and brother of one of Canada's most famous Prime Ministers, Sir J Abbot.
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Over the years Abbotsford has changed from being an agri-heartland to a valley of flowers. Today its greenhouse floricultural activities are known all over the country. Huge greenhous complexes dot the area and bear testimony to a flourishing flower export business.
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We visited one of the greenhouses and were pleasantly surprised to note that there at least 95% of the women workers were of Indian origin - Sikh, in fact. The older lot aren't too fluent in English so the managements also employ younger, more articulate bilingual girls as supervisors. Still, the atmosphere is very convivial as the women share similar backgrounds so it's a comfortable work environment.
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Most of these Sikh women are employed only to plant flower seedlings in the greenhouses. Some of the more skilled ones are also employed to do the grafting, but they are very few. On average these women earn $5-6 per hour, the legal minimum wages and though they speak Punjabi their hard work sees them through.
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There's also life beyond flowers in Abbotsford, as we found out. The airplane industry has an annual air-show which draws big crowds. During those three days all the hotels are fully booked.
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Incidentally, this comparitively small town (by Indian standards) has over 10,000 hotel rooms - most of which are booked year-round. As Fraser Valley sits on the famous 49th parallel (the international border of US and Canada) the big market south of the border beckons.
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Nearby parks and lakes are a treat for nature lovers and in the winter the slopes also draw skiers. Come summer, there are plenty of raspberry, blueberry and strawberry farms which welcome visitors, especially for the Abbotsford Berry Festival. Isn't it time that more Indians discovered this hidden Canadian treasure?
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Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
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