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What would you tell your 18-year-old self?
For Dr. Siddiqui, the answer comes without hesitation: "Believe in yourself, your intuition, and your passion." This wisdom forms just one thread of the rich tapestry woven throughout our conversation with a physician whose life journey spans three continents and countless cultural transitions.
The "Beneath the Accent" segment reveals Dr. Siddiqui's most vulnerable moments of cultural adaptation. With disarming honesty, he recounts an awkward encounter in a Canadian mall when his Middle Eastern greeting custom of cheek kisses met with unexpected resistance from a friend. Rather than dwelling on embarrassment, he shares how resilience helped him navigate this cultural disconnect, a skill essential for anyone crossing cultural boundaries.
Food and language create both connections and amusing misunderstandings in Dr. Siddiqui's experience. His description of Mandi (Kapsa) from Saudi Arabia evokes the comfort of familiar tastes in unfamiliar places, while his story about a Chinese colleague confusing "duck" with "dog" during a dinner conversation highlights the humorous side of language barriers. These human moments remind us that beneath our various accents lies a universal desire to connect and understand one another.
Perhaps most moving is Dr. Siddiqui's account of Eid celebrations in Canada becoming increasingly inclusive, welcoming neighbors from all backgrounds—Christians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs—to break fast together. Through these gatherings, he discovered the beautiful commonality that fasting traditions exist across religions under different names, bringing "such big joy, such big fulfillment" through cross-cultural understanding.
As we conclude our journey through Dr. Siddiqui's experiences, his description of Canada as "a land of opportunity and the friendliest country" he's known offers hope for the power of welcoming communities. His philosophy of "reverse mentoring"—learning from everyone regardless of age or background—reminds us that cultural exchange enriches all participants. Listen now to discover how beneath our accents, we find the shared human experiences that connect us all.
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You can answer them in one wordor a sentence, or however you
feel like.
The idea is just to know moreabout you.
What advice would you give toyour younger self, and at what
age?
Dr. Siddiqui (00:23):
I would definitely
, definitely go back when I was
18.
Okay, or you know, when I wasentering my professional college
or university.
You know, mehboob Siddiqui, Iwould tell him to believe in
myself, to believe in yourintuition and to believe in your
passion.
(00:43):
Just choose.
I'm not using the word career,I just choosing.
just choose the work, justchoose the activities which make
you happy
Gurasis (00:53):
is there a moment when
you experienced a significant
cultural shock that surprisedyou?
Dr. Siddiqui (00:58):
back in middle
east, as I said, we used to kiss
on each other cheeks.
When we greet each other, greeteach other yeah, so basically,
yeah, we shake hands and then wedo this.
So it was a kind of learningmoment for me when I was quite
new here and you know the otherperson I thought he was from the
(01:22):
same background.
Gurasis (01:23):
Background okay.
Dr. Siddiqui (01:25):
And you know I
just did to him okay and to
somehow, with his other hand hejust pushed me a little bit oh,
wow right, because he was notfeeling comfortable doing it in
a public place okay right.
So I was brutally honest withyou, so I got shocked I'm sure
(01:47):
yeah right, and I knew him, Iknew him from for years back
then, but I was totally shockedat how he transformed.
And again, there is nothing badin it, you know.
Yeah, of course it was, and wewere in a public place, we were
in a mall and we were meetingafter a long time, you know, and
, like you know, out ofexcitement, out of you know, we
(02:11):
were seeing each other aftermaybe six years, when, you know,
after shaking hands I was, youknow, trying to like we used to
greet each other- Absolutely,you know.
So that was the moment I felt abit cultural shock and
embarrassed as well.
But then I would say, thanks tomy resilience or thanks to my
(02:31):
you know training, that I justabsorbed that moment and then
everything was okay from thatpoint onwards and I was careful.
Gurasis (02:42):
I'm sure.
Okay, what's the one dish fromyour home country that always
brings you comfort and nostalgia?
Dr. Siddiqui (02:50):
So from Saudi
Arabia it's called Mandi, or,
you know, different cultures,they call it different or it's
called Kapsa, which is, you know, made with either goat or with
chicken, with rice aromatic rice, okay, and you know it's a sort
of national dish which we usedto eat there in festivals and
(03:14):
weddings, on, you know, in anybig occasion, and similar dishes
.
Gurasis (03:19):
Back home is biryani
and do you have any story
related to your misunderstandingaround the accent or the
english?
Dr. Siddiqui (03:26):
so you know it's
from our friends and our
colleagues from china okay, Ihave great friends in that part
of the world used to be greatcolleagues.
When we used to talk ontelephone it was a little bit
difficult to understand and beunderstood, especially when
English is not a native languagefor both of us.
(03:47):
I have my own accent and againI don't know which accent is
this, but when I talk peoplethey are confused.
They ask me either you are fromMiddle East or you are from
Arabian countries, or you know,as I said, you are from India or
Pakistan.
They get confused.
He was telling me that or I wastelling him that what I had
(04:09):
eaten we use the word duck,maybe it was Thanksgiving,
something or something like that, but somehow somehow duck came
to the you know like the tankgiving dinner and he understood
that I was mentioning about dog.
So that was quite funny that heunderstood that I was eating dog
and my point was there was aconfusion between duck and dog.
Gurasis (04:33):
Okay, so what's your
favorite cultural festival or
celebration in Canada?
Dr. Siddiqui (04:37):
Surprisingly, we
have huge community here.
So, so when I say hugecommunity, so technically we, or
year around, we have only twofestivals.
We call them Eid, so one ofthem is sweet Eid and another
one is the you know, eid ofsacrifice.
Eid al-Adha is becoming soinclusive now that, being here
(04:59):
in Canada, we invite ourneighbors, we invite, you know
again, all cross, so I can tellyou, like you know, christians,
hindus, jews, sikhs, you justname it, you know, and then, in
a community, we invite them tobreak the fast with us.
Okay, it gave me, on a personallevel and on a community level,
(05:27):
such a big joy, such a bigfulfillment that you know we
learned about each other'scultures and we learned that
each culture has fastingtradition.
You know, like I never knewthat previously.
They have all, they call itdifferent names, absolutely yeah
, but they do fast.
This is one of the things thatyou know.
We, we, I celebrated a lot.
Gurasis (05:49):
And tell us about your
first friend that you made in
Canada.
Dr. Siddiqui (05:52):
We are ending the
program and it's the most
difficult question.
Yeah, because you know I wasfortunate enough to have too
many friends, abundance offriends and family.
When I came here I was not in aneed to make friend.
Having said that, I had so manycolleagues.
I had so many, you know, likenow neighbors.
(06:13):
It's really hard discussion.
I I cannot name one.
Gurasis (06:17):
One thing is I can tell
you if somebody is in my friend
circle or in my network then Ialways try to keep in touch with
them so, since you havetraveled a lot, you know, and
you were like on the move allthe time what three things that
you would say that you alwayscarried with yourself, or would
you recommend people to carrywhen they travel?
Dr. Siddiqui (06:36):
whenever you know
I used to travel, my one trolley
bag was ready, always ready,because you never know you have
to catch a flight, for peoplewho have their own medications
with them.
So I would say, keep always asmall travel pack with you of
your medications and you knowthose utilities.
Secondly, I always kept a copyof my travel documents.
(06:59):
And then the third thing is apair of clothes, socks,
undergarments, something whichis like the most basic, basic,
essential, and that's as if Ilose my luggage, which happens a
lot.
So these come to my mind andthey're still in my bag.
Gurasis (07:15):
So finally, describe
Canada in one word or a sentence
.
Dr. Siddiqui (07:19):
A land of
opportunity, and it's the most
friendliest country I've been to.
Gurasis (07:25):
So if you could leave
me with one piece of advice,
what would it be?
Dr. Siddiqui (07:29):
Listen to your gut
always and keep up your
excellent work, which you aredoing.
Gurasis (07:34):
Thank you.
Thank you so much, and howwould you describe your
experience of being on thepodcast?
Dr. Siddiqui (07:39):
Lovely, very
energizing, and there is
something which I always saythat I believe in reverse
mentoring you know, every day isa learning day.
It's not about uh in age, whois senior, who is junior, who is
younger, who is older.
We always learn from each otherabsolutely and from bottom of
(08:01):
my heart, grace says I thank youfor inviting me and giving me
this opportunity just to sharemyself.
Gurasis (08:09):
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your kindwords and it has been a
pleasure speaking with you and Icannot wait for people to hear
this recording and learn fromyou and from the stories that
you have shared.
And thank you for being so openabout all your life and all
your journeys and all thestories that you have shared.
And thank you for being so openabout all your life and all
your journeys and all thestories that you have told us,
the fun conversation that youhave shared with us.
(08:29):
So thank you.
Thank you so much for being onthe podcast and adding value to
my listeners.
Thank you.
Dr. Siddiqui (08:34):
Pleasure is all
mine.
Thank you so much.