Adil, India and Ancestors

The Second Generation

This episode is an interview with my friend Adil Dhalla, who decided to visit India for the first time in his mid-30s, to learn more about his ancestry.

200 years ago, Adil’s ancestors left India (Gujrat), and went to Tanzania. About 50 years ago, they immigrated to Canada. Adil grew up here in Toronto, when asked where he’s from, Adil would always either say Canadian or Tanzanian. He never identified as Indian, despite a lineage of Indian ancestors.

After 6 years of working at the Centre for Social Innovation, including as the Executive Director, Adil took a huge leap and decided to “retire” from that work. He left his job and asked himself what he wanted to do.

The answer was: go to India. Adil bought a one way ticket and left for India in January 2019.

Our conversation touches on many aspects of Adil’s trip to India: yoga, meditation retreats and letting go of “fear based” existence, flirting with cows (seriously!), reconsidering eating meat, and witnessing a professional hugger who has hugged 30 million people (Adil says it was akin to watching Beyonce on stage). We also talk about the ongoing legacy of colonization that Adil witnessed in day-to-day life in India.

I loved hearing how Adil’s experiences in India transported him into a completely new mindset and perspective that we aren’t used to in Western culture. Adil closes by talking about how he’s already working to integrate the lessons he’s learned into his life, in both tangible ways like yoga and food, and the intangible things like building capacity for love.