A decade in Toronto - 23

2015 was a significant improvement on 2014. My new job at Simmons da Silva introduced me to a number of colleagues, many of them became friends; a couple of them still are, although I’ve moved on from that incredibly dynamic firm.

The leadership of the firm is forward looking and progressive, committed to multicultural ethos, despite a majority of its members being white (or as Stephen Harper would refer as “old stock Canadians”). 

Although being a five-decades-old firm, and law being an endemically conservative profession, thanks to its leadership, Simmons da Silva constantly strives for professional excellence.

Howard Simmons

At the firm, I knew Puneet, who'd created the opportunity for me to work there, and Pathik Baxi, a person who owns the term ‘laid back’. After joining, I instantly became friends with Howard Simmons, the founder of the firm. Howard is a rare free-thinking intellectual in a profession that encourages and often ensures regimentation.

Over the next three-and-a-half years, I got to know nearly 40 individuals who worked at the firm. In any work environment, some colleagues become more important than others. And, as I said at the beginning of this blog, a couple of them remain important, even though I’ve not been able to maintain contact with them as regularly as I’d want to.

When my colleagues surprised me by
celebrating my birthday - the first time in more
than two decades that I celebrated my birthday
in such a manner

However, since there are people in our midst who have the tendency to turn everything pure and magical into prurient and ugly, I shall refrain from naming those who are still important to me only because I have no desire to embarrass them, and because what I shared with them was special and will remain so forever.

May 2015 was the last time the Festival of South Asian Festival of Literature and the Arts (renamed as the Toronto Festival of Literature and the Arts in 2015) was organised by the indefatigable team of MG Vassanji and Nurjehan Aziz.

I was involved directly in organizing the East Asian panel with the help of Diana Tso, a playwright and actor. Sang Kim moderated the discussion on ‘Is Asian-Canadian a helpful label in terms of the Canadian canon’ and included the following eminent Asian-Canadian authors as panelists: Denis Chong, C Fong Hsiung, Madeleine Thien, Diana Tso, and Terry Watada.

The festival filled a vacuum in the cultural landscape of Toronto because it gave representation to authors who were invited from across the developing world, and to Canadian voices that seldom found representation in mainstream cultural programming. 

However, it clearly needed a larger professional organisational strength that the group of volunteers was unable to provide. 2015 turned out to be the last of a great series.

If interested in reading more, click here:  FSALA-15

In the summer of 2015, my friend Kumar Ketkar and his wife Sharada Sathe came to Toronto. It gave me an opportunity to invite a few friends over to my place (the party room of Lexington on the Green) to celebrate a warm evening together. 

All those invited were friends who’d helped me in my journey to become a Canadian, and while not everyone invited was able to come, those who did, contributed substantially to making the evening memorable and loads of fun.

Kumar and Sharada with friends

What I remember most about that evening was the selfless and unselfconscious manner in which Jasmine Sawant took the responsibility of doing the dishes after the party.  

Nitin and Jasmine then invited Kumar and Sharada to meet with their Marathi-speaking group for another dinner reception. It turned out to be a grand success. Both Kumar and Sharada are committed liberal progressives who have spent their entire life for the left ideological causes. 

Here’s a post about Kumar’s visit to Toronto when we went to the Toronto Reference Library: Erasmus of Rotterdam

2015 was also important for another reason – Stephen Harper lost the federal elections. He lost because of an exclusionary political agenda that targeted Muslim immigrants during the last years of his tenure. 

In retrospect, I think, Harper’s sharp exclusionary bend was probably a couple of years before its time.

By 2016-17, the tumultuous events across Europe (in the wake of the Syrian crisis and the ceaseless influx of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa) and the unexpected victory of Donald Trump’s extremism in the Presidential elections in the United States the forces that Harper tried to unleash in Canada had gained ascendency in the political narrative across most of North America and Europe.

Despite this obvious shortcoming in his politics, I admire Harper for his visionary leadership in improving Canada’s relations with India. He went to India on two occasions during his tenure and expanded the Canadian trade office network across India. And more pertinently, he understood and encouraged the role that Indo-Canadians have and can play in improving bilateral ties.

Also, he was Canada’s prime minister when I arrived in Canada in 2008 and became a citizen in 2014. These are significant landmarks in my life and Harper was an integral part of it. Thanks to my involvement with the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, I was able to meet him on a couple of occasions.

With Stephen Harper and the ICCC leadership

I voted for the first time in a Canadian election hopeful that my vote would make a difference in making Canada a more just society, a society that treats all its citizens with respect. As they say, the jury is out on that one.

We lost many stalwarts in 2015, among them were: Charles Correa, the eminent architect from Bombay; novelist Gunter Grass; Narayan Desai, Mahatma Gandhi’s executive assistant and an eminent pacifist; Lee Kwan Yew, the creator of modern Singapore.

Vinod Mehta, one of India’s finest editors; and Praful Bidwai, an activist journalist, also passed away. And we lost RK Laxman, the legendary cartoonist of the Times of India, the creator of the Common Man. Laxman shaped the sensibilities of three generations of Indians by his cartoons. I shared the same workspace with him briefly when I worked for the Times Group. Here's the link to a post that narrates my encounter with him:

Uncommon encounter with the creator of common man

In India, Hindu fundamentalists assassinated Govind Pansare, a Communist, and MM Kalbargi, a Kannada academic. A couple of years ago in 2013, they had assassinated Narendra Dabholkar, and a couple of years later, in 2017, they'd assassinate Gauri Lankesh, a journalist who was vociferous in her opposition to the right-wing Hindutva nationalist politics that has come to control India. 

I remain worried for my more outspoken friends in India, and have often told them that in case they perceive any threat to their lives, they should immediately hop on to a plane and reach Toronto. I'd help them in every way possible to get settled here and continue to wage their ideological battle.

I lost a friend – Najia Alavi, a Pakistani-Canadian, and an active member of Communications, Advertising, Marketing Professionals (CAMP), Canada’s first voluntary organization for the marketing fraternity. She died by drowning while on a family vacation in Dubai.

A decade in Toronto - 19

2014 turned out to be an unexpectedly tumultuous year.

Outside ICCC's previous office at 45 Sheppard Ave E

Just when you feel you’ve made it, have put your struggle behind you and as you eagerly look forward to building a life that you deserve, things come crashing down.

The year began propitiously, as I entered my fifth year of employment at the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. The institution, being one of the most democratic organizations in Canada where the Indian diaspora could (and does) fulfil its ambitions and aspirations, has forever been a hotbed of political shenanigans and chicanery. But the political jostling rarely, if at all, affects the employees, who, without exception, service members and directors.

However, the acquisition of a building by the Chamber led to an unseemly controversy that became messier as days passed. As the senior-most employee of the Chamber, I was unwittingly drawn into the ongoing tussle between the two groups.

There was little doubt in my mind that the meagre resources at the disposal of the Chamber hadn’t been utilised judiciously, especially in the way the building’s interiors were designed and renovated. Whether there was malfeasance involved is anyone’s guess.

Recently, after four years of wrangling, the Chamber’s board agreed to close the investigation after being satisfied by the responses it received.

The then leadership of the Chamber was no longer comfortable working with me because of my vocal opposition to the payment of brokerage to a board member who was also the broker for the purchase of the building.

There were enough indications that the situation would turn for the worse for me, because of my, at time vociferous, opposition to many patently objectionable decisions made by the then leadership. But I was unwilling to see what must have been clear to everyone at that time - that my days at the Chamber were numbered, primarily because I considered many members of the then leadership to be my friends,

At the office of ICCC

The mid-year elections led to the consolidation of the existing group that has wrested control of the Chamber a couple of years ago. 

I’d already prepared to go on my once-in-three-years trip to India in the summer and left for India in July 2014 for a month. We returned from India in the third week of August and were excited to take oath as citizens on 27 August 2014.

The next day, 28 August 2014, when I reached the office the then president, the immediate past president and a vice president called me to the president’s office and within 15 minutes terminated my services, citing restructuring of the organisation in view of the acute shortage of finances. There was little consideration for all the work that I’d put in for the Chamber.

My world came crashing down. I had a humongous mortgage which was due every month; I had insubstantial savings that could possibly tide me over for two to three months, but then my family would be on the streets.

Even today, four years later, when I look back, what surprises me is not so much the decision of the then leadership of the Chamber to remove me, but the silence of all those who I’d imagined were my friends and people who I could depend upon. 

I’d like to give them the benefit of doubt that they were blindsided by the act and were not in a position to move fast enough.

Fortunately, working at the Chamber for nearly five years had brought me in contact with innumerable influential and successful Indo-Canadians. And when I was scampering around trying to meet potential employers, realizing that not everyone can be a friend when you’re in need, three individuals stood by me and offered to pull me out of my troubles.

Yudhvir Jaswal, a young media baron, who has a footprint in print and broadcast media, was more than willing to take me. Yudhvir is a sponsor of the Chamber.

With Puneet

Haresh (Mike) Mehta, a highly successful entrepreneur, a veteran community leader and an important functionary of the Sanatan Mandir, offered me the Executive Director’s position at the newly-launched Cultural Centre of the temple. Haresh had been a director of Chamber.

Puneet S Kohli, a young lawyer, who was at that time vacationing in Italy, agreed at once to take me. He’d have to create a special position in the law firm to accommodate me. Puneet had been a corporate secretary of the Chamber.

Simmons da Silva LLP

Finally, in mid-September, I decided that I’d join Simmons da Silva LLP. It was a decision that changed my life for the better. I was there for the next three-and-a-half years, before returning to what I believe I do best – working in a bilateral relations promotion organisation – the Canada India Foundation in 2018.

I will never forget the kindness and the generosity of Yudhir and Haresh, and especially Puneet. All relations change over the years, especially when friends become colleagues or when colleagues become friends. But I will always remember Puneet’s support at a time when almost nobody else did.