HELLO JI!
A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR
The way we were! Guests at the last Grant’s Desi Achievers Awards Gala. The much-awaited awards gala returns this year at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga after a hiatus necessitated by the pandemic. Image credit: NARI MAVALWALLA.
Desi News turned 25 in 2021 and we all know what happened that year. At the end of 2019, my husband had said that 2020 would be a great year for headline writers who could go to town with Vision 2020, etc. No one could have guessed the way the year would turn out or predicted the headlines that would actually dominate media the world over.
We had more of the social distancing and the restrictions and variations on the theme for the better part of the next couple of years. But thankfully, and fingers crossed, the havoc and the heartache are behind us now. And we will gather on July 22 to welcome new inductees to the Desi Hall of Fame. Honorees from previous years will be also present.
It’s been over a quarter century of featuring inspirational stories.
Well into our 27th year, I realize that some of the achievers we are celebrating at the Grant’s Desi Achievers Awards Gala this month at Living Arts Centre in Mississauga were babies when Desi News was launched. Activists, authors, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, musicians, politicians, policy makers, philanthropists, research scientists... the list is long and impressive.
Some are public figures, others work quietly behind the scenes. Many of them overcame massive odds to achieve success in their fields. All command the highest respect. They change our world – and the lives of countless people – in innumerable ways. From diverse walks of life, they share certain common traits. A single-minded focus. A passion for public good, for helping make the path easier for those that follow. They are all lifelong learners and they don’t take themselves too seriously. Many are surprised at being viewed as role models. They were just following their passion, they say.
They are living proof that everyone who dares to dream can translate that dream into reality with talent, luck, grit and determination.
I am fascinated by collective nouns, a charm of goldfinches from the book by the same name being a personal favourite. What would we call all these people doing such phenomenal work in diverse fields, I wondered. Why, a constellation of achievers, of course! They have made a name for themselves in a new firmament and, as a reader once said, they are stars we can all look up to.
It’s been an honour and a privilege sharing these huge success stories with our readers, the inspirational stories of desis shining bright and showing the way.
Arthur C Clarke has been quoted as saying that the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to go beyond the impossible.
Grant’s Desi Achievers push the limits every day, setting the benchmark for excellence in every imaginable field. And then going beyond. They have made us proud, raising the profile of desis in Canada. They represent the best of what our nation has to offer the world.
Happy Canada Day!
Shagorika Easwar