SWEET TALK
FROM
SUGAR SAMMY Proving the old adage “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” Sugar Sammy recalls his first paying stand-up show this way: “A buddy of mine — I’m not going to say his name — is notorious for organizing some of the worst gigs in some of the shadiest bars. About five years ago, he asked me to do this gig at a ‘dance’ club. And not a high-end dance club, either. It was a dodgy, underground club off an alley where all the dancers were on drugs. So this guy gets this idea for a dance-comedy show where the first part of the night the girls are dancing, then there’s a set of comedy, and then they go back to the dancers.
Spotlight
Gurj Dhaliwal:
Hot Stuff!
Not only can Gurj Dhaliwal cook up unique, mouth-watering dishes such as Garam Masala Prawns and Tamarind Glazed Beef Kebabs, but he’s among the most charismatic cooks to ever command the spotlight on a television soundstage. So it came as no surprise to his fans when he won the Superstar Chef Challenge last year on Canada’s Food Network. For Gurj, who’s wanted to host a cooking show since he was a kid, winning the top prize — which is a chance to develop his own show — was a dream come true.
Spotlight
Jatinder Rai: Marketing
Mastermind
Jatinder Rai is considered a pioneer and a role model among his peers in the multicultural marketing industry.
For good reason.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur has grown Response Advertising Inc. from three to 10 employees in less than eight years. He’s done that with such successful advertising campaigns as the catchy Telus commercial with singer/actor Harbhajan Mann’s voice singing one of his hit tunes while colourful fish swim by (on Channel M).
The Inspired Sufi by Azim Jamal
Shoot for the Stars!
If you think small, you remain small. Rumi says, “Look at your eyes, they are so small, yet they see enormous things.” You may be small physically but you have an enormous power inside of you. I know you have unlimited potential and the desire to shoot for the stars. Once you start believing in yourself, the whole world will believe in you.
Feature Stories
Abhishek Bachchan
It’s 6:30 in the evening in Miami, and Abhishek Bachchan is calling to talk to Mehfil about his upcoming tour across North America. The last time he spent significant time in Vancouver, he says, he was just a child, but he transited through the city to shoot his film Des in Calgary a few years back.
Unsung Heroes:
Vasant Lakhani - Looking for ways to help
There’s a gentleness and humbleness to Vasant Lakhani. It resonates in his voice.
But there’s something much deeper about this 70-year-old father and grandfather. Vasant possesses a strong sense of commitment towards the marginalized and desperately poor around the world. He sees helping such people as simply the right thing to do – the only thing to do, really.
Flipside: Zero Appeal
Indian film star Kareena Kapoor is on the receiving end of the kind of criticism that western celebrities such as Keira Knightley and Victoria Beckham are accustomed to fielding. Since losing weight for her starring role in Tashan, her latest film, Kapoor has been accused of inspiring Indian girls to starve themselves in an effort to emulate her ultra-slim physique. Kapoor, who has been described as Bollywood’s “first size-zero” star is taking heat for, in the words of the Indian newspaper The Business Standard, helping to promote a “regressive Western concept of beauty.”
Stellar Students
Stellar Students
Parveen Herar
Millennium Excellence Award; Kalpana Chawla Memorial Foundation Scholarship; UBC Okanagan Entrance Scholarship; Indo-Canadian Business Association Scholarship; India Club Academic Achievement Scholarship
Power Players
Poonam Sandhu
In my first year of playing under-16 for B.C., we got to the finals (we defeated the other two under-18 B.C. teams to get to the finals) and were labelled the underdogs of the tournament. We were losing 3-0 in the first half, but came back to tie it in the second half. We dominated in overtime, but lost in strokes to Ontario’s under-18 team. We were an under-16 team playing in an under-19 national tournament.
