A New World Awaits: Balancing Heritage and New Beginnings | Ft. Rohan Dhawan Ep. 065 - My Thick Accent

Episode Transcript
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Rohit (00:00):
Now when I look back, I sort of, you know, look at my
journey into three big buckets.
First there is a survival mode,then there is an
acclimatization mode and thenthere is probably an adjustment
and a growth mode.
In the Indian Punjabi culture,chai is a really tea is a really
important thing.
So the first thing we did waswe walked down.
We found a convenience storethere and the first thing that I

(00:21):
saw was there are 20 differenttypes of milk, five different
type of tea bags.
It took us about 30 minutes justto figure out the bag of milk

(00:44):
that we wanted and the box oftea leaves that we wanted to use
.
Moving to a new country isn'tjust about learning the language
or adjusting to a differentclimate.
It's about navigating anentirely new world while
striving to preserve the essenceof who you are.

(01:04):
An entirely new world, whilestriving to preserve the essence
of who you are.
As immigrants, we areconstantly balancing the
tightrope between embracing anew culture and staying true to
our roots.
It's a journey filled withchallenges, from the emotional
toll of leaving behind lovedones to the complexities of
building a new life from scratch.
Topics like embracing youremotions, being vulnerable and

(01:26):
asking for help when neededaren't just theoretical
discussions.
They are lifelines that keep usgrounded and help us thrive
amidst the upheaval.
Today, we are joined by someonewho not only understands these
challenges, but has used them asstepping stones in his own
extraordinary journey.
He's a global analytics leaderwith a rich background in the

(01:48):
financial industry, having heldleadership positions at Royal
Bank of Scotland, americanExpress, with over 16 years of
experience across threecontinents.
But his journey is about morethan just numbers and analytics.
As a data entrepreneur, he'scommitted to continuous learning
, mentoring and giving back tothe community.

(02:09):
His YouTube channel, the DataGuy is dedicated to empowering
young professionals with theskills they need to succeed.
In today's episode, he willshare his insights on how to
navigate life as an immigrant,the power of vulnerability and
how his expertise has enabledhim to create a meaningful
impact.
Please welcome Rohit Dhawan.

(02:32):
Thank you so much for having me on this discussion
today.
I think I've had an opportunityto listen to some of the work
that you've done and how yousort of you know created this
platform and brought it to apoint where it is very
commendable, and congratulationsto you.
And I do believe that thissummer that you are getting into
your next season as well, soagain, a lot of excitement

(02:54):
around that as well.

Gurasis (02:57):
Absolutely, absolutely.
You know.
I just want to say that after Ispoke with you, you know, in
India it'll be the first time Ispoke to somebody after landing
in India three, four months in2024.
And I've sort of like losttouch in with the podcast
recording and everything becauseyou get so busy in your life
there, right, and I heard youtalking about the podcast and

(03:19):
you know how you the kind oflike impact you think it is
creating.
It was so refreshing to justlisten to your thoughts and also
the kind of kind impact youthink it is creating.
It was so refreshing to justlisten to your thoughts and and
also the kind of kind words thatyou have said.
You know I still remember those.
So thank you for that and thankyou for saying it that today as
well, and thank you for beinghere and being a part of this
today and I I totally appreciateit.

Rohit (03:37):
And Gurasis, I think your podcast couldn't have happened
on a great time.
Like in today's world, you know, there are so much
sensitivities around what youhear, how you react to things,
right, and I think I think, inthe essence of it, one key human
spirit that most of us areletting go of is the resilience
right, just the name of podcast,MY THICK ACCENT, and when you

(04:01):
and I spoke about you told methe story behind it and I was
like that has to be anempowering platform where you
know you take an experienceinstead of getting sensitized or
, you know, demotivated by it.
You then change it into thisplatform, which creates an
impact not only in your life buteverybody who hears or the

(04:22):
stories that you share is prettycommendable

Gurasis (04:26):
I'm very, very glad to hear that, because it's exactly
what my mission is creating thisplatform where people like us,
who do have an accent not onlyindians, I'm talking about
anybody who come with an accentto a foreign land this space is
for them, where they can feelbelonged and they can feel that,
okay, they are not alone intheir journeys.
Okay, rohit, since youmentioned season two, you know

(04:48):
so in this season, I'm trying toturn up the fun factor a little
bit.
So I'm going to start with alittle bit fun questions.
So my first question is what'syour go-to breakfast?

Rohit (05:04):
I'm a big sucker for bread.
Omelet, right Eggs and bread isone of my comfort food that I
can eat anytime.
However, my wife is reallypushing me to a more healthier
options, so I'm trying to makethat reluctant shift now.

(05:28):
But any day, if there were eggsand bread on the table, I would
just gush to it.

Gurasis (05:30):
Okay, okay, what about those?
typical parathas and all that.

Rohit (05:31):
Yeah, I, I love them.
So the way we've said this,like after we've immigrated to
canada, the, the, the, theexplicit rule in the household
is we do one Indian meal everyday and then over the weekends,
with my wife and my kids, wejust go crazy with Indian foods
parathas, aloo puri, cholebhature.

(05:52):
I mean any and every weekendthat we have an opportunity to
do that, you will see the familygorging that out wow, sounds
amazing.

Gurasis (06:00):
Huh, um, tell me about any your favorite song or a
dialogue, rohit or somethingthat's most significant to you
yeah, so I think I I I do listento a lot of punjabi music
nowadays, right?

Rohit (06:16):
one of my favorite uh person to listen to is diljit
right, and he's he's he'screating so much fame for our
culture, our values valuesglobally, which is so inspiring.
I'm trying to make my kidslisten to him so that they
understand the language, theyappreciate the beauty of the
songs to it.
So I think that's probably mygo to music nowadays.

Gurasis (06:40):
Okay, any particular movie that you really like,
revisit again and again

Rohit (06:47):
um, I, I've sort of uh, I actually like forest gump a lot
, right, uh, it's a very nice,interesting movie, right, and
I've there's no number of,there's no limit in how many
times I've watched this movie.
More recently I was.
So we do movie nights everyFriday in our household.
So I just we couldn't find one,and I asked my kids if you

(07:10):
would be interested in watchinga classic movie.
Initially they were reluctant,but they went through it, and
then I keep telling them onwhat's happening in the movie
and how that person is dealingwith different situations in
life.
So that's now become an ongoingtopic of discussion in the
household now

Gurasis (07:27):
if you had to teach this one phrase or a word or
anything in your mother tongue,what would it be and what does
it mean?

Rohit (07:34):
yeah, so.
So this is pretty close to myheart, right, and I think, I
think, uh, my journey as animmigrant has just solidified
this belief for me, right, so?
So this says so.
So I sort of speak Hindi andPunjabi, both Right, so it's,
it's, it's a mixture of and, ifyou don't mind if I use that to

(07:57):
answer this question AbsolutelyRight, so it says right, so let
me just decode it for you.
Like fikir in Punjabi meansdon't be stressed about it,
shukr means just be thankfulabout it.
So just to relate once again,so the hypothesis and the belief

(08:22):
behind that is whateversituation you are is just a
temporary situation, whetherit's a stressful situation,
whether it's a happy situation,anxious situation, or you're
feeling loss of hope or anything.
It's just a transit.
So, instead of worrying aboutit, let go of the worry and
thank and have faith in a higherpower which will transcend you

(08:44):
through all these situationsabsolutely, I totally love that
and I abide by that as well.

Gurasis (08:52):
I think this has been sort of my learning as well,
that to start counting yourblessings.
You know there is so muchsometimes we get caught up in
that, you know.
Uh, this tornado of negativity,you know, just because of,
because of the comparisons thatwe do, or the doom scrolling
that we do and we see thoselives of people, you know, or in
just in general, you know,because there's never enough.

(09:13):
So we have to be a bit ofcontent, like you just said,
shukar.
You know, be grateful, bethankful and start counting your
blessings.
I'm a sure believer of that,thank you.
Thank you for you know.
Echoing that, thanks for that.
My next question is Rohit.
If you could teleport back to aparticular place from your home
country for a day, or let'sjust say anywhere in the world,
where would you go and whatwould you do?

Rohit (09:33):
I would definitely go back to Chandigarh, which is my
hometown, where I was born.
I would definitely teleportmyself back to my father's house
, which is in a town nearChandigarh called Panchkula.
Right, that's where I wouldlike to be.
From a time period perspective,I think the best time that I've
had in that house is my schooldays.

(09:53):
My school used to be just inthe lane opposite my house and
that was a lot of fun.
You could just walk there, bikethere.
You know you don't necessarilyneed to have your parents
walking you to school.
You know all the friendstogether from the street will
walk down and go to school, comeback, have fun.
So I think that time period isthe one that I would like to

(10:15):
teleport back to.

Gurasis (10:16):
Speaking of that, let me take you down the memory lane
, you know, tell me a little bitabout your formative years,
initial years, and how was itlike just growing up in
Chandigarh?

Rohit (10:27):
Absolutely.
Thanks for the question.
So, as I said, I was born inChandigarh.
Now, just for your listener,chandigarh is a small town about
160 miles from Delhi, which isthe capital region of India.
The town itself is pretty smallbut has a lot of influence in
terms of its geography andimportance in the history of the

(10:48):
country.
More recently, it happens to bethe capital city of two big
provinces, punjab and Haryana,and also because of his
geographic location, anytimeyou'd wanted to do something, go
to the hills right, go tonearby towns, mountains, or do
something interesting there'salways something to do in there.

(11:11):
The other thing that was verypopular about Chandigarh is it
used to be a very well-plannedcity, right, in fact, it was
once quoted that it was one ofthe first planned city in the
country and it sort of held onto that legacy for a while right
.

(11:31):
It also happened to be thecenter of bureaucratic machinery
for the two provinces of Punjaband Haryana, so there was
always a lot of discipline,abidement to the law in that
part of the city.
So that's the environment that Iwas growing up with right,
which I think has really helpedme eventually either, when I've

(11:52):
sort of stepped out of the housefrom Chandigarh for my
education for the first time, oreven if I'm immigrated or when
I was doing my business travelsfrom India anywhere.
So that sort of really helpedme a lot.
I think it's one of the mostbeautiful and the cleanest city
right.
In fact, so much so the taglineand the marketing promotion for

(12:14):
the city was city beautiful,right, which in itself meant
that you know so a lot of peoplewould be very cautious of keep
it in clean.
A lot of people would preservethe natural beauty of the city
and, given that it was the hubof two big provinces, it's an
absolute delight if you're afoodie like me, Right?

(12:36):
So there are so many of theseplaces like what we call small
businesses that have such anauthentic and amazing food,
which I would highly recommendanybody visiting those places.

Gurasis (12:51):
I believe you recently went to India also, right, I
think, six, seven months ago.
So which was the place that yougo to?

Rohit (12:57):
Oh, gurusheesh, you've reminded me of some great thing,
right?
So about six months ago, thewhole of the family went there.
It was my first time for mykids to be visiting there, so we
did everything that an Indiankid while growing up.
I made them travel by autos.
They loved it.
We took them to the temples,the gurdwaras, all the places

(13:21):
they loved it, and we made themeat a lot of local food right.
One of the things that usuallyeverybody will caution you is,
when younger kids are goingthere, be careful of what you
eat where you eat.
But I think we sort of were abit lenient on that front and we
went to all the places likeSector 23, where the Golgappas
are really nice, right, thechaat is very nice.

(13:43):
Guppas are really nice, right,the chaat is very nice, uh.
Then then, uh, my family theretook me to sector 8, which is
now sort of come up as a foodhub right, which is a major food
hub now.
So any sort of a cuisine thatyou want there is available to
you, um and so, so that thatthat was pretty nice wow, sounds

(14:04):
like a super fun trip for sure.

Gurasis (14:07):
Just to revisit all that with your children it's
even more special.
But I want to take you back toyour high school.
Tell me a little bit about thattime.
You know what kind of studentyou were or how was that whole
time in general.

Rohit (14:19):
It was a very nice time right.
One of the things that I alwaysmiss and in fact, when you
asked me to teleport back, thereason why I wanted to go back
was we did not have any devices.
We had no phones.
Landlines was the only thingthat was available as a means of
communication.
I mean email was growing up,but it was only like once a week

(14:41):
or once a month sort of a thingfor kids to be doing.
So what that meant was, when Iwas in high school, a lot of our
time was spent when we wereoutside with friends, building
those social connections,speaking about things.
I sort of remember I used tohave these four or five key

(15:02):
friends.
Anytime we would go to eachother's house.
We wouldn't even realize when.
It would be about four hours orfive hours.
We were just standing andtalking and chatting about
things.
So that's one of my fondmemories.
Meritorious student right, um,in fact, if so, in my school

(15:26):
back in the days, there used tobe this thing on where they
would uh select a few uhstudents and create a student
committee out of it.
Uh, the head of the studentcommittee would be somebody
called as the head boy right,which basically meant is, like
nowadays they do committees, sohe's the person who's
responsible for managing thewhole community and activities

(15:48):
in the school.
Uh, I was the head boy for myschool for three consecutive
years, right, which which mademy parents a lot proud about it,
something to boost about, so sothat was always a good thing.
Uh, for me, um, those twothings are really fun tell me
more about the family dynamic.

Gurasis (16:09):
You know, was there any ?
You know the classic indianparents pressure that you have
to follow a certain a careerpath or anything like that was
there a very interestingquestion.

Rohit (16:19):
so I I still, uh, come from a time where we used to
live in joint families, right?
So in our house, the way wewere growing up is we have had
my grandparents, my parents andthen my parents, my father's
siblings, two of those brothers,so we all were growing up
together and each of thosepeople have their own kids,

(16:40):
right so my sister was theeldest one and she was one of
the most brilliant student inour whole family, right so she
was always the the north starfor all the other kids in the
line.
Right so every time a goalwould be set it would be like do
as she is doing right and scoreas high as she's scoring, right

(17:04):
.
So all those typical Asianfamily stereotypes I've lived
through them, so much so, infact, you know, I know, for a
while there used to be a runningjoke to say that even before a
child is born in an Indianfamily, he it's decided for them
to be either a doctor or anengineer.

(17:26):
So I've sort of lived throughthat stereotype.
For me I mean, if you'reinterested, for me doctor was
the profession that was chosen.
My sister ended up becoming apretty successful doctor and
apparently I was supposed tofollow her footpaths, but yeah,

(17:47):
destiny had something else inmind.

Gurasis (17:49):
Yeah, funny enough, that was a career chosen for me
as well at one point, you know.
And then I was asked to take myfather's business on, but, you
know, destiny had some otherplans and it brought me to
Canada.
And here we are today.
Okay, so tell me, like you said, you know, doctor was the path
chosen for you, but what wasyour dream career growing up?

Rohit (18:12):
Yeah.
So I think I'll be very honestwith you, right, I sort of
started thinking about my careera little later than if I think
of it from now in a retrospectperspective, right.
So me, for example, as I toldyou, growing up in Chandigarh,
doing my elementary, middle andhigh school, I was living

(18:33):
through that stereotype thateventually I have to become the
doctor in the family, right.
And then, when I started withmy graduation and that's almost
the time when you startedapplying for these colleges,
preparing for their examination,right, and things started
getting really rigorous andintensive for me from an
academic perspective as well, Iknew something within me that I

(18:58):
might not, even if I become adoctor, I might not be a good
doctor, right.
But then I always thought Iwill not disappoint my parents
and just do this for their wish,right.
So I sort of, you know, triedgiving it a shot, but then, as
we said that you know, destinyhad something else in store for
me.
So what usually happens is,when I was growing up, the way

(19:22):
the cycle is after your highschool, you get into a couple of
months where you give yourexaminations for your medical
courses and after that youdecide what next needs to happen
.
So I sort of went through thatcycle appeared for pretty much
all the colleges in the country.
I did receive a few calls rightfrom the dentistry college,

(19:43):
which is the dental colleges,right?
Um, yeah, but I think somehow atthat point in time, something
interesting happened with mymindset, right.
I started having an openconversation with my father and
and to my surprise, he was veryopen to having these
conversations.
Right, I was like all my lifeyou've told me to follow this

(20:05):
path, and now that I'm havingthis conversation, about what if
I were to choose something else?
And it took me a couple of daysto prep for that conversation,
right.
But then, when I actually hadthat conversation, he was very
open to hearing my thoughts andhe really encouraged me to get
into the management field.
Right, and I think that's thefirst point where I started

(20:25):
thinking about going for an MBA.

Gurasis (20:26):
He really encouraged me to get into the management
field, right, and I think that'sthe first point where I started
thinking about going for an MBAdegree and trying to create a
career.

Rohit (20:37):
that I sort of now look back on is the way it is shaped,
and if I'm not wrong, youmentioned earlier also, you went
to Pune for your MBA, right?
So Pune was my first time thatI stepped out of my hometown,
chandigarh, and that is where Iwent to do my master's in
business administration, whichis MBA, which is around this
time only when I was discussingwith my dad on what should I be
doing going down this path ofdentistry or going down the

(21:00):
management path so it justhappened that I applied for this
college in Pune, simbaises.
I happened to go there, myfather came along with me and
then he sort of looked at thecollege, looked at the, spoke to
the faculty there.
He was pretty impressed and Ithink that sort of helped me
gain a momentum down that path.

Gurasis (21:21):
And for the non-Indians , pune is a city in the western
part of India, in the statecalled Maharashtra, you know.
Just to mention for the peoplehere, I want you to tell us
about this career path that youchose.
Right, you call yourself a dataentrepreneur right now, but
before that, tell me that.

(21:42):
How did you get into this?
What was something thatinfluenced you to get into this
kind of career?

Rohit (21:47):
when I went into my MBA college, right?
I very quickly realized, whileMBA degree is good to have, but
it is just a matter ofqualification for you to apply
for a job and make a career outof it, right?
So once that happened to me, Iwas very eager to say on what is

(22:07):
next that I want to do, right.
However, I was still notdefinitively confirmed on what
is the path that I want to doand what is what I want to
choose.
So, naturally, what happened?
I completed my mba, got mycampus placement and, lucky
enough for me, I happen to beworking in icici bank, which,
for your listeners, was thelargest indian bank in that

(22:28):
point in time.
The job that I entered in thatwas from a business management
perspective, right.
So what I was doing is I wasliaising between my technical
counterparts and my businesstechnical parts, but then I was

(22:50):
taking some requirements fromthe business and getting it
implemented with help of mytechnical peers right, which
sort of you know?
And I have to give kudos to mymentor in that organization.
I was having a coaching chatwith him and he sort of raised
it to me.
So, rohit, right now whatyou're doing is you're acting as
a postman, you're takingletters from one place and
delivering it to another.

(23:10):
Right, you need to ask yourselfwhat is the value that you are
bringing to the table?
Right, and which sort of youknow really sunk in me and I was
like I've at least at that intime, I was thinking, doing what
I'm doing right now is not howI will bring my skill sets to
the table or sharpen or enhancemy skill sets and be able to add

(23:33):
value towards the business side, become a salesperson, products
person, or whether I'd graviatemyself to the technical side
and try doing these technicalthings from a data perspective,
from a platform perspective,from a coding perspective.

(23:54):
Right, I sort of gravitatedtowards the technical side of
the things.
Right, I was like these are theguys who make most of the magic
happen, so I'm gonna be one ofthem.
Um, I was really lucky to have,like, some really amazing
friends who taught me on the jobmy first sql code, which is

(24:15):
basically the way you uh in, youinteract with the underlying
data.
You write a bunch of code inenglish and then it gives you
the output.
Right, the feeling that you getwhen that happens with your own
hands is amazing, right, andover the next six months I did
an on-the-job thing where theytaught me a lot of things and I

(24:36):
started doing it and I waspretty much mentally preparing
myself to make a career in there.
What really got me hooked ontothis is my second job.
From my first job I started myjob.
I got a job in American Express, which is where I really got
exposed to the data, theanalytics, the engineering part

(24:57):
of it, the inside generation,how to solve a business problem
using the data, and I think thatsort of cemented my passion to
say this is the field that Iwant to grow in.

Gurasis (25:10):
Oh, wow, I love this.
You know the whole experiencethat you've had and obviously
you've also talked about theimportance of having mentors and
those guides in your life.
I feel like those people havesort of the reason you know you
always talk so much about it whohave led you into such kind of
career.
We'll talk more about that aswell, but tell me a little bit

(25:30):
about your time in Pune, and bythat I mean that, because it's
different from Punjab, it'sdifferent from the northern
India.
Right, tell me about thattransition, because India is so
huge and coming differentcountry is different.
Even within India there's a lotof culture differences, that
which exists.
Right, tell me about thattransition a little bit,
absolutely, and that's a greatquestion, right?

Rohit (25:52):
so we spoke about the way Chandigarh was socio-economic
and demographically.
Pune, in a different part ofthe country, is worlds apart
from it.
Right, pune is much morecosmopolitan, right, because
Pune is a city which hasestablished itself as the
educational hub right Over thenumber of years.

(26:14):
A lot of very reputed collegeshave established themselves,
which attracts students from allover the country to influx into
this.
Now, what that lets, the impactthat it creates, is now you're
living in a very cosmopolitanenvironment, right, which is
very diverse, with differentpeople coming and bringing

(26:36):
different aspiration, differentmindset, different cultural
values, right?
So when you?
So the first biggest thing thatI sort of thought hit me like a
truck was I came out of thissoft shell into an environment
which was very, very open, right, and this is where I started

(26:58):
experiencing, uh, and trying tounderstand different perspective
that people bring to the tableI assume it would also be the
first time you left your house,right?
It definitely was.
It definitely was the firsttime, and in fact you know it's
funny enough.
I say that now, speaking to you, like I remember the day when
my parents sort of flew in me toPune and they were sort of

(27:23):
about to leave me in a hosteland, very honest with you, I was
starting to get those chills.
Right, what will happen?
Right?
So what will happen once myparents goes away?
There is just one bathroom forthe whole floor.
Uh, how is?
How am I gonna adjust to it?
And now I'll be sharing my roomwith two other people who I

(27:46):
don't even know, never met in mylife.
I was having all thoseanxiousness.
In fact, what I did was I askedmy parents to extend their stay
for a couple of days more, justso that I could get a soft
landing into this newenvironment.

Gurasis (28:05):
Tell me what about the food then.
Were you able to cook back thenyourself?
Because obviously, again, it'sa different, different,
different part of India.
Right, the food is verydifferent.
You were kind of very habitualof eating that Punjabi not food,
right?

Rohit (28:17):
Yeah, so, unfortunately, I'm not a good cook, right.
I wouldn't myself eat the foodthat I cook, so right.
So, having said that, however,as you know, food is a very big
thing in our culture, right, andthe good thing is my father had
seen the hostel life for a lotof years, so he was very astute

(28:39):
in me packing some essentials,you know, like our cooking ghee
right, some spices right,because he knew the type of food
that you get in college hostelsis very bland, might not taste
or even look very different, butif you were to superficially
add these ingredients, at leastyou're able to swallow it and
gulp it down.

(28:59):
So I think my dad's experiencein there and helping me pack
those essentials, like ghee,spices, my favorite cookies, the
bars, the chocolate bars andeverything really came in handy
to see me through.

Gurasis (29:14):
So last question, you know just to wrap up your time
in Pune, tell me something thatyou learned during your time
there.

Rohit (29:21):
That's something, maybe a lesson, that you have learned
that has stayed with you upuntil today, since you
transitioned into coming toCanada also yeah, one of the key
lessons that I learned out ofmy experience from Pune is how
one should always be open tohearing someone else's
perspective.
Right, and usually what happensis when we are in a discussion

(29:43):
and when the person you'respeaking to usually does not
agree to your point of view,it's very, very easy to fall in
the trap of derailing thatconversation and kicking in your
biases and conscious biases inright.
One thing that my experience inPune told me is you should

(30:03):
always be open to other people'sperspective and, before you
react, try to understand thepoint of view from where they
are having this conversation.

Gurasis (30:14):
Absolutely.

Rohit (30:16):
I think that's one thing that's really helped me and
really does help me right now,also through the corporate
structures.

Gurasis (30:25):
So now I'd like to pivot towards your move to
Canada.
Tell me about the decision.
Why did you decide to move toCanada and how was the process
for you?

Rohit (30:35):
Before I came to Canada, I was working in the Indian
corporate for about 10 yearsright.
During these 10 years, I hadthe opportunity to work with
large multinationalorganizations.
You've named a few likeAmerican Express, royal Bank of
Scotland and Accenture.
What these companies gave me asan experience was ability to

(30:56):
travel to different parts of theworld and try to you know,
experience the cultures and theworking ethics and the
lifestyles of these worlds right, but what was happening was
these trips were very transitoryin nature a week here, a week
there right.
So every time I would go into adestination right, I would try

(31:19):
to absorb a few things into thatlifestyle and try to contrast
it with how my current lifestylein India was right.
And when you do this over aperiod of time right, you try to
start creating an Excel sheetto say what are the pros and
cons of being in one placeversus the other right.
And then, eventually, whatstarted happening was at that

(31:42):
point in time.
Was, at that point in time Istarted looking at some
opportunities that existed, bothfrom a personal and a
professional front, to enhancemy mindset and perspective.
Right.
That's when I came across theCanadian Permanent Residency
Program right, so I startedresearching about this program

(32:04):
and, and the more I learnedabout it, the more I realized
that I can actually use the 10years of experience that I have
by working for a skilledimmigrant category right.
And that's when I started havingthe discussions with my wife
and my parents and hats off toall of them.
They were really, reallysupportive of me, right.

(32:26):
In fact, at times I would havemy relatives come over and when
they would know of my plans theywould be a little skeptical to
say you're doing so well in yourcorporate world here, your
wife's well settled, you've gotpretty much all the facilities
here.
Why do you want to disrupteverything and relocate to a
different country?

Gurasis (32:44):
Right?
I think that would be myquestion also and my listeners
question also why?

Rohit (32:48):
Yeah.
So I think, um the belief that Istick to always, that my move
was not for professional reasons, my move was a lot from my
personal reasons, going back towhat I was saying, that when you
travel you start doing somecontrast to the ways of life,

(33:18):
seeing things about what couldbe better or good if I were to
take this decision and move intoa new country, especially into
a Canadian environment.
Right, if you look at theeducation system, if you look at
some of the things from ahealthcare perspective, if you
look at the quality of the air,which is a big thing for all of
us North Indian back home.
Right, if you look at a lot ofother things which brings in the

(33:38):
social facility, the work-lifebalance this economy has to open
.
So once I kept stacking onebenefit over the other, it was
pretty clear in my mind that youknow less of a professional and
more of a personal reasons.
This is the right drive andmove for me to move into that
direction.
Having said that, having saidthat, it was still not easy for

(34:02):
me to quantify this, to explainit to the wider audience, right,
which I think is a challengethat I deal with right now and I
think the way I sort of make mymind comprehend that is that
you actually have to experiencethis to be able to explain it to
someone, and not all things canbe quantified tangibly when you

(34:27):
said that I had difficultyexplaining to wider audience
even right now.

Gurasis (34:30):
What do you mean by that?
Like at this?
Moment you do.
Is it like because of yourconversations with people or the
people you mentor?
Yeah, what do you mean?
That's a great this?
Yeah, you do.
Is it like because of yourconversations with people or the
the people you mentor, yeah,what?

Rohit (34:37):
do you mean?
That's a great question.
In fact, that is on two levels.
The first thing is the firstlevel is you mentioned at the
beginning that I went back homeearlier this year.
One of the question that mywider family happen is asked me
is did I make the right decision?

Gurasis (34:53):
Okay.

Rohit (34:54):
Right, and I'll be very honest with you, right, I think
I do find myself pretty goodwith my words, but I actually
had a loss of words and it wasnot because I did not believe in
my decision or the lifestylethat my family has right now.
It's just that, as I said,there are some things that are

(35:14):
not tangible enough, which can'tbe quantified and related back
to the audience, right?

Gurasis (35:21):
I think, just to add to that, that also sometimes
people are not in that mentalstate really perceive the way
you want them things to beperceived.
They have the very onedirectional thought process
which is very hard to divert toa different one.

Rohit (35:39):
Absolutely right.
You're absolutely right, right.
So that was one of thequestions that I have to be
honest with you, I sort of bitstruggled, right.
While in my mindset it's reallyclear to me the value of the
decision I made, it's hard toarticulate it it to the wider
audience.
The second thing, which I also,you know, I sort of and we'll

(36:02):
speak about it a bit more lateron is when I am speaking to a
lot of newcomers right,especially the ones that are
having aspirations back home inIndia and trying to come here.
Right, I think I've now startedcreating a delicate balance in
what I speak.
Previously, what used to happenis Guru sees, I was very candid
with people, right, I wouldactually give them all the facts

(36:25):
of the way it is right.
The feedback that I startedgetting was that while you are
there, you're discouragingpeople here to be coming that
side of the world right, which Ithought that you know is not my
intent, right?
All I'm trying to do is giveyou the right information and
the facts so that somebody canmake an informed decision while

(36:49):
they uproot themselves fromtheir home country and try to
make a life in a new environmenttheir home country and try to
make a life in a new environment.
So I think between those twothings I sort of try to do a.

Gurasis (37:05):
I am on a path to have a better answer to those
questions.
Okay, so how long?
Coming back to your initialquestion how long did it take
you to get?

Rohit (37:18):
your permanent residency and then find the landing in
canada.
Yeah, I think the whole processwas about about 12 months and
and this is this is back in 2018, I think.
If I clearly remember the waythere is, in 2015 they actually
opened the express entry programand then 2018 we were able to
make the mark.
And about in 12 months periodis when we had but then fast

(37:40):
forward two years COVID happened, a lot of backlog get created
and then sort of you know, thetimelines are where they are
right now.

Gurasis (37:47):
Okay, tell me about your first day, your initial
impressions and emotions.

Rohit (37:51):
I know, I still remember I landed.
I made my landing on July the10th on 2018.
We took a direct flight whichwas about a 15 hours flight.
We were a bit exhausted by thejourney.
So it was me, my wife and twovery young kids and about 20
bags of luggage with us.

(38:12):
Good old days, when the airlinestill allowed you two baggages
right.

Gurasis (38:19):
Oh, yes, exactly.

Rohit (38:21):
So one good thing that happened for me was when we
landed in, we were sort of ableto organize for a very, very
interim accommodation for us, so, which was a help.
So we were able to get a taxi,put us into that, the apartment
that we've had, and then, fromthere on, we actually gave
ourselves a few days just to,you know, get through the cycle

(38:44):
of a different day, scheduletime, food habits, and then
that's where, after that, therigor starts.

Gurasis (38:58):
You know, since you are a numbers person and I love
talking tonologically, tell mewhat happened after that.
You know how was theassimilating into this new
culture was like, or how wasyour initial thoughts about the
weather like, because you cameinto the transition period when
the fall was just around thecorner.
Tell me about that, the wholejourney.
What happened after that?

Rohit (39:15):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So now when I look back, I sortof, you know, look at my
journey into three big bucketsand the way I sort of bucket
them is first there is asurvival mode, right, then there
is an acclimatization mode andthen there is probably an
adjustment and a growth mode.
That happens to you.

Gurasis (39:35):
Oh wow, I love this partition.

Rohit (39:37):
So let's speak about the survival mode, because that's
what the first few days are allabout.
Right Now, at a very high level, right from my own experience,
and even when I speak to a lotof newcomers, this is what I
hear the survival mode is aboutyour three basic things that you
need in life right, housing,clothing and shelter right and

(39:59):
nowadays you need a SIM card,also right and an internet
connection.
So I'll add those two as well.
So I think it was reallyinteresting, right, Even when
you look at these smallernuances.
I remember that when we checkedinto our apartment, it was
pretty late in the night by thetime we reached into the

(40:20):
apartment, so we ate the foodthat we had packed from back
home.
Next morning we wake up and youknow, in the Indian Punjabi
culture, tea is a reallyimportant thing.
We did not have anything tomake tea.
We did not have utensils.
We did not have anything tomake tea.
We did not have utensils, wedid not have anything to make
the tea.
So the first thing we did waswe walked down and we found a

(40:43):
convenience store there and wewalked into it and the first
thing that I saw was there are20 different types of milk right
.
Five different type of tea bagsand all of the tea bags, and
just to create the nuance of itback home, we use the tea leaves
by themselves.

(41:04):
Here we get tea bags right.
So it took us about 30 minutesjust to figure out the bag of
milk that we wanted and the boxof tea leaves that we wanted to
use, right?
So something as small as makingone cup of tea, which is your

(41:25):
first go-to thing in the morning, now becomes a struggle in your
survival mode, right?
So and this is just an examplethere are more things to it,
right?
You, you like, culturallyspeaking, I don't eat beef, so I
have to be cautious.
Wherever I do, I check theingredients of the food to label
on what's there, what's notthere.
The second thing which I thinkin the survival mode comes in is

(41:49):
you know your clothing.
You know your clothing.
I sort of was lucky enough tocome in at a time where some of
the clothings that I broughtfrom back home were really
helpful, but very soon we weretransitioning into a time which
would be adverse climate effect,and I remember 2018 got the

(42:11):
hardest snow in the last fiveyears, right?

Gurasis (42:15):
Oh, my God, I remember remember I came in 2018 as well,
everybody was like we havenever seen this and I'm like
isn't this in canada common?
They were like no, we haven'tseen this in so many years.

Rohit (42:27):
I remember that yes, and, and we had no idea on what sort
of jackets to go in, so we justwent into different stores,
tried understanding from them onwhat sort of.
We heard the concept oftemperature rating.
We heard the concept oflayering up in winters right.
And then obviously you know,when you come into this adverse

(42:48):
environment, you over layer,then you under layer and then
you find the right spot.
So I think those are the thingsthat you tend to be in your
survival mode, where you'retrying to just understand how to
get through the basicnecessities of the life, right.
The other cultural shock that wegot was when we looked at the

(43:08):
prices of the telephone andInternet, right, oh, yes.
And when you come in, obviouslyyou don't have a job, you are
eating out of your savings thatyou've brought in, so you
prioritize everybody.
So the way we started wasbetween the two phones that my
wife and I had, one of us hadthe internet as well as the

(43:28):
phone connection.
One of them was staying at home, so we only took the phone
connection and not the internetconnection for them.
So just trying to save up onthat initial fund of money that
you've brought in from yeah, Iused to joke about it.

Gurasis (43:42):
The amount of money I pay for my phone bill here is
the money in which my wholejoint family can survive their
phone bills, and everything canbe done, can be taken care of
within that bill.

Rohit (43:52):
True, true, this is the whole about the survival mode,
right.
And then what happens is, overthe next days to weeks, you
start getting a grip of thesethings, and I think what's
happening now is you find a lotof people from your culture, a
lot of very helpful people evenif not in your culture, that
help you, guide through thesethings and help you make sense

(44:13):
of these changes.
And I think that's when youshift really quickly into the
acclimatization zone.
Right Now.
This is when the realities ofmoving into a new country are
starting to hit you right.
If you're coming in as a person, if you're coming as an
international student, you needto figure out your bus routes,

(44:35):
your housing, where you will bestaying, your class schedules.
Most of us will also need to behaving a part-time job to get
our expenses done right.
If you're coming as aprofessional immigrant, you have
to figure out a livable space,because you're coming in with
your family.
Then you have to figure out ajob that will help you sustain

(44:58):
for not just one, but the numberof people in your family.
So this is where you now needto start acclimatizing to the
realities of the new world,right, and I think this is where
a lot of anxieties starts tokick in, depending upon
different experiences anddepending upon what different

(45:18):
people go through into thesethings.
And then, once you've sort offound yourself with a job that
you think is good enough for youand you found a house, then you
sort of start thinking aboutnow I have checked on the basic
boxes of my relocation.
How do I start thinking about,now I have checked on the basic
boxes of my relocation?
How do I start thinking aboutliving the dream now, right,

(45:42):
which is all the reasons why Ihad immigrated to this country.
Right, leaving behind, as yousaid, your loved ones.
Your family ties your roots.
Once you are in acclimatization, comfortably there, you start
thinking about making the mostof what this country has to
offer for you.
You start thinking about canyou do better in the job, make a

(46:06):
switch to get a higher payingjob?
And then you start thinkingupon if you can afford the
mortgage.
What side of house do I need tobuy for now?
What type of car would myfamily be more comfortable in?
Right, and then all thosethings that come as goodness of
this country is what you startto look at it.

Gurasis (46:23):
I think that's that's how I'll reflect back my journey
into these three buckets youknow, I think I love that the
way you have articulated youknow your journey and I think
this just is sort of the pathwaythat every immigrant sort of
follows right coming, findingthose necessities and then
obviously realizing, okay, I amhere, and then seeing that where

(46:45):
they want to take their lives.
You know, I really like that.
But tell me, since you comewith your family, with your,
with your children as well andyou said they were pretty young,
right, tell me about them, like, how, what?
How was that like for them tocome to this new country and
just trying to just just just bein this new world but at the

(47:05):
same time, leaving their ownloved ones there?
Like you said, you were in ajoint family.
I'm sure there would be otherkids in the family as well.
You know, leaving all of thatand just coming here where
people don't look like them,people don't talk, maybe not in
the same language as well, tellme how was it like for your kids
yeah, um, so my kids werepretty young when we uh got them

(47:26):
over, right?

Rohit (47:27):
however, I think if, if, if I were to say that I read
their emotions, it was probablya mixed bag, right?
They were really excited attimes because they would now get
to go to these parks which hasthese amazing infrastructure,
are really nice kinds of swingsand facilities they have to
offer which they can enjoy, butI think the moment they would go

(47:50):
there, they would start feelinga bit left out because
obviously English was nevertheir first language.

Gurasis (47:58):
Absolutely.

Rohit (47:59):
Other kids are trying to get in touch with them and there
is this communication barrierwith them.
So that sort of you know attimes would cause a bit of a
bump in their excitement, right,a bump in their excitement,
right.
The good thing is, what wefound out was that for the

(48:19):
immigrants that come in, thereare province-wide programs that
get run to support kids likeours, right?
So there are these programscalled Early On, which basically
what you can do is, if you'rean immigrant coming into the
country with your kids, theseprograms help you bridge the gap

(48:43):
, your cultural gap, yourlanguage barrier gaps, and then
what happens is, before yourchild goes into the formal
schooling, these institutes canactually help you get over those
barriers.
Depending upon how mucheducation you've had before,
they can help you sort of bridgethat gap into what is expected
out of it.
So that was, I think, reallyhelpful for us to get the kids

(49:05):
into those programs and by thetime they were ready for their
school, they had a lot of Iwould say, if not more, but
slightly more confidence to beprepared to face that
environment.

Gurasis (49:18):
So how did you discover these programs or where the
listeners can find them?

Rohit (49:22):
Yeah, I think the first thing that you do is when you
come in depending upon howyou're coming in irrespective of
how you're coming in as asingle person, a young couple or
a person with a family right,the first thing that we need to
do is get in touch with ourimmigrant support programs in

(49:42):
your community, right, these areusually run out of your
libraries, these are usually runout of your community center,
and the best way is, if youapproach your town, they will
have a list of all theseprograms.
And the good thing about theseprograms is they range from a
wide perspective, right, sothere are programs which will
help you overcome your languagebarriers.

(50:04):
There are programs that willhelp you get in touch with
recruitment agencies to get youa job.
There are programs if you'relooking to get some schooling
done before you hit thecorporate market.
It will guide you through thoseprograms, and these are just
the few that I'm calling out.
The best part of this is all ofthis is funded by the

(50:26):
government and you don't have topay anything.
So I would highly encourageanybody any of your listeners
who's coming into a new countryto find these programs in your
community and try to make themost of these programs, because
these are created for ourbenefit.

Gurasis (50:43):
Another question I have , then we'll transition into
another topic.
Tell me, since you have, likewe were talking about your
family dynamic, you know, askedto get into a certain culture,
the life was sort of planned andbut see, seeing that all that
lived, that you know.
Now you are a father yourself.
So how would you say, is yourbringing style different from

(51:06):
your parents?
A comparison that you can giveme?

Rohit (51:09):
I.
I truly hope that I could be asgood as they were, right.
So that's the starting pointfor me.
But, having said that, I thinkevery generation is different
from the previous one, right?
So I'm just going to call outthe few nuances that I think is
slightly different from how Isort of think is the right way
to bring up the kids, right?
The one thing that I try to dois I try to have a lot of

(51:33):
conversation-based discussionswith my kids, right?
So, for example, right, one ofthe rule in our household is,
before we take a decision, allfour people in the household
will discuss that point on adinner table and try to come up
with our point of views, right?

(51:53):
I like that the way we go aboutthis is and this could be as
simple as what is the next thingyou want to do this summer
vacation?
Do you want to go to CanadaWonderland or do you want to go
to a movie place?
Right, let's assume this is thediscussion topic, right?
So what we will do is, while weare having our dinner, all of
us get our chance to speak andlike to share their preference

(52:17):
into what is the activity theywould want to do.
Right, by the end of that, whatwill happen is A you've made
your kids have a conversationwith you, they're able to
articulate their thought processfor you and they've eventually,
over a period of time, theywill start to feel they can come
up to you and share anythingwith you, because you will

(52:40):
receive, in a conversation way,rather than a directive, with
them.
So I think that's one of thethings that we definitely try to
build in it.
The second thing that we do iswe sort of try to make our kids
independent as much as we can.
Right?
So, to give you an example,right?

(53:00):
So when I was growing up,remember how I told you about
the cultural shock I had when Imoved from Chandigarh to Pune.
Right, that was my learningwhen I moved in and that is a
very big transition.
So what we try to do is we try,with our kids, to make them as
independent, functioning as theycan right.
Very small examples I'm goingto give you.

(53:22):
When I walk my kids to theirbus stop in the morning, I have
them carry their own bags withthem.
I see a lot of people carryingkids' bag and bringing to the
station.
I respect their decision, but Ithink it's really important for
kids to be able to do theirthings themselves, right.
That's number one.

(53:43):
The second thing that we do tomake them independent is if we
are going out to eat right wewill really encourage the kids
to speak to the server and tryto understand their options and
order it themselves.
Right, a very, very small thing, but the way this will help
them do is it will help them a.

(54:05):
When you look at a menu, thereare so many option in them.
Now you are making a kid tochoose one, which is your
decision making skills, right.
The second thing that you areasking them to do is now use
your decision and speak it tothe server and try to see if
they can get you what yourdecision was.
That's where the skill ofnegotiation comes and plays in.

(54:29):
They will be like I want.
So the server would be like doyou want a milk, or do you want
a juice, or do you want a pop?
Then they will be like, okay,what sort of a pop is available
to them?
And then you sort of starthaving negotiations and
discussions.

Gurasis (54:44):
Also breaking the social barrier.
I would say yeah very well said.

Rohit (54:49):
So I think, with those two things I think are really
important A shifting more from aconversation-based decisioning
to a directive-based decisionand secondly, trying to make
them independent by doing thesesmaller things, which will then
stack up as Lego blocks inlonger run.

Gurasis (55:08):
Wow, I can't stress enough.
I really, really love that, youknow.
I want to just highlight, like,my takeaway from it.
You know, something you justsaid which I loved is making
those children feel involvedinto a decision, right, and also
making that comfortable spacefor them.
At any point in their life theyare absolutely okay to come to
you and have a conversation withyou, right.
And second you said isobviously making them feel

(55:30):
independent.
And also the third one that yousaid, having trying to break
that social barrier and allowingthem to make the decisions
themselves.
So I really love that.
I'm sure that our listeners willlove these as well.
So thank you for sharing these,johit, love them.
Now I want to get into a topicwhich is actually an ongoing

(55:50):
discussion on the show and it'salso something that you
mentioned to me in our veryfirst conversation, something
about you know, accepting youremotions is is something that
you have learned throughout yourjourney as an immigrant, which
is not that common in our asiancommunities.
Right to be, it's not thatcommonly talked about, and I

(56:12):
wanted to give us like yourperspective on this as well.

Rohit (56:19):
Yeah, thanks, guraseesh, and I do believe that's a really
, really important point for usto be discussing Now.
Just to give some context toyour listeners.
Right, we come from a part ofthe world where, just by the way
we are brought up and by theculture surrounding us, the
social milieu surrounding us,emotions are usually not the

(56:40):
first thing, the way you aretaught and when I say emotions,
it's not just knowing that,whether you're happy or sad,
there is more to it.
First of all, acknowledgingthat you are reacting your
emotions to a certain situationnumber one.
The second thing is being verycomfortable about your emotions,

(57:01):
right, and I think this iswhere a lot of us usually
struggle.
Right, when I say being reallycomfortable, it's not just I am
happy and I want to show off myhappiness to the world, right?
There's also other emotions,like when you feel nervous, when
you feel sad, when you feelanxious, when you feel lonely.
The problem is that we don'tfeel very comfortable in sharing

(57:25):
these part of the emotions.
Right, we really feel thepositive emotions, which are
excitement, happiness,motivation.
We have no problem in showingthese expressions, but by the
time it comes to the other side,which is the other side

(57:45):
perspective of emotions we arenot very comfortable in sharing
Right Now.
Just to deviate a bit, there isa very nice movie called Inside
Out, right?
I don't know if you've seenthat.
You've seen that movie, right,kids, and I love that movie.
If your listeners not seen thatmovie.
The movie is about a youngchild who's growing up and as

(58:07):
she grows up there are differentemotions that come in play.
Right, and that movie actuallyis a beautiful concept about,
first, how the emotions can attimes take control of you and
then, by the time you get to thesecond part of the movie it's
all about there will bedifferent emotions, but how is

(58:28):
you, an individual, accept theseemotions and try to know you
can control these emotions andyou can speak about them and be
comfortable about them.
So, knowing the limitations wegrow up with, right, and when
you make into a transition intoa country which apparently is
pretty open, right, you will seea lot of people pretty openly

(58:50):
sharing a lot of things theylike, right, it becomes a very
big difference.
Right, it's easier said thandone that you, I'm available,
you speak to me, but I thinkwhen you've spent about 15 to 20
years of your life trying to,you know, suppress a certain
thing.
It's not very easy to openyourself up in the first few

(59:11):
weeks, months and even the firstfew years when you relocate to
a different country, right?
So at that point in time, whatstarts to happen is, while you
are in an ecosystem where it'sokay to share, but just because
it's not your natural instinctto share, a lot of these
emotions starts to bottle up inyou, right, and, depending upon

(59:35):
which spectrum of the emotionsyou are on, your reactions, your
aspirations and your way oflife starts to get impacted with
it you know, I think you haveput it in a very nicely nice
words, you have put this all,but I'm sure you have had your
own journey with it.

Gurasis (59:53):
Right and and this is also something like you said
that it takes couple of years toreally understand that what is
exactly happening right, and Ithink in my case it has helped
my sanity the moment I startaccepting these emotions and it
also made me more empathetictowards the other person who
might have maybe cancelled theplan because they are not

(01:00:15):
feeling well, or maybe they havechose not to do a certain thing
because they are not feeling ina certain way.
I think I've startedacknowledging their emotions a
little bit more and it has mademe feel more at peace.
You know, rather than reactingor getting again like, like,
agitated about it, like why havethey done a certain way?
Why have it's like you stopdoing those blame games anymore,

(01:00:37):
you're like okay, it's fine,things happen.
They're human.
We all are human as well.

Rohit (01:00:41):
And Gurish.
If I can add just one morething, you raised two very
important points, right?
The third thing, if I can addto you, is talking about your
emotions, right?
Yeah, one thing that reallyhelped me in my journey is so,
for example, and just to putagain some context around it,
when I came to Canada, it tookme about three to four months to

(01:01:03):
find my jobs.
I was really quicking, runningout of my savings, did not have
a job, I still had to maintain acertain type of lifestyle
because I had young kids and awife with me to support, and it
was creating a lot ofanxiousness and anxiety in me.
I think the best thing thathappened to me at that point in
time was being able to veryopenly and candidly speak about

(01:01:26):
everything and anything that Iwas feeling about with my wife.
I think I chose her because Iknew she would not judge me and
I thought, as we've married,she's stuck with me for the
better or the worse of it.
But, having said that, I reallyfound that if you find somebody

(01:01:49):
who you have a trust in and youthink they will not judge you,
by having that conversation,just speaking of what you're
feeling, really, really hits.

Gurasis (01:02:01):
yeah, rohit, I want to also talk about something which
is you also mentioned in ourconversation, that it's okay to
reach out for that help becausewe, as, as you know, south
asians, are grown up in asociety where we are very
hesitant to reach out wheneverwe are not feeling our best,
right Because we've like we canmanage.
You know, we have thatunderlying ego in us, but you

(01:02:25):
have to break out of it andreach out for that help when you
need it, because this is reallygoing to benefit you, and it
took me, honestly, a long timeto realize that it was.
It took a full pandemic to makeme realize that, but I want to
tell you your thoughts on thoseas well.

Rohit (01:02:40):
Yeah, so before I answer that question you know I sort of
when I do my corporate talksthere is one thing that I really
harp on right the key tosuccess is that you need to
differentiate when you cancollaborate versus when you can
compete.

Gurasis (01:02:55):
Right, you need to differentiate when you can
collaborate versus when you cancompete Right Now.

Rohit (01:02:58):
In your example, we are competing with ourself, Right?
So let's break it down to thetopic that we are on.
So what we've said is Aidentifying the emotions that
you are going through is reallyimportant.
Accepting your emotions isreally important.
Speaking about your emotions isreally important.
Accepting your emotions isreally important.

(01:03:18):
Speaking about your emotions isreally important.
And the next thing that you'retouching on is on the same line
is if you're feeling out ofideas, out of help, there is no
harm in asking for help, right?
Usually what happens is, again,either by corporate
conditioning or by social preferpreferences we are made.

(01:03:42):
Our mindset thinks that if weshow our vulnerabilities and
speak about them and ask forhelp, it definitely puts us on a
lower platform, Right, Exactly,yeah, Now let me break that
barrier with a very scientificapproach, right?
Every phenomenon that happenson Earth moves from a higher

(01:04:07):
transit to a lower transit.
Hot air moves from a higherground to a lower ground.

Gurasis (01:04:12):
Yeah.

Rohit (01:04:12):
Right.
Even if you look at oureducation system, the teachers
who are supposed to know morethan us to a lower ground.
Right, even if you look at oureducation system, the teachers
who are supposed to know morethan us transmit that knowledge
from a higher ground of learningto students who are just
conditioning to learn that up.
Now, using these inferences inlife, we should be really open
to say irrespective of where weare at certain point in time,

(01:04:34):
there might be somebody who'seither gone through that
experience or there is somebodywho might have had some
learnings priorly shared withthem.
So instead of me myselfpersonally going into the grind,
if I can get these right gurus,do you remember that show?
Kaun Banega Crorepati?
One of the helpline in therewas call a friend, phone a

(01:05:00):
friend.
Think of the wording of it.
There is a helpline calledphone a friend.
These words are reallyimportant in the context of what
we are saying.
Helpline is something that willbail you out of the current
situation and it's that.
Phone a friend.
Phone is literally we arespeaking is just a way to reach
out, whether you reach out byphone, text, email, however you

(01:05:23):
like, but call, use yourhelpline to reach out to
somebody and if they give youthe right answer answer, you
will win the jackpot in lifeabsolutely.

Gurasis (01:05:34):
Yeah, wow, I love the way you summed it up.
You know so cool.
Uh, definitely, I feel likethese are the things.
Again, it doesn't happenovernight.
You kind of like switch yourpersonality and you become
something else.
It takes time, it takes work,it takes trial and error as well
, and also I feel like it's alsohard, being in this new world,

(01:05:55):
to find that right person toreach out, and I think in that
case, that's where people likeyou come in, or other people who
are all over internet withinour indian community, who are
extremely helpful and who areabsolutely ready to help lend
that helping hand to people aswell.
And I think I'll encourage mylisteners that if any of you
guys want to have thatconversation or just need a

(01:06:17):
guide or somebody, I'llencourage you to reach out to
Rohit and I think Rohit, I'llput your links in the show notes
as well if anybody would liketo reach out to you.

Rohit (01:06:25):
Thank you so much and, gurish, I think if between you
and me, I think you and I doalmost the same type of work in
helping our community Right, asyou said, it's not just us.
There are a lot more people whoare trying to create that
outreach.
I think the way I look at my,the way I've started shaping my

(01:06:46):
purpose in life, is, even if Ican make an impact or a
difference in somebody else'slife, I want to be out there
right, which is exactly what youand I are doing with our
platforms that we have.
So, going back, I think thepoint here is when new people
come into this system, right,irrespective of which country

(01:07:09):
culture they're coming in from,right, irrespective of which
country culture they're comingin from, right, as long as there
is a support system that existswhich can A help them accept

(01:07:29):
them the way they are, not judgethem, appreciate for the skills
they bring into the system, andbe always available.
And at times, you know, when Ispeak to the people, most of my
calls I'm just hearing, right.
Probably the second call iswhen I start speaking.
The first call is I'm justhearing what their experiences
are.

Gurasis (01:07:50):
So if there is a community that folks like you
and I can create and we canimpact some lives.
I think it's definitely worthdoing Absolutely, and you know
you mentioned about I rememberyou mentioned that you having
that itch in the past three,four years to give it back to
the society, and I think that'salso what led you to obviously
start mentorship and at the sametime, you also have a YouTube
channel.
So tell our listeners about aYouTube channel as well and what
they can really learn fromthose videos that you're sharing

(01:08:12):
.

Rohit (01:08:12):
When I came into this new environment and remember the
three modes that I spoke of whenI was almost at the tip end of
my acclimatization mode, one ofthe restlessness that I started
feeling, guru sees, was I wasthinking that there is so much
that I want to do, right, interms of helping people, both in
the corporate world and in thepersonal world, but just the

(01:08:34):
fact that I'm in a new countrywhere I don't know anybody who
needs my help, how can I sort ofcreate a platform where,
whatever I have by means of myknowledge and experience over
the last 16 or 17 years, I startsharing some practical tips and
tools with a wider audience?
Right?
So that's what I started doingwas I started researching about

(01:08:59):
some of the challenges thatnewcomers to the country,
specifically our friends in theinternational students community
, were facing, right?
So some of the things that Iwas hearing was there was a
barrier in terms of the language.
There was a barrier in terms ofgetting job ready, which is how
to get your CV ready, how to beready for interview when you

(01:09:23):
are speaking for somebody in aCanadian corporate world.
Right, highly specialized tothese things, highly specialized
to these things and justrealizing some of the elements
you mentioned to it earlier on,like the why do you need coach,
mentor and sponsors in your life?
Right, some of the thing is,when you come into this country,
you practically don't knowanybody, but you have to create

(01:09:45):
a life out of it.
This is where the importance ofnetworking comes into this
right.
So the way I startedchannelizing my internal
restlessness or energy was Ilooked into my community and the
type of challenges they werefacing and then tried mapping
whatever I had gone through,either in the last 16 years of

(01:10:06):
corporate life or the last sixyears of immigrant life coming
into the new countries, andstarted creating some small
packages which would startaddressing some of these
problems that I was hearing fromthe community that I wanted to
address.
Now, once these packages wereready or, in a way, the next

(01:10:26):
biggest challenge for me was howdo I transmit it to the right
audience?
Right, yeah.
I am not an editor.
I am not a very creative person, I you know.
So it was really hard for me tostart creating videos.
I had to learn editing skillsets.
I had to learn how to use somesoftwares to make the banners,

(01:10:49):
because the idea is it needs thecontent needs to be created in
a way that will reckon with youraudience.
Just because it's a problempoint, people will not consume
your content, even if it's asolution, unless and until it
looks and sounds in a way thatthey want to hear right.
That is why I got into thisYouTube journey and I started

(01:11:14):
creating these packages, whichare theme-based, where I'm
trying to answer one or theother things that I hear pretty
often as problems or challengespeople are facing, and then try
to answer them and give somereal-life, practical tips and
tools there.

Gurasis (01:11:31):
And I know I watched a few of your videos and I love
that how you bring out thoselive examples.
I'm watching the video aboutthe coach, mentor and sponsor.
I was discussing with somebodyas well that this question came
up that does that sponsor orthat mentor has to be from the
same industry as you work in,and I wasn sure about that.
How to answer that?

(01:11:51):
I want you to answer that forme, please yeah, and that's a
great question.

Rohit (01:11:55):
I usually get a lot of that right.
I will give you my example andput some context to it, right?
So the three people that you'vementioned is poor coach, mentor
and a sponsor.
Very, very simply put, a coachwill help you tactically right
and helps in terms of if youhave a goal.
The coach will help youtactically right and helps in
terms of if you have a goal.
The coach will help youtactically execute on those
goals.

(01:12:16):
The mentor will give you abigger picture, right?
These are the people who youwill speak to to get a strategic
perspective.
Ideally, it is good to have amentor in the same line as yours
, if not the same line, a linewhich is very closely linked to

(01:12:37):
it, and the reason for that is,if you like, for someone like me
who's decided that I want tomake my career in analytics, in
the banking and financialindustry sector.
I would have a person who's whois pretty tenured in the
analytics and banking andfinancial industry sector to be
my mentor, so that they canguide me through my journey in
that way.

Gurasis (01:12:57):
Exactly.

Rohit (01:12:58):
The sponsor, on the other hand, is usually a pretty
senior executive person.
These are the people who aredecision makers and these will
help you move forward.
A short-term view of a sponsoris it could be a person in your
same line of business, but theway I sort of encourage people
is to think more strategic aboutyour career.

(01:13:19):
Right, the job that I am doingtoday might not be the job I do
five years or 10 years from now,and hence the way you should
build your mentor andsponsorship program is try to
have a few mentors and sponsorsspread across different things
so that if, at some point intime, for any reason, you have

(01:13:40):
to stop doing what you are doing, you will still know about the
wider and the bigger picturewhich is spread across.

Gurasis (01:13:47):
That can help you take a decision effectively I think
I'll encourage my listeners tocheck out Rohit's channel.
I'll put the link to that aswell in the show notes Before we
get into the final segments.
Is there anything that I havemissed and I haven't mentioned
so far that you would like tospeak about?

Rohit (01:14:07):
I think this was a great conversation, guraseesh, and, as
I said at the beginning, Ireally appreciate you creating
and using this platform to helpour community and everybody
who's your listener learn fromexperiences from your guests,
right?
You yourself bring in a lot ofgreat nuggets of wisdom in these

(01:14:31):
conversations, right?
So I think I try, I try.
Yeah, and I think that's whatit's all about, right?
You're making such a goodattempt in helping and giving
back to the community, so kudosto you in doing that.

Gurasis (01:14:47):
Thank you.
Thank you for all your kindwords.
So this next segment, Rohit,it's called Know your Host,
where I ask my guests to ask meany question they might have.

Rohit (01:14:57):
So the question is what is one of the most interesting
conversations you've had on yourpodcast?
You don't have to say mine,that's okay on your podcast, you
don't have to say mine.

Gurasis (01:15:13):
That's okay.
Oh my gosh, this is a toughquestion, because this whole
podcast in general is somethingI find extremely interesting the
ability to sit with theseprofessionals who are literal
professionals in theirindustries, having that

(01:15:34):
one-to-one conversation, beingable to ask the questions which
they might not normally be askedbefore or they have never
answered before.
Having whatever the question Ihave in my mind, I can just put
it out.
There is no filter, there isnobody asking me to do not ask
this, nothing is there.
This itself, this wholeopportunity itself, is very
interesting.

(01:15:54):
So it's very hard for me tochoose this one person or one
conversation.
I would say.
So far, people have heardseason one, so I would say my
whole season one was extremelyinteresting, all the
conversations were extremelyinteresting.
That's, that's how I think Iwould answer that oh, that's a
great, great answer I like sonow we're doing the final

(01:16:16):
segment of the podcast.
I call it beneath the accent.
I'm going to ask a couple ofquestions.
You can answer them in one wordor a sentence, or how several
you feel like.
The idea is just know a littlebit more about you.
So the first question is whatadvice would you give to your
younger self, and at what age?

Rohit (01:16:34):
yeah.
So I will say try as manydifferent things as you can
before deciding on what yourprofession will look like or
what your option will look like.
I will like to give this adviceto myself at around between 15
to 18 years okay, and what wouldyou like to say to your
60-year-old self?

(01:16:54):
I hope by the time I get thereI've made at least difference in
somebody's life to be moremeaningful.

Gurasis (01:17:01):
Tell me about a moment when you experienced a
significant cultural differencethat surprised you.

Rohit (01:17:08):
Has to be.
When I went to Pune fromChandigarh, I actually felt the
bout of freedom for the firsttime in life, right.
And when I said freedom, itmeans freedom to make your own
financial decisions, freedom tomake your own clothing decisions
, fooding decision, where youstay, how out you stay out of
the hostel.

(01:17:28):
So a lot of freedom and which Ithink really helped me shape my
future do you have any funnystories related to your
misunderstanding around theaccent or english?
yeah, you, you know what.
It's funny that you ask that?
Because when we, when we aregrowing up in india, right for

(01:17:50):
us the word accent usually meanspeople with a Western accent,
right.
So when I was growing up,accent for me meant anybody
speaking in a pretty accent froma North American side of the
world.
That was accent for me.

Gurasis (01:18:06):
Yeah.

Rohit (01:18:07):
When I got my first job and I was just sitting with a
few friend of mine for a lunchand somebody said, Rohit, I
really like your accent.
And I was like, do I have anaccent?

Gurasis (01:18:26):
So that was my first awakening of yes, I do have an
accent.
Okay, we all have that accent,absolutely.
What's your favorite culturalfestival or celebration in
canada and how do you celebrateit?

Rohit (01:18:38):
ah, I have to default it to christmas, right?
Uh, because I do like thefestivities around it, right?
And that's also usually thetime when my wife and I give
ourselves the guilt pass to skipon our healthy eating routine
to eat into anything andeverything that we want.
So I would say that's prettyinteresting.

Gurasis (01:18:59):
What's something that you ate for the first time in
Canada.

Rohit (01:19:03):
From a Canadian perspective, I was very tempted
to try what we call poutineRight.
Yeah, so that's the first.

Gurasis (01:19:15):
And did you like it.

Rohit (01:19:21):
I've had better version of fries.
I would say so yeah.

Gurasis (01:19:25):
Okay, if you had to describe yourself as any
creature, what would it be andwhy?

Rohit (01:19:30):
It's a weird one.
I would say, uh, a lion okayand why at times I just like to
just watch around and act likethe king, knowing all doing all
sort of things right.

Gurasis (01:19:43):
So that's that's my, that's my way to spoil myself
okay, if you could have onesuperpower, what would it be?

Rohit (01:19:52):
my superpower would be if I can just teleport myself to
any place.
I'm a big fan of exploringdifferent destinations.
I absolutely do not liketraveling, but I still love
going to a lot of differentplaces, so teleporting to the
places I like would be nice.

Gurasis (01:20:10):
If you could create this one law that everybody has
to follow, what would it be?

Rohit (01:20:14):
Probably one thing that really annoys me don't shout in
public places so like whenyou're in transit.
That should be a law whenyou're in transit, like when
you're transit, people likespeaking on phones really,
really loudly.
That annoys me.

Gurasis (01:20:31):
Yeah, I experienced that just a few days ago.
So yeah, I can understand.
So describe Canada in one wordor a sentence.

Rohit (01:20:40):
Canada right now is home, away from home.
I think I'm very, very lucky Ichose this decision and this
country sort of accepted me.
I get to enjoy this country.
In a way, I also like itbecause at times I think the
type of outreach that I amtrying to do in terms of
reaching out to my community,helping people, I am not sure if

(01:21:02):
I would be doing the same thingif I was back home.
So I'm really glad to Canadafor helping me ignite that
spirit.

Gurasis (01:21:11):
If, rohit, you could leave me with one piece of
advice, what would it be?

Rohit (01:21:15):
Keep doing what you're doing.
I think you have such anamazing message in this podcast
on how to overcome barriers andmake something so much
meaningful that impacts people.
This is amazing and soinspiring.
So just keep doing what you'redoing.

Gurasis (01:21:36):
Thank you, thank you for that and, finally, how would
you describe your experience ofbeing on this podcast?

Rohit (01:21:43):
I just love it.
I think the element that I lovethe most is the free flow
conversation, right, and, as yousaid, we went pretty unfiltered
.
Uh, I think I I felt really,really at peace, sharing what I
felt from my heart, and I didnot have to think twice to
either wordsmith what I wasseeing.

(01:22:04):
Whatever you heard was rightfrom the heart, through my
feelings.
So thanks for giving thatenvironment.

Gurasis (01:22:11):
Yeah, no, no, thank you .
Thank you for saying that.
I appreciate that.
I'm very, very glad to hearthat and very glad to have you.
Thank you so much, Rohit, forbeing on the podcast and adding
value to my listeners.
Thanks a lot.

Rohit (01:22:25):
Thank you for having me.
I'm truly humbled for theopportunity.

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A New World Awaits: Balancing Heritage and New Beginnings | Ft. Rohan Dhawan Ep. 065

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}A New World Awaits: Balancing Heritage and New Beginnings | Ft. Rohan Dhawan Ep. 065