Unfamiliar Lands and Unexpected Encounters: Tracing Pratik's Immigrant Journey | Ep. 045 - My Thick Accent

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gurasis (00:00):
Hi, this is Gurasis Singh and you're listening to My
Thick Accent podcast.
So on this podcast, we ventureinto a multitude of topics,

(00:22):
probing both the commonly askedquestions and those that often
go unexplored.
From shedding light onstereotypes that surround
immigrants to delving deep intocultural and language barriers,
our mission is to uncover theinsights and experiences that
enrich our understanding of theworld around us.
It's all about fosteringcuriosity, sparking
conversations and learning fromthe experiences of remarkable

(00:45):
individuals, and our guest todayis here to contribute to our
ongoing quest for knowledge,since we know that no journey is
without its trails.
He will also share about facingadversity soon after his
arrival, a challenge that forcedhim to return to India for some
time.
The impact of this experienceand his decision to pivot from
marketing to tech will revealhis resilience and adaptability.

(01:06):
We'll also touch upon a topicoften hidden from the spotlight
the scams he encountered on hisjourney, the chapter of history
that sheds light on theunforeseen challenges immigrants
might face.
So, without further ado, pleasewelcome Pratik.

Pratik (01:24):
Hey, hi Gurasis and hi all of the listeners.
My name is Pratik, as Gurasishas mentioned, and I'm super
excited to be here on thispodcast today.

Gurasis (01:35):
So I'm going to start by asking you a question which I
asked some of my guests.
Tell us, what is this one habityou adopted that has changed
your life?

Pratik (01:43):
Yeah, great, great question.
Yeah, I think when it comes tohabits, after moving here, a lot
of things have changed right.
Very early in my childhood Iwas someone who got involved
into sports a lot and I used toplay a lot of sports.
Back in India Around collegetime I sort of went a little bit
away from sports and I stoppedplaying for a bit.

(02:05):
But then again, since the lastfour years, since since my
arrival here in Canada, I'vepicked sports again and I've
started playing table tennis.
I play squash regularly.
So, yeah, that is definitely ahabit that I've picked up and
something that I love and keepsme active, keeps me positive,
provides me with physical andmental strength.

(02:26):
So definitely sports.

Gurasis (02:29):
Okay, great.
So let me take you back to thetime you spent in India, since
you said you went into sports,since your childhood.
Tell us a little bit about yourtime you spent in India,
specifically Gujarat.
Tell us a little bit about yourformative years and what the
focus was on growing up.

Pratik (02:45):
Yeah, 100%, I think yeah .
So, as you mentioned, right,born and brought up in Gujarat,
I was actually born in a verysmall city called Rajkot.
I'm not sure if you are a lotof artists would know about
Rajkot because it's a reallysmall city, right?
For those of you who followcricket, ravinder Jadeja is

(03:06):
actually from Rajkot, right?
So Chitaishwari Pooja is fromRajkot, ravinder Jadeja is from
Rajkot.
So I did my schooling fromRajkot, played, as I said before
, played a lot of sports.
Growing up and throughout mystay in Rajkot, I loved the city
.
The city has amazing food.
After my initial few years inRajkot, I decided to move to

(03:29):
Mumbai, which was a little bitof a change for me, because back
in Rajkot, I used to live in abig house with my parents, but
when I moved to Mumbai, Iactually moved to a hostel in
Mumbai and I did my graduationin Mumbai.
So that was a little bit of ashock for me.
I'm staying in a big house tomoving into a hostel In Rajkot.

(03:49):
I was always ride my bike,which was always there in Mumbai
.
In a city, you usually have touse a lot of public transport,
so I started going oh, yes, yeah, and so that was a change and
with that shift I also had toquit sports because in Mumbai
there weren't a lot of biggrounds.
A lot of cricketers have comeout of Mumbai but again, in

(04:12):
terms of comparison with theavailability of ground and
fields in Rajkot, there'sdefinitely a lack of it.
The colleges in Mumbai that Iwent to were basically like
small buildings rather thanactual colleges and universities
, whereas in Rajkot I basicallystudied in a very, very good
school which has all of theamenities.

(04:33):
That's actually where I pickedup squash as well, I think in my
10th standard.
That is when our school hadbasically created a squash court
for the first time.
It was fantastic.
I had a great time in Rajkot.

Gurasis (04:45):
So, but tell me also, like, what about the family?
Like what are your parents likeworking?
They had a business, or thatthey were forced to get into,
like a certain career?
How about that?

Pratik (04:57):
Yeah, so my family has always been a business family.
My grandfather, narinder Spao,was actually a freedom fighter.
He was a freedom fighter whobasically during independence,
fought for the war and whateverit was with the Britishers and

(05:21):
he was basically the right handfor Sardar, vallabhbhai Patel
and my dad, all of my uncles,were basically into business for
a long period of time.
We had the agency or thedealership for entire Gujarat
for Hero and Atlas, which werethe biggest automobile sort of

(05:42):
companies back then in 1970s and80s.
So I've always been in abusiness family.
There's not a lot of pressurefrom my parents around now that
you have to become an engineeror you have to become a doctor,
so that was never there.
From a very early age in life Iknew that I was going to be
someone who is going to go intocommerce or marketing that sort

(06:05):
of a field rather than somethinginto engineering or doctorate,
and there was no pressure.
To be honest, family wise, Ialso have two siblings.
Both are elder sisters.
They were a lot inclinedtowards education.
They were a lot inclinedtowards reading, but I honestly
never developed that.
My interests were always goingoutside, playing, exploring

(06:30):
myself and being physical asmuch as possible.

Gurasis (06:33):
So you said that you knew that you want to get into
commerce or something like that.
But you also told me that youwere like your school captain.
For like three years you wereinto volleyball, basketball,
cricket and all these sports.
That why you never thought ofgetting into sports, why
something else?

Pratik (06:50):
Yeah, that's a great question and a question that a
lot of my friends, a lot of myfamily members ask me.
So I think at that point oftime, especially when I was in
school, I used to play a lot ofdifferent sports.
And because I used to play alot of different sports, I was
basically chosen or elected asthe house captain to represent

(07:11):
my house for three yearsstraight and at that point of
time I was playing multiplesports instead of focusing on
one sport and going all in.
That is probably one of thebiggest reasons why I did not
end up having a sports career.
Otherwise, I had, like,fantastic guidance, I had a lot
of coaches who were motivatingme, but I was always kind of

(07:37):
jack of all trades versus beinga master of one sport.
To be honest, I played a lot ofcricket, played a lot of squash
, basketball, volleyball, butthere was never really that
drive to pursue sports as acareer.
It always was more like a hobbyrather than a career choice.

Gurasis (07:56):
And you also mentioned that you moved from Gujarat to
Mumbai and you also lived inPune for some time and it was
also, like, I believe, the firsttime you were leaving your
house.
You know, your own nest.
So do you remember or recallthat moment that, the
conversations you had with theparents or maybe in general,
what the experience was like,just moving away from the family

(08:18):
for the first time and tryingto live on your own self, even
though you were in the samecountry, but still, how was that
like?

Pratik (08:26):
Yeah, 100%.
That experience was was verydifficult and very different as
well, especially during my firstcouple of months in Mumbai when
I moved to a hostel.
Right, there were so manyrestrictions in the hostel.
There was like an 8pm deadlinebefore which I had to get back
home, and things like that, andthat was completely different.
Right by that time I had almoststopped playing sports.
I gained a lot of weightbecause I was eating outside all

(08:48):
the time and that was not agood time right.
Especially the first couple ofmonths, it was very difficult.
I remember speaking with my momand telling her that I was not a
good time or that I don't thinkthis is what I want to do.
Right, I want to stay in Rajkot.
That is definitely a life thatI like, with my friends, with my

(09:08):
family, as well as my sportsand my circle that I had created
there.
So that was difficult anddifferent, but eventually, after
a few months, you get settleddown.
I also started actually playinga little bit of cricket with my
hostel friends.
I sort of created that group ofpeople who were interested in

(09:29):
playing cricket.
We started playing cricket inhostel and things like that, but
the first couple of months weredefinitely difficult.
The other thing that Imentioned before as well right
In Rajkot, I always had a bike.
Mumbai, that was no more anoption, because a hostel
wouldn't allow you to keep yourown bike right, and so
travelling became a challenge.
I used to take trains all thetime or public transport all the

(09:50):
time.
It was completely different.
The life in Mumbai wasdefinitely not what I expected
when I decided to leave Rajkot,but yeah, I actually used to
visit Mumbai a lot because mymother's family, my mama and my
other relatives from my mother'sside were all of them in Mumbai

(10:12):
.
So every summer vacation Iwould go to Mumbai, spend time
at my mama's house and be therefor like a month.
So overall I knew that life,but I never knew how it will be
to live that life.

Gurasis (10:25):
Yeah, well, I think it's always different to visit a
relative and then startedliving on your own in a new
place, so I think that reallygives like a different
perspective of living there.
For sure, yeah, but tell mesomething that people might not
know about Gujarat that youwould like to share.

Pratik (10:47):
Yeah, sure, I think I'm not sure if a lot of people know
, but Gujarat is it's a veryindustrial driven sort of a
state.
Right, it's a dry state, whichmeans you there is no alcohol
allowed and you also have tonsand tons of ancillary industries
developing in Gujarat At thatpoint of time.

(11:09):
I know I know this one factwhich was really surprising to
me when I was in school, whichbasically was that Tata Motors
basically has more than 30, 40%of their ancillary parts
actually built in Rajkot, in asmall town near Rajkot.
Yeah, a lot of your watches aremade in Gujarat, a lot of your

(11:34):
T-shirts, a lot of your readymade garments with brands like
Nike or Adidas actually havefactories in Gujarat, which is
not something a lot of peopleknow.
I think, especially with thecurrent political situation and
the infrastructure developmentthat is happening in India right
now, gujarat is definitely astate which is growing and has

(11:58):
fantastic infrastructure for alot of scope to grow further and
do a lot better.

Gurasis (12:08):
So, even though you didn't get into sports you
didn't pursue sports, but yougot into marketing right, and
before marketing, I believe youwere also into content writing.
So tell us, like, how did youget into these careers?

Pratik (12:21):
Yeah, 100%.
So when I moved to Mumbai I wastrying to get into Bachelors of
Mass Media.
Right, that was a course whichbasically was a good sort of a
course for me because I wasinterested into mass media and
marketing.
But when I initially went toMumbai I tried applying at a

(12:42):
couple of colleges and Icouldn't go through, get through
to any of those colleges inBachelors of Mass Media course.
Finally I decided, you know,maybe I'll just do Bachelor of
Commerce for now and then I'llfigure out for my masters if I
wanted to do somethingspecifically in communications
or media.
Initially, for that first month, I started studying at Sydenham

(13:06):
College.
I pursued Bcom and thensuddenly, after a month or so, I
got a call from a college whichbasically had an opening in
mass media and I was like youknow, this is like a perfect
opportunity for me.
I wanted to always do massmedia, so maybe I'll just go
ahead and switch my courses andmove to mass media.
That's exactly what I did.

(13:28):
I basically studied BMM forthree years and BMM had subjects
like advertising, copywriting,public relations, journalism,
and so that basically becameroots for me to pursue
advertising and copywriting asmy next career options After
completing BMM.

(13:49):
I basically was looking for ajob applied at a lot of places
in Bombay as well as nearbycities like Pune, and then my
sister at that point of time wasactually working for IBM and
she was working in Pune.
So I had actually gone for acouple of weeks of holiday to
Pune and there was this companywhich basically had given out

(14:09):
some newspaper advertising andso I read one of their
advertisers and it basicallysaid there's an opening for a
copywriter.
So I was like you know what,maybe I'll just go ahead and
apply here.
I applied and I got an amazingrole as basically the copywriter
.
The company was big.
They were actually a BPO or aKPO who were basically doing

(14:33):
digital advertising, outsourcingjobs for Canada and US based
digital newspapers.
Yeah, that was my first breakand yeah, I got into copywriting
that way.

Gurasis (14:48):
And you were also I read in your LinkedIn as well
you were like a line producerfor this Disney's Beauty and the
Beast, which is one of thebiggest theatre productions.
Tell us about that experience,if you recall.

Pratik (15:00):
Yeah, 100%.
So that was, I think, around2015, 16, when I was back in
Mumbai.
So I worked in Pune for abouttwo years and then I went back
to Mumbai, joined an event, anexperiential marketing agency
called Show House, and at thatpoint of time we had this
opportunity to basically managethe line production for Disney's

(15:23):
Beauty and the Beast.
That was the first time everthat Disney was producing a
theatre of this scale in Indiaand Disney reached out to Show
House and we basically had anopportunity to run that entire
show.
So, yeah, I got thatopportunity.
There were two line producersfor that show myself and I had
one more, colleague, devarti.
Both of us basically ran thatshow.

(15:45):
We worked on that project foralmost six and a half months.
It was phenomenal.
It was amazing.
Even like today, when I gowatch a Disney movie or I see
Beauty and the Beast in schoolplays or even in theatre, the
sound, the humming of that songBe my Guest is one of the songs

(16:07):
that I always hum about.
It's phenomenal.
For almost six months we wereworking on that project.

Gurasis (16:12):
It was a dream come true for me 100%, it seems
Sounds like such a fascinatingexperience.
Just witness all that behindthe scenes, how things really
before the things, how they turnout to be on the screen.
There's something else at theback right.
You see that whole process, howbasically things basically
marinate and they become whatthey become eventually 100%.

Pratik (16:36):
Yeah, it's a lot of hard work, right?
Even when you see a movie, youdon't really see what's
happening behind the scenes, butit was a lot of hard work.
So for that show, which wasbasically a 15 day long show,
there was almost one year longof practicing, one year long of
behind the scenes work, lot ofcoordination.

(16:58):
I was the line producer, but wehad almost a crew as big as 400
people.
On top of that, we had 140artists performing at one point
of time during the show.
So it was a phenomenalexperience.

Gurasis (17:15):
Sounds incredible.
And also, you didn't again.
Once again, the sports havebeen always part of your journey
and you didn't get into sports,but you did work with some
celebrities as well, somecricketers as well.
Tell us about that experience.

Pratik (17:31):
Yeah, 100%.
So I've done a little bit ofsports commentary.
When I was in my college Iactually started.
I was looking for a job right,I was looking for a part time
job to basically move away fromhostel and go into a flat
sharing it with my friends, andI basically got a role of sports

(17:52):
commentators for text basedapplications.
So I'm not sure if you heardabout you know cricket and
things like these, but these arebasically your applications on
phones or websites where you canactually go read the commentary
for each and every ball thathas been bought.
So I used to do cricketcommentary for those text based

(18:14):
apps.
And then after that I basicallymoved to Pune and when I got
back in events I started workinga lot with alcohol brands so
our call brands, especiallyaround that 2015 time.
A Royal Challenger was verymuch inclined with cricket and

(18:35):
alcohol at the same time.
So I used to work with ChrisGayle a lot.
I've worked with Zair Khan acouple of times.
With Chris Gayle.
I actually did a four day tourwhere I basically worked with
him on a brand launch forSmonoff, and then I was working
with him on an event in Bombay.
We went to Calcutta, then wewent to Hyderabad so I taught

(18:57):
with him.

Gurasis (18:58):
It was again a phenomenal experience, for me
and is this something that youthink you can share from from
the time that's working with?
No, you said Chris Gayle andother celebrities as well.
That's something that you know,which might not be visible to
an audience, or something thatyou, as a postman, you know at
the back, can share with us.

Pratik (19:19):
Yeah, 100%.
So this is exactly what Iremember.
It's a very unique thing thathappened to me.
So when I was working withChris, I was basically this was,
if I'm not wrong, this was, Ithink, 10th December or 10th
November when India basicallyhad demonetization announced.

(19:40):
That night I was going to flywith Chris from Mumbai to
Bangalore sorry, from Mumbai toCalcutta and Narendra Modi at
8pm came on news and hebasically said you know, the
notes are banned and at thatpoint of time I was carrying
almost 60,000 rupees in my bagof all the events, expenses and

(20:02):
things like that, and I went tothe airport and I was completely
clueless.
I was like no, I don't knowwhat I'm going to do, because it
was.
I literally had very littlemoney in my credit card or my
bank.
I had cash which was technicallyworth nothing at that point of
time and I was with Chris andhe's like hey, I want to go to

(20:24):
the airport lounge.
And I was like Chris, sure, Imean you have a business class
ticket.
I don't have an economic ticket.
So he's like you know it's okay, like, pay for it.
I was like, sure, I can pay forit, but these guys will not
accept the cash that I have andI don't have a lot of money in
my bank right now which I canuse for an airport lounge, right

(20:46):
.
And so I went there.
I was trying to talk to theconcierge and I was trying to
explain them that, hey, I'm withChris, I need to go with him,
please allow me to go or extrathis cash.
They just wouldn't agree.
And suddenly Chris comes.
He basically comes with me tothe concierge.
He notices that I was havingthis huge discussion and
argument with the concierge andhe's like hey, guys, you know me

(21:09):
, who I am right.
And the concierge lady was likeyes, we know you and he's like
he's with me.
I want you to allow him to comewith me.
And the concierge lady is likesure, you can go ahead.
What?
So?
Yeah, yeah, exactly Like likeit was so surreal for me to have
that experience?
Where so such a big celebrityis basically talking to someone

(21:34):
on your behalf and making thingshappen for you?

Gurasis (21:37):
Wow, that's incredible.
But again, just going back tothat situation, with you
carrying the 60,000 in yourpocket and you can't use it
anymore, it's literally of zerovalue to you and I obviously I'm
sure you also remember thetimes of chaos that whole
demonetization created back then.
I think I think till thatpeople have trauma of that time.

Pratik (22:00):
Yeah, yeah, 100% it was.
It was a disaster.
And and even so, even after welanded in Calcutta, right, what
happened was because there was alot of agony in people and
people were completely prouless.
Right, what started happeningwas and around that time, vijay
Malia's case was also pretty bigRight, this was 2015 and 16,

(22:23):
where it was just kids just fledIndia and for that time, vijay
Malia was the owner of RCB andChris Gale was actually
representing RCB.
Oh, so there was a lot of agonyfrom people towards Chris,
especially in Calcutta, which iswhich is a place where you know
, people are expressive abouttheir things, right, and so we

(22:47):
we land in Calcutta, we startgoing out and there's this huge
crowd who is basically comingnear Chris and talking trash and
trying to basically tell himthat hey, bring us our money
back, bring Vijay Malia back.
And there was.
We did not have any security,right, there was.

(23:08):
We did not know there is goingto be a demonetization and there
is going to be such a bighassle gathered at the airport
and it was.
it was terrible, but I was glad.
You know, chris, chris wasfantastic.
He basically was my securityguard.
I was like I was walking on theside and he was like sort of
helping me get away from the car.

Gurasis (23:30):
Okay, pratik.
So let's just pivot towardsyour Canadian journey.
Let's just talk about yourfirst decision to move to Canada
, and you were telling meearlier that you know your
sister and her husband visitedyou during your wedding and
that's where the conversation tomove abroad started.
Tell me about that.

Pratik (23:47):
Yeah, this was 2018.
I got married in 2018, 5thFebruary.
I got married to my childhoodgirlfriend and my longtime
partner, and my sister and mybrother-in-law were basically
visiting us for the wedding andbefore that, I never had the

(24:08):
thought of pursuing Canada atall.
And when they came, they camewith my nephew and my niece, who
were basically at that point oftime, around one year and six
years old, and we spent a lot oftime with them.
It was fantastic, it was sogood and they always talked
about you know how life inCanada is very different to life
in India the pollution, thestruggles overall, the

(24:32):
opportunity that you get movinginto a first world country
compared to a third world or adeveloping country and it was
fascinating.
But before that time, I neverreally thought about it
seriously.
And they came there.
We spent almost four monthstogether.
We had a lot of fun.
Obviously, there were a lot ofcelebrations and everything was

(24:52):
going on, so it was a beautifultime and that's when we started
thinking about this positivelyand thinking about this
seriously.
My wife Bumika she was sheplayed a big role in us
basically applying for aisles,doing all of the prep and, you
know, within one year, within notime.
We basically got everythingapproved and we came here in

(25:18):
2019.
That was exactly a year afterwe started applying and
everything was everything wasvery smooth.

Gurasis (25:26):
And you were also telling me that the age was also
one of the factors which youconsidered right.
Tell us about that as well.

Pratik (25:31):
Yeah, so when?
So in 2019 or 18, rather, wewere somewhere around 28 years,
right, so at that point of timeI don't know if it is the same
right now, but for you to getexpress entry, you need specific
number of points, and afteryou've done 30, those points
that you get from your age startdecreasing by like five points

(25:53):
or yours or something like thatand so our choice was either to
wait and become 30 and thenstart losing out on those points
, or try and apply as soon aspossible to land here before we
turn 30, so we can get maximumnumber of points from from our
age sort of factor or category.

Gurasis (26:14):
Okay, so tell us about your first day.
When you landed, what were theinitial thoughts, initial
impressions?

Pratik (26:20):
Yeah, so it was.
It was a very beautiful day.
I remember landing here, my, myGju, my brother-in-law
basically came and picked me upfrom from the air court.
He drove his white Honda CRVand he came to pick me.
We actually came back and weyou know when, especially when
you are coming from Pearsonairport to downtown and the
first time you see the CN tower,it's like wow, this is

(26:42):
something that you've seen innewspapers and online when you
are doing your research aboutCanada.
You've seen CN tower and now itwas literally in front of you,
right?
So so definitely a moment thatI'll not forget.
The first day here was was, Ithink it was first June or first
July, and that was the day whenToronto Raptors was playing, I

(27:03):
think, golden state warriors andthat was the third game.
So this is the year whenToronto Raptors won the NBA
championship game three, and youknow it was basically the, the,
the game which decided the nextpath forward.
And yeah, we my sister andbrother-in-law at that point of

(27:23):
time used to stay in downtown.
There's a stadium, the ScottishBank stadium was very close,
like so literally not even 200,300 meters away, there was this
amazing crowd.
There was so many people andsort of summer.
So it was beautiful, it wasfantastic.
I guess, even even that daywhen we landed, we landed about

(27:43):
6, 6, 30 and then the sun till 9, 9, 30 and we were like so
shocked.
We were like, wow, this is,this is fantastic right.
And it was.
It was a beautiful experience.

Gurasis (27:54):
Yeah, yeah, but just a month after you landed, before
you even get into your Canadianjourney and before you, even you
know, get a living here beforeyou even get exposed to the
culture here.
Just within just like a monthlater, you had to go back due to
an unforeseen circumstance.
Please share with our listenersabout that.

Pratik (28:17):
Yeah, yeah, so it was.
It was about a month, so Ithink it was 30th June and I
basically it was 11.30 in themorning and I was swimming
downstairs in in our condo and Iwas with my nephew and my niece
and I got a call from, fromsomeone I don't even remember

(28:39):
who it was and I think it wasprobably my brother-in-law, and
he's like you know what, youneed to come upstairs.
And I was like sure whathappened?
He's like just come upstairs.
And I was like okay.

Gurasis (28:51):
Hey, if you're enjoying the content and conversations
we bring to you every week, wewill love for you to join our
growing community.
Make sure to follow us on allmajor podcast directories,
including Apple Podcasts,Spotify, Google Podcasts or
wherever you consume yourpodcast.
That way, you'll never miss anepisode and you'll always stay
in the loop with the latestinsights and stories.

(29:13):
And speaking of stayingconnected, I always always
encourage you to follow yourheart, but also also on
Instagram the handle is my thickaccent We'll be sharing a lot
more behind the scenes content,some updates and some even fun
sneak peaks.
So give us a follow and let'sengage even more closely there.
And to all those who providedtheir feedback and input, thank

(29:35):
you so much.
It truly, truly shaped thedirection of a podcast, and I
would love to hear from any ofthe new folks who joined us
today.
Don't hesitate to reach outwith any thoughts, ideas or even
suggestions for future guests.
Drop us an email at hello at mythick accentcom.
Now let's get back to theepisode.

Pratik (29:54):
I went upstairs and my brother-in-law basically opened
the door and everyone was cryingand I was like what's up, what
is wrong?
And my brother-in-law is likeit's your dad and I'm like what
happened?
And he's like you need to talkto your mom first.
So I basically called my momand I was like what happened?

(30:14):
And she was continuously cryingand then I think someone else
from my home back in India spoketo me and it basically
shattered me into tears.
It was my dad was no more, andthat was such a big shock
because it was exactly one monthsince I left and when I left he
was in good health.
My dad had always had some sortof heart and cholesterol issues

(30:38):
, but at the end of the day, hewas taking all the medications.
He was not really old, he was,I think, 67 when he passed away
and it was a huge shock to notjust to me but to the entire
family.
And so, yeah, we basically wereall in a shock.
My mom was there alone, Ourentire close family, except for

(31:00):
my mom, everyone was here inCanada.
My sister had actually movedjust one week before this, and
so all of us were in Dyer Street.
We basically just took theflight back to India in like I
think four hours.
We just went to the airport.
We are like you know, we needthe tickets right now and we got
I think it was Air Canada orsome some tickets, lufthansa or

(31:23):
Air Canada, and we basicallyflew to Paris, flew from Paris
to Bangalore, and then, at thatpoint of time also, it was
raining in Bangalore.
It was raining so bad.
Our flight was actually fromParis to Mumbai, but because it
was raining heavily in Mumbai,we had to reroute to Bangalore
and then from Bangalore wewaited there for like six, seven

(31:44):
hours and then we again took aflight back to Mumbai, I think
because of that, a certainsituation anyways, a journey
seems longer than than itactually is, and, on top of that
, these weather conditions addedto that.

Gurasis (31:59):
I'm extremely sorry for your loss, pratik, but I but I
really wanted to, you know sharewith us that.
How did you cope up with thatemotionally and did it change
your perspective or yourdecision of of moving to Canada?

Pratik (32:16):
Yeah, I think at least for the first few months I was,
I was totally broken.
I was like you know, I shouldhave been there with my father,
right, whether it was in India,or whether the decision could
have been bringing him with me,because he always had a visa to
Canada.
He had been here a couple oftimes before then.
So there was always thatdilemma in my mind whether you

(32:38):
know this could have beenavoided in some way because my
mom was alone with him.
After a while you obviouslymove on and you see the bright
side of things, where you knowhe did not have to sort of
suffer at all.
He was.
He was actually watching acricket match it was India
versus England and he was on hisbed watching TV and that's

(33:00):
that's how he went away.
So it was difficult at the start.
It was very difficult, for forfor some time I was like you
know what?
Maybe I should just go backthere.
You know there is in Canada isgreat and everything is amazing,
but but there is a life back inIndia which I've lived and I
don't know if that is the rightchoice.
Right, even till date there are.
There are there are momentswhen when you think whether it

(33:22):
is the right choice or not,whether it was the right choice
back then four years ago, and ifit is the right choice right
now.
So there was definitely thatdilemma in my mind for a long
time.

Gurasis (33:33):
So how long did you stay there when you went back?

Pratik (33:38):
Yeah, so I was there for a month.
We basically had to wrap upeverything, obviously, all the
rituals and everything.
I had to do a lot of thosethings.
My sister, both my sisters,actually came with me.
My eldest sister, rina, shecame back out for a couple of
days because she had kids totake care of, and my other

(33:58):
sister was basically with me.
My mom, my sister and I wrappedup everything in India.
We were actually renting out aplace, so we wrapped up
everything, sold our furniture,gave some away, and then we
decided that you know, mom hasto come with us now, like we
were alone at this moment.
And so, yeah, in 30 days webasically did all of that,

(34:20):
rituals and everything that,everything else that we needed
to do, and we flew back here.

Gurasis (34:25):
My, my mom came with me and, yeah, so how did you,
pratik, find strength tocontinue pursuing your goals,
continue your journey in Canadadespite such a significant
personal setback?
What did you do differentlythen?

Pratik (34:44):
Yeah, the idea was at that point out of time
especially.
The idea was to try andconcentrate on the next steps.
Right, there was definitely alot of distraction in the mind,
but we knew we had a job in hand.
We knew we had a job in handwhich had to be done.
We had to basically figure outa way to start our career in.

(35:06):
Canada because we'd already leftour lives back in India.
Right, going back to India wasnot going to give us the life
that we had left there.
That life was already gone forus.
And obviously, when you are,when you are in India and you,
you are living a good life, youhave a good job.
My wife and I both and my wifeand I both had amazing jobs in

(35:27):
India, jobs that we were happyabout.
We had creative satisfaction,jobs satisfaction money to be
able to stay in Bombay and livethat life.
But when you're when you'vedecided to give that up, there
are definitely some compromisesthat you have to make and you
need to be strong.
So that is exactly what wecontinue to do.
We concentrated on ourapplications, we spoke, we

(35:51):
networked, we met a lot ofpeople and just continuing the
good work that we wanted to dohere after coming to Canada.

Gurasis (35:59):
Well, more power to you and your family to be able to
find strength and such anunfortunate situation, and I I'm
glad to hear that you kind offound the strength in that and
you found that you knew that.
Okay, the best thing you can doin that particular situation is
to move on rather than dwellingin that thoughts, because

(36:20):
obviously nobody can replace theperson or the thought in that
in that particular moment.
But the best you can do in thatsituation is just move on.

Pratik (36:28):
Yeah, 100% and and for especially for that first couple
of months are my, my, my sisterand my brother-in-law were
great support Having a niece andnephew who were in that age
where you know they didn'tunderstand what was happening
right.

Gurasis (36:46):
The naivete they had yeah.

Pratik (36:48):
So they did not actually behave in a different way and
so that that actually kept usgoing for a long time.
Where you know you, you can'tbe sad, you can't be crying in
front of your two year oldnephew who basically doesn't
know what is happening.
So that really brought smileson our face when we we could
have been completely differentor completely shattered.

Gurasis (37:11):
But then, after that, you also switched your careers.
You don't only switch yourcountries, you also shifted your
careers.
You moved from marketing totech Chalas.
Then why did you decide to dothat?
And if any of our listeners isplanning to change careers as
well, what should be there ontheir checklist?

Pratik (37:28):
Yeah, yeah, definitely Just keeps on getting better,
right, yeah, yeah.
So you know, after, aftercoming here and I started
applying for a lot of marketingroles, there were a lot of good
interviews that I had secondlevel, third level interviews,
and I I couldn't really land agood job.
I did get one marketing basejob for a bit.

(37:49):
It was completely differentfrom what I was doing before and
that was sort of a shock to mebecause I was expected to bring
in a lot of business and a lotof new business, which was going
to be difficult for me,especially in those first couple
of months, because one theculture is completely different.
I had no network here in Canadaand so it was becoming

(38:10):
difficult, right, and I alwayswanted to pursue or at least
give it a shot moving into tech.
My role in India in marketinghad always been around account
management or client servicing,so I knew that was one of my
skills and expertise that Icould basically bring from
marketing to tech.
So I got a good break.

(38:32):
My my brother-in-law basicallyhad had a friend who was working
in this company and he wantedto hire someone for about four
months.
It was a contract role for fourmonths where he had some work
to be done and he wanted to getit done quickly.
So it was, like you know, thisis a great opportunity and I
wanted to give it a shot.

(38:52):
I started working there firstJanuary I think 6th January and
then, I think, my contract wastill May.
So I did not know whether I'llbe able to continue in that role
.
But here I am.
I've been with the same companyfor three and a half years and
it's been fantastic.
So something that I've learnedthroughout my professional

(39:14):
career is you know, when you areinto a new role or when you are
into a new industry, the onething that you need to do is
start learning it as much aspossible.
Don't just learn about your role, but also learn about what is
your counterparts role or whatis your boss's role, what is
your team members role.

(39:35):
So when I was in events right,I was into client servicing, but
I would always be on the groundand also learn what the
operation guy is doing, right.
Clearly, when I started workingwith form assembly, which is,
you know, a big sort of a datacollection platform and a market
leader in the Salesforceecosystem, I not just learned

(39:57):
about form assembly, but alsostarted learning about
Salesforce.
That is what basically gave methe skills and the lingo to talk
about it and to gain that trustin people that I was working
with, that I know about thisecosystem and that is exactly
what I would recommend to anyonewho's looking to make a change
like learn about the ecosystem,learn about what roles there are

(40:21):
, what kind of skills you needto become a part of that
ecosystem and really lead thatecosystem in some ways, would
you also say, to have a planbefore making that shift?
Yeah yeah 100%.
I think especially especiallyhere right A plan is very
important Back in India.
A lot of your opportunities, alot of your roles that you get

(40:45):
is by reference, is by peopleyou know.
It's very easy to switch rolesin India and get a new job in
India compared to her right,Because unless and until you
have a specific plan and you'veshown already that you are 100%
committed to this plan, it isvery difficult for you to

(41:05):
actually be able to implementthat plan.
So, yeah, do yourcertifications in that ecosystem
plan around and then ventureinto it, Go all in.
It's always tough but at thesame time, if you take the
challenge in a good way, thenyou'll get there somewhere.

Gurasis (41:24):
And throughout the transition, was there something
that you would have donedifferently, or maybe like a
mistake that people can learnfrom?

Pratik (41:31):
There are always.
When you look at thingsretrospectively, there are
always things that you couldhave done a little bit
differently.
Right, it's difficult for me topoint out a specific thing, but
one thing that I woulddefinitely sort of point out is
when I started learning, Istarted spending a lot of money

(41:52):
on that learning.
Maybe that is something that Icould have done differently,
whereas I would have used thefree resources and online
courses rather than spendingmoney on things.
So yeah, even for our viewers,if you want to become a part of
the ecosystem, you don't reallyhave to spend a lot of money to
become a part of the ecosystem.
You can just become a part ofthe ecosystem by learning more
about it, posting about it,networking about it, and that's

(42:16):
exactly what is needed.

Gurasis (42:18):
Where did you exactly send the money?
I'm just curious to know wheredid you spend it.

Pratik (42:22):
Yeah, so I basically took a lot of Udemy courses and
a lot of, so obviously it was Idid not like waste any money.
I took courses and I spentmoney on knowledge and learning,
but now that I think about it,maybe I did not even need to do
that.

Gurasis (42:40):
Okay, okay.
So let's just talk about thetopic which is not as commonly
talked about as it should be,which is the scams, obviously
the scams which I mentioned inmy introduction as well, and you
unfortunately fell into one ofthose and you lost your very

(43:01):
first paycheck.
Tell us, tell our listenersabout that or, more specifically
, I should say, educate ourlisteners about that.

Pratik (43:09):
Yeah, 100%.
This is definitely the mostembarrassing part of today's
podcast, in my opinion.
So, yeah, I mean I had no cluethis was happening, right, and
after it actually happened,everyone was like how did you
not get this?
This is so common here.
And so when I got my first sortof job at Seagull Entertainment

(43:31):
, which was the marketing agencywhere I was working here in
Canada and I was actually onlythere for about a month I had
this email in the morning ataround nine o'clock and I
basically saw the email.
It was from my CEO, the CEOthat I had just met Friday
evening for a party.

(43:51):
And this is Monday morning 9amand I got this email which says
hey, prithik, I wanted toquickly ask you for a favor.
Can you go to a nearby Applestore and get me some gift cards
?
I've actually come to someclients office and I need to
distribute these for our clientsand, being in events, this is

(44:15):
very common, right I've sent,not really gift cards, but gift
hampers, gift boxes and thingslike that back in India to our
clients and I've sent them to myboss to send it to clients.
So it looked very natural andvery real.
And this CEO of ours I just mether.
On Friday she was actually inVancouver.

(44:36):
She lives in Vancouver, but shehad come to Toronto for an
event and we were here togetherand she actually told me that
next week I'm going to go meetsome clients and try and get
some more business for you.
So it all collated together andit looked like sure Kelly needs
me.
She asked me for help andespecially when you are new to

(44:56):
our organization, you want tohelp as much as possible, right,
create that app or do basicallyfeel that.
Okay, you can be trusted withsuch things.

Gurasis (45:04):
And I was like sure.

Pratik (45:07):
I was already a little bit late for work and so I just
read that email.
I got up quickly, changed, wentto Eaton Center it's very close
by from my place and Ibasically grabbed five Apple
gift cards from the Apple store,went back to a V workspace

(45:28):
where I used to work from and wesent out those five gift cards
and after a little bit of time Igot another email which said
the same thing and I was like,hey, maybe she needs five more,
right?
And I kept on doing that foralmost three, four more times
and at the end of the day around, I think around five o'clock, I
had spent around $3,000.

(45:50):
It was basically withdrawingcash from my bank and then going
and buying Apple cards and mybank told me once and now that
you think about it, the wordsand the meaning actually comes
to you, but at that point oftime I had no idea about it my
bank actually told me once Ihope you are not giving this

(46:11):
money to someone and you are notin an emergency.
I was like no, no, no, this isnot an emergency.
I'm not giving money to anyone,don't worry about it.
Yeah, I kept on doing that.
So $3,000.
Down the road I got an email,or actually I got a call from my
CEO's assistant and she hadsomething to talk to me about
and we spoke about it and I waslike Efrat, this is all good,

(46:35):
but tell me one thing the $3,000worth of gift cards that Kelly
has asked me to basically sendher, how do I get reimbursed for
it?
And she's like what are youtalking about?
Kelly would never do somethinglike this.
If she wanted something, shewould ask me.
Why would she ask you?
And I'm like, yeah, that makessense.

(46:58):
And then, yeah, she basicallyasked me to send all of the
emails and she checked theemails the name and everything
was correct, but the emaildomain was different and there
were a couple of mistakes and so, yeah, I basically became a
victim of scams.

Gurasis (47:15):
Yeah.

Pratik (47:17):
It was very depressing.
My first salary basically wentaway completely and it literally
shattered us.
How can this happen?
This is the first world countrylike scams here, like in India,
it's expected, but even in.
Canada.
I was like okay.

Gurasis (47:33):
Well, right now we are giggling about it and laughing
about it, but I'm sure in thatmoment you would be shattered
that what just happened.
You would even be mum for sometime that, oh my God, how did I
just fall into this?
And this thing really boils myblood because I have had
situations I've spoken to peoplewho, especially the

(47:55):
international students who arevery new to the country, in
their second week, third week inthe country, and they have lost
everything you know, like howevery student has to pay from
coming from India, have to paythe GIC amount, the $10,000
amount, and literally the halfof the money from theirs, from
their bank, is gone just becauseof these scams.
Because they thought maybetheir visa is in trouble or

(48:18):
maybe their status in Canada isin trouble.
And I have my personal story aswell that I think I just came
back from India.
I visited my family maybe after, like just at the end of my
program visited.
I came back it was January, Ibelieve 2019, I believe so and I
came back and I hadn't evenlike properly, you know, got

(48:42):
over my jet lag.
I just came back and I got thiscall and they said we have some
illegal activity on your sendnumber.
Send this number to getconnected to an officer who's
going to help you and tell youexactly how you can get out of
it.
And I got into that.
I spoke to the person and hewas very adamant.
He was working very pressure.
My name is this.

(49:02):
This is my badge number.
You have to note this down.
And I was like, okay, so I seemserious.
And then he said, okay, nowread your send number to me.
And I was like hold on, what doyou mean?
Read my send number to you.
If there's something wrong onthe send number, you would know
what is my send number Right.
And he said no, no, no, I needto confirm that it's the correct
send number.

(49:22):
I said why don't you read it tome and I'll confirm it to you.
So we went, we had this banterfor like few seconds and he said
, oh, the police is going tocome.
And I said let them come, I'lltalk to them, let them come.
And immediately after that Igot ready and I had a service
currently about my place.
I just ran to that place and Itold them the whole situation
and they said, no, no, no, no,such thing happens.
We will never, ever call youand this is not the correct

(49:45):
thing.
So I asked them why don't youcall them or do something with
them?
And they were like we tried,but they have multiple numbers
and we are not able to reallylocate them.
So I was like imagine students.
They told me that students cometo them with their bank
accounts empty and thatcompletely, completely, like
maybe it made me so sad aboutthat just because they are naive

(50:05):
in their situation.
Sometimes you come after 18,after just after the 12th grade.
Right, we're just 18 or 19.
So well, this is the purpose ofdiscussing it today.
I hope, if any of our listeners, if you're listening, to wait.
Please pass this on to people.
Educate people.
That's the only thing we can dofor now.

Pratik (50:24):
Yeah, definitely.
And after this actuallyhappened, for the first couple
of days I was completely shellshocked and I was like this is
so embarrassing, Right, how canI even talk to like my friends
about it?
It was literally stupid on myside, Like anyone else would
have you know.

Gurasis (50:40):
I think anybody would have fallen into that.
I think, especially thesituation like I don't know.
How is it even possible thatthe person you just went on a
lunch or dinner with, like onFriday the same person has sent
you an email and so it felt itfeels like maybe there was
somebody who knew about theconversations you had.
It felt like that I don't knowand from a third point

(51:02):
perspective, third personperspective, it seems like that
maybe the person knew you, thatyou had this competition with
Kelly.

Pratik (51:09):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
It definitely looks like a likea social engineered sort of an
attack rather than like a cyberattack.
Right, yeah, and but after Istarted speaking about it with
my friends, like a lot of peopleactually had the same story, a
lot of people gave into it, alot of people fought it like you

(51:29):
did, but, but you know, I thinkawareness is definitely
important.

Gurasis (51:35):
Okay, but these are before we get into the final
segment.
I want to talk briefly aboutyou know where you were telling
me that many of your friends doask you some commonly asked
questions like where did youmove, what are the key verticals
, what is Canada good andeverything.
So I want to ask you like threequestions which I feel like
which might answer and you canshare with your friends.
Tell us that.

(51:56):
So this question was actuallyasked to me like few weeks ago
and I think I asked you the samequestion.
The question is is it worthcoming to Canada in 2023?

Pratik (52:05):
Yeah, I think that's a great question and a question
that I do get a lot as well.
I think it completely depends,right.
I think the the choice ofmoving to a new country or the
choice of giving up your lifeback in whatever country you are
in, and taking that leap offaith is very subjective, right,

(52:25):
in my opinion.
I think if, if you are someonewho's ready to struggle, if you
are someone who's ready toexplore and you don't have
anything to lose, then sure,yeah, maybe, maybe Canada is a
good option in 2023.
Overall, my experience fromCanada was a little bit more

(52:47):
troublesome, I would say,because of all the experience
that we spoke about and theexpectation.
But but again, as I said, right,it's very subjective.
Canada is a beautiful country,but if you are enjoying your
life in India, it is not goingto be the same here.
You are going to miss family.
The culture is very differenton days where your family is

(53:14):
enjoying together andcelebrating Diwali.
You are probably going to behere working.
Think about those things.
If those things are importantto you, then maybe not.
But if, if you want to make abetter career, you want to have
a good standard of living andand at the same time you you

(53:35):
want to freeze during winter,then sure Canada is probably a
good choice.
I think a lot of people don'tconsider this and and you know,
we don't really realize thiswhen, when we are in India is is
the weather conditions.
Yeah the weather is poles apart.
It's literally poles apart.
When, when people used to tellme that you know, Canada or

(53:59):
Toronto goes minus 20 in winters, I used to say it doesn't
really matter, right, you are atyour home, it is not a big deal
.
But then you don't realize thatyou are not at home.
We're basically logged in yourhome because you cannot go out.
So yeah, if you go out you haveto wear three layers of jacket,
and once you wear those threelayers of jacket, you can't

(54:20):
really walk.
So, it's, it's, it's these smallthings which you know we are
blessed in India to have, whichwe don't really care about, and
you actually start realizingthem once, once you are here,
and the second question is whatis it something about the
culture that shock you a lot?
Yeah, I think, with regards toculture, like one of the biggest

(54:43):
shocks was the work life.
Right, a lot of people herestrictly work like nine to five
and it is nine to five, yeah,especially during summer, if you
know it's a beautiful daypeople will stop working at
3,330.
They'll go out, they'll enjoy,they'll spend a lot of time with

(55:04):
their family.
It's very different from India,right?
I come from a background in a,in a vertical, where working 12
hours a day was very normal.
On a good day, you would work11, 12 hours a day.
On a bad day, where you have anevent or you have some sort of
setup or work going on, youwould work 16 hours a day, which
is completely different.

(55:24):
Here.
People value their time a lot,a lot.
If, if, if they, if they'vecome at nine, they want to leave
at five, they will leave atfive no matter what.
So I think, which is it's afantastic thing, right, it's a
great thing, and the culture isdifferent, but at the same time,
there are a lot of positives, alot of positives here as well?

Gurasis (55:47):
Yeah, 100%.
And the third is what issomething you miss the most
about your home country?

Pratik (55:54):
The most, I would say I miss the weather the most the
weather is definitely something,especially from.
You know, october till tillMarch, canada is very cold.
Obviously, not being born andbrought up here, we are not used
to that cold, right, forCanadians who are born here or
for people who've lived here forfor longer than 10, 20, 15

(56:18):
years, it's kind of becomehabitual for them.
But for someone like us whorecently immigrated, the weather
plays plays a big role and theability to have that freedom of
going out at whatever time ofthe day without looking at your
weather app is it's a big virtue, right?

(56:40):
You have to give it away whenyou come here.

Gurasis (56:43):
Yeah, okay.
Is there anything else you wantto add for your friends and
family?

Pratik (56:48):
No, I think that those are actually great three
questions.
Something that comes to mindwhen you know you talk about
Canadian experience and isbasically Canadian experience,
right, like a lot of people askme what is?
Canadian experience.

Gurasis (57:03):
And.

Pratik (57:04):
I think it's natural for a country to demand experience
in their culture, experience intheir professional ecosystem,
because the kind of work that wedo in India is very different
from the kind of work thathappens here in Canada.
Even if it is the same vertical, the process is completely
different.
The way of speaking with peopleis different, the way of taking

(57:27):
up rules is different.
It's very different.
So if you are moving to Canadaand you're thinking you have 10
years of experience in Indiawhich is going to count here,
that might not hold true forevery one of you.

Gurasis (57:39):
Yeah, that's true, 100% .
And if any of our listenerswould like to connect with
Pratik, where they can connectwith you.

Pratik (57:48):
Yeah, they can always reach out to me via LinkedIn and
my email.
My email is Pratikpon619 atgmailcom619.
For those of you who arewondering is for Ray Mysterio,
but you can always reach out tome on LinkedIn as well.
Its name is Pratik PON.
It's upon its belt as BAUN.
Okay.

Gurasis (58:09):
Okay, so links to contact Pratik can be found in
the show notes.
Okay so, pratik, now we are thefinal segment of the podcast.
I call it beneath the accent.
I'm going to ask you a coupleof questions.
You can answer them in one word, or a sentence, or house, or
whatever you feel like.
The idea is just to know moreabout you, so ready.

Pratik (58:28):
Yeah.

Gurasis (58:31):
So I do know that you listen to the podcast, so I have
changed the questions of thissegment a little bit Just to
make it a little bit moredifficult for you.
So the first question, theclassic questions what is one
advice would you give to Pratik,who is in the initial months of
landing in Canada?

Pratik (58:46):
One advice I would say network with people, go out a
lot and just talk to people.

Gurasis (58:52):
Yeah.
Next is if your life was amovie, what would be its title?
That's a very difficultquestion.

Pratik (58:59):
Let me think about it Sure.

Gurasis (59:02):
I feel like it can be something around the world
sports because that has been amajor part of your life, right.

Pratik (59:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's.
That's what I was thinking, andI think when, when you think
about sports, right, somethingthat I've, you know I've.
I'm someone who takeschallenges positively and sort
of overcomes those challenges,so I wanted it to be somewhere
around challenge or likecompetition.
But I'm short of words rightnow, especially thinking,

(59:29):
thinking it's going to be amovie about me.

Gurasis (59:33):
Okay.
So if you could have onesuperpower, what would it be?

Pratik (59:37):
To read people's minds.
Spider-man has a lot of goodpowers, batman has a lot of good
powers, but I think one of thebiggest words you, a person, can
have is basically able to readthe people's mind and knowing
what the person is thinking andunderstanding.
I think that would be, thatwould be a great superpower,
okay.

Gurasis (59:56):
So now imagine that you are hosting a dinner party and
you can invite three historicalfigures or just any famous
celebrities.
Who would those three be?

Pratik (01:00:06):
Yeah, great question.
I think I actually recentlyjust answered this similar
question to one person.
I recently watched openheimer,so I think my first choice is
going to be Robert J Oppenheimer.
Interesting character,fantastic movie by Christopher
Nolan.
So that's going to be my firstchoice.

(01:00:28):
I want to definitely talk tohim about what his thoughts were
at that point of time, becauseI think the movie touched a lot
on what happened, but notactually what happened in
Robert's mind at that point oftime.
So that is somethinginteresting for me.
The other person.
The next person would probablybe a sports personality, so

(01:00:50):
maybe we're at Coley right now.
I've met with that once, but Idid not have a very good
opportunity to talk to him andask him a lot of questions.
But I definitely want to meethim, spend time with him, talk
to him about his focus and hisfitness mantra, because I think
he's doing fantastic right now.
And the third person wouldprobably be a DJ Maybe Martin

(01:01:17):
Garrix, david Gettar because atthe end of the day.
If it's a party, you want tohave fun, right?
You don't want to be in a roomwith Virat, Coley and
Oppenheimer and not have fun, sodefinitely would invite a DJ or
a great singer Great greatanswer.

Gurasis (01:01:35):
Okay, if you could instantly become an expert in
any field unrelated to yourcurrent expertise, what would it
be?

Pratik (01:01:44):
Great question.
So marketing is my currentexpertise, I would say, but I
don't really work in marketingright now, so I would go for
marketing actually, or maybeeven, to make it very precise,
consumer behavior.
That is definitely a subjectthat is that's sort of

(01:02:04):
interesting for me how consumersact, how consumers behave, what
is the psychology of consumerswhen they do anything right,
whether it is, you know,listening to this podcast or
buying a car.
That is definitely somethingthat I would love to be an
expert at.

Gurasis (01:02:21):
Well, that would not be less than a superpower.
I would say yeah 100%.
What's the most interesting orunusual thing on your bucket
list that you might have notshared with anybody?

Pratik (01:02:34):
I'm usually a very expressive person, right, so I
share, like most of the thingsthat I feel I like and I want to
do.
Most of my family, my friends,friends circle basically knows
about it, right, at least theclose ones.
I want to.
One thing that probably a lotof the listeners might not know,
or you might know not know, isI want to pursue MBA.

(01:02:59):
I haven't done my MBA yet.
I think probably now is not theright time, but it is
definitely something that Iwanna do very soon, probably in
marketing or, you know, as Isaid before, consumer behavior.
Yeah, that is definitelysomething.
The other thing that a lot ofpeople might not know about me

(01:03:22):
is I actually had six fingerswhen I was born, really, yeah,
so I had one more finger here.
So, my Twinkie or Twinny,whatever you call it.
I had an extra one when I wasborn.
My relatives used to say I'm areincarnation of my uncle who

(01:03:44):
had just passed away, and healso had six fingers.

Gurasis (01:03:50):
Okay, very interesting.
If you were given a chance totime travel, where and when
would you go and what would youdo?

Pratik (01:03:59):
I would probably go around the independence time,
maybe around 1947, somewherearound that time.
Okay, basically, help mygrandfather in his battle to get
freedom, not against freedom,but a battle to get independence
and freedom for India.

Gurasis (01:04:14):
Any recommendations for good Gujarati food in Toronto?
That's a great question.

Pratik (01:04:20):
My mom, my wife, my family makes fantastic Gujarati
food.
Whenever we go out, we don'treally go out for Gujarati food
as such, we go more for Indianfood or other cuisines.

Gurasis (01:04:33):
Other cuisines okay.

Pratik (01:04:36):
One place that we love having Indian food from is
Banjara.
It's an amazing place.
We order from there a lot.
The other couple of places thatwe love going to, especially
when it comes to Indian, is wego to Brares a lot as well.
Okay, definitely my top twopicks, but usually when we go

(01:04:57):
there it's more North Indianrather than Gujarati food.
Okay.

Gurasis (01:05:02):
And is there any hobby or a skill that you have always
wanted to learn but haven't hadthe chance to yet?

Pratik (01:05:07):
Yes, definitely, I'm glad you asked that.
So I've been trying to learnhow to swim.
Okay, I, as I said before,right, gujarati is a dry state,
right, not just for alcohol, butalso for water.
So growing up, I never had anopportunity to get access to a
swimming pool.
Okay, I'd never learned thelife skill of swimming.

(01:05:30):
After coming here to Canada, Irealized everything is lakes,
lakes, lakes, right.
So if you want to stay here andif you want to basically be
able to do everything thatpeople do in summers, then you
want to know how to swim so yeah, I'm learning it right now
actually I'm taking classes forswimming.
But yeah, hopefully I learn itsoon.

Gurasis (01:05:51):
So describe Canada in one word or a sentence.

Pratik (01:05:55):
I would say it's a breeding ground for people who
love challenges.

Gurasis (01:05:59):
Interesting! So, finally, if you could leave me
with one piece of advice, whatwould it be?

Pratik (01:06:05):
My one piece of advice for you would be to basically
keep on continue doing what youare doing with this My Thick
Accent podcast.
I think you are doing a greatjob of not only talking to
people and learning about theirexperiences, but also giving
away for a lot of people who arethinking about Canada as their
next destination, a lot ofknowledge that they might get

(01:06:25):
from this podcast.
Right, this is a beautifulinitiative, an initiative which
will probably touch on livesthat you and I can't even
imagine about.
So continue doing this and,yeah, I wish you good luck and
I'm glad that you are doing thisfor all of us.

Gurasis (01:06:42):
Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words,Pratik, and thank you for being
on the podcast, sharing yourjourney and adding value to my
listeners.
Thank you 100%.

Pratik (01:06:50):
I'm glad I did this and I really appreciate your time as
well.
Thank you so much.

Gurasis (01:06:56):
Hey listener, thank you for making it to the end.
I highly, highly appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
Subscribe to the podcast if youhaven't as yet, and please
share with your friends oranybody you think would like it.
And, like I always say, weencourage you to follow our
heart but also ask.
On Instagram, the handle is@MyThickAccent .

(01:07:16):
You can also leave us a reviewor write to us at
Hello@mythickaccent.
com.
So stay tuned and let'scontinue knowing each other
beneath the accent.

All Episodes

Unfamiliar Lands and Unexpected Encounters: Tracing Pratik's Immigrant Journey | Ep. 045

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unfamiliar Lands and Unexpected Encounters: Tracing Pratik's Immigrant Journey | Ep. 045