The Early Bird deadline for DisCon 2022 has been extended to December 31, 2021. Please encourage club members to register before that date.
If you did not register for the Friday night dinner, there is still time. You need to scroll to the bottom of the packages page to find the add-on. Dinner will be at the conference venue.
I am originally from Mumbai, India. I spent my formative years there. While studying for my Master’s in Biochemistry at University of Bombay, in India, I accompanied my friend to see an astrologer (to appease her nagging). Based on palmistry, reading the lines on my palms, the astrologer predicted two things:
1. I would live abroad
2. There would be a break in my studies, following which I would be a lifelong learner.
At that time, I scoffed because I had no intention of leaving India or quitting my Master’s. Little did I know the degree to which these predictions would come true…
A year later I was looking back over my shoulder at my Master’s, not having completed the program, to travel the world as a stewardess, before I settled down into married life as a housewife in Mumbai. As fate would have it, I got married and came to Canada. Did I say I would never ever leave India? Well, I had to eat my words – the astrologer’s first prediction came true.
Within a couple of months of arriving in Canada in 1983, I was bored to tears from not having any family or the number of friends I had back in India. After some soul searching, I concluded that for the sake of my sanity and marriage I would have to work to meet people. More importantly, to have the same lifestyle that I was accustomed to in India, I needed to get a well-paying job.
This entailed getting Canadian qualifications. A Bachelor of Science from India was (apparently) equivalent to only grade 12 in Canada. On the advice of one of my newly acquired friends, I registered for the Certified Management Accounting program.
I continued studying part-time while working full-time, and along with my studies came the other titles—mother, chief accountant, supervisor, manager and director of finance. The days were about 16-18 hours long, with the working, studying, running a household (I wasn’t used to it as we had help growing up), and having a little baby. This was only possible because of the support from my husband and the little baby who left me alone when I was studying, as long as he got to play with my calculator.
Coffee With a Rotarian
The list for December is now out and can be found
here. For those who are not used to this, here is the introduction:
The concept of “Coffee with a Rotarian” was developed elsewhere as a means for increasing socialization, fellowship, or connectivity, or any one of several terms – in reality, it is one way that we as a club can get to know others. The list will rotate by one each month.
