The Second Generation

Romana Kassam on art, music and storytelling in the time of COVID-19

While Romana made art her whole entire life, she didn’t make art her career until relatively recently. Romana shares that in her experience, arts and creativity weren’t always encouraged in South Asian households. Even as kids, art was something you did after you finished your math homework. So, she never thought of art as anything outside of a hobby for the longest time, until recently. Romana’s journey to a career as a storyteller and artist was not a linear one. After completing an English degree in university, Romana first worked in the corporate world for almost a decade. Before doing art full time, Romana initially started a side gig called “My Mehndi Story” where she would do mehndi/henna in a way that would tell story of a couple’s love, for example, through adding song lyrics or city skylines into bridal mehndi. It took a while until she felt ready to delve into an arts career full-time. Now, Romana identifies as a storyteller and does work throughout various mediums. What story is Romana trying to tell? She wants to “speak the truth about her people and her culture”. In this episode, we talk about Romana’s journey into the arts, and how COVID-19 has impacted her and other artist’s work. Make sure to check out Romana’s BEAUTIFUL new single, Holding Space [https://open.spotify.com/track/6dLoUKXyzZ8ofhclwm83ps?si=TKjB9XqESCeeVkieePy9UA]. You can also follow Romana on Instagram @romanakassam [http://instagram.com/romanakassam].

Paul Nazareth on family expectations, the gift of failure, and mentorship

In this episode, Paul and I talk about the day-to-day realities of COVID lockdown, and how quarantine has been impacting all of us. We talk a bit about Paul’s work in philanthropy, and how Paul got to where he is now in his career. Paul is currently the Vice President of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, and sits on several charity boards and advisory groups. Paul grew up in an immigrant household and like many, felt the pressure to have a high paying career. In this episode, Paul shares how the best thing that happened to his life and career was receiving the “gift of failure” in his early 20s, after which he discovered his values, and purpose, and ultimately built an incredibly successful a career as one of Canada’s top fundraisers. As someone who mentors daily (seriously!), Paul also shares insightful career advice for young people navigating their careers. We discuss the importance of purpose over passion, connecting over networking, the career secret of curiosity, and practical tips on seeking mentorship, including the “DNA of a coffee chat”.

The Lost Heer: Documenting the lost women of colonial Punjab

Wow the world has changed a LOT since my last episode which was a few months ago. Its changed even in the past few days. Moving forward, I’m going to pivot to focus on stories that we don’t see on the news. There are so many stories to capture during this historic time, and I hope this podcast will be a place to document them. I’ll feature stories of what quarantine looks like for different families and households. I’ll also be looking to talk about how communities are coming together to address the crisis we are in, and of course hoping to do so from an angle that is not usually represented in media, which TBH is pretty dreadful these days Today’s episode, I admit is not focused on COVID response, but is someone who is doing incredibly fascinating work. His name is Harleen Singh and he runs an Instagram page that documents life in pre-partition India, with a focus on women. I discovered it a year ago and was blown away. As someone who was born and brought up in Canada, I learned very little about Indian history, colonialism, and partition until literally a few years ago. Most of the knowledge I have of South Asian history has been from my parents or a few books or articles I’ve read that talk about this topic. When I saw his page, I was blown away. In our discussion, Harleen and I talk about how he has archived the history and lives of people in the pre-partition era. We also talk about the fact that his research focuses on Punjabi women, and how their lives were not documented since history is often written by men. The photo on the episode cover is a colourized photograph of a woman peeking from the window in her house in Lahore. Taken in the 1870s by JL Kipling, it is one of the earliest domestic photographs of a woman in Punjab. Check out Harleen's page on Instagram @thesingingsingh [https://instagram.com/thesingingsingh]

1987 in Edmonton, Alberta – Where My Mother’s Canadian Immigration Story Began

In the late 1980s, my mom arrived to Canada as a single, Pakistani female international student to do her PhD at the University of Alberta. During this time, a white Albertan mother (Corrine) and daughter (Kathy) housed my mother for two years, without paying a penny or expecting anything in return. This year, I went back to Edmonton for work, and decided to stay with Corrine, who is now in her mid-late 80s. Corrine still lives in the house my mom lived in as a student, and almost everything is exactly the same still – from the stove, to the fridge, to pieces of décor that my mother gifted her 30 years ago. In this episode, I ask my mom questions about her immigration journey.  I also had a chance to record a conversation with Corrine, and ask her why she welcomed international students to her home for free. Corrine explains that given international students went through so much, hosting them in her home was “just the right thing to do”.

The Muslim Tinder...MINDER! (Plus Other Online Dating Tales)

Online dating has become THE way to meet people, and along with that trend, many new apps have been developed to target niche demographics. I learned last year that there is basically a Muslim version of Tinder….and it’s called Minder. I was hanging out with a friend a little while ago and she was telling me about the dates she’s gone on through Minder and other apps like MuzMatch. I was in hysterics from laughing, and we decided to do a podcast episode sharing all of her hilarious dating stories. From the guy who wore the same outfit 5 dates in a row, to awkwardly running into a “Minder match” at a wedding...this episode covers it all. Enjoy!