When working
with groups as a speaker-facilitator, what’s important is making a meaningful and
authentic connection with your audience.
Last week my
audience was an exceptional and talented group of sixty
internationally-educated professionals in Business and Technology at York
University at the beautiful New Students Centre.
As newcomers, our parents’ arrived in Canada 70 years ago. And yes, it’s a new world now but courage is courage. And at times, it must seem as if there just isn’t enough courage to go around. So my final remarks of the evening are a tribute to our parents:
“Like our parents who came to Canada in 1949 from China and Hong Kong, you have come a long way from home. Our parents came with very little and still managed somehow to put a roof over our heads, gave us a safe place to sleep, books to read, clothes that kept us nice and warm, and fed us well, always too well.
What our parents accomplished was truly remarkable. Our parents gave my siblings and me their entire lives. We can’t come even close to giving back to them anything that resembles what they gave us – extreme selflessness. Holding them in high regard and respect are all we have for them.
You, too, have something unique to give to your children. And when you’re frustrated in your job search and you can’t find the right word to say, remember all that you have.
You have:
the
ability to give more.
the
agility to bend more.
the
capability to build more.
the
knowledge to create more
the
experience to understand and see more.
the
best of many worlds to dream more.
more
than you know.
Your Bridging
Program’s motto is “Make More.” You have abundance and I wish you success,
health, and happiness.
Her first flight took her 13,400 kilometres away from her home in Chennai ten months after her wedding day. Selvi Thambimuthu landed at Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Toronto on December 4, 2004.
Three Generations
“I felt really happy to see my new husband and new country but also a little bit sad leaving my family back in Chennai. I was also very curious about snow,” she recalls.
Now thirteen+ years later, Selvi and Siva, her husband, and their three handsome sons Pragadheesh (12), Harshan (10), and Vadhanan (8), are busy getting ready to open their second restaurant franchise next week in Toronto – “Starving Artist”!
Stars Align – A Love Story
A match made by both our parents and confirmed by 4 different astrologists, Selvi and Siva were married within eighteen days of meeting one another in person for the first time in 2004. They came to know one another long distance by phone and her first thought was “he looks just like his photograph”. Strong faith in family and even stronger faith in dreams bridged the distance then and now.
Living the Dream
“Work for your dreams. It will happen whatever you dream. It will come true. You need to believe.” she repeats to her sons. “I want my sons to have their own dreams and I will support them as my parents always supported me. Education is important, first and foremost!”
She remembers how her parents set her up for success, always reading, exploring, and fuelling her curiosity about the world. At age 12, her father gave her a black radio and brought the world inside their home each night at dinnertime.
Her earliest memory of Toronto was “Everyone on the subway was reading!” She used to buy “packages of books” for her sons and read Dr. Seuss’ favourites including “Cat in the Hat” twenty to thirty times a day.
Entrepreneurship & Education in Progress
It’s not clear if “Green Eggs and Ham” set the tone as Selvi and Siva bought their first waffle restaurant franchise in 2016 and opened “Starving Artist” in Midtown Toronto. It was also the year Selvi started (and now graduated!) George Brown College’s Office Administration – Health Services two-year diploma program. And 2016 was the year Selvi’s Mom came from Chennai to help them realize their dreams.
The entrepreneurial spirit thrives in their family. Her father once owned a machine shop in Chennai. And as all entrepreneurs know, you do what it takes to make things work so they live above their restaurant which makes a whole lot of logistical sense.
Soccer Dreams
Listening to Pragadheesh talk about his passion, soccer, with his eyes shining brightly, he is like most young first generation Canadians. They are strivers, strong-willed with extraordinary grit and determination.
When his father suggested they should book their tickets for the World Cup 2026 (Canada, U.S. and Mexico will be hosting), Pragadheesh reassured his father, “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be playing so I’ll have tickets for everyone.”
The Next Big Dream
And what’s next you might wonder from the lady who once pushed a stroller dubbed “The Rocket” by her co-workers to get her son to school on time?
Selvi now dreams about how she will furnish their next house, a much bigger house as their home as she remembers fondly her childhood home in Chennai, 10’ x 50’, where her dreams began. And now 13,400 kms away, I have no doubt this dream will also come true. Small business, big dreams!
