Om Prakash Sharma

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but by in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

The Story of My Life
Om Sharma, June 2, 2008

I was born in Sillanwali, Sargodha in West Punjab, India. My birthplace became part of Pakistan, so at the age of 10, I had to move with my family to the newly partitioned India. This partition made millions of people homeless, jobless, and turned them into refugees.

It was an uphill task to start life all over again and it forced us to be determined to re-build ourselves: struggling with life, studying at school, and doing the paper route in the evening. After completing my training to be a teacher I experienced switching roles: teaching in the morning, taking classes for post-graduate studies in the evening, and tutoring the needy students in my spare time.

Film producers and directors were coming to Delhi frequently for their movie releases or for shooting. This captured my interest, and I managed to meet Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Manoj Kumar [famous Indian actors] in Delhi. It gave me some hopes and some inspiration that that might be the line for me because I love performing art, that is, acting and singing.

I took a leave of absence from school, packed my bags, and headed to the film capital of India, Bombay (Mumbai), now known as Bollywood, to try my luck. As in any big city, it was a very hectic lifestyle. I met many resourceful people, and did a couple of acting roles, but to my surprise things are not always what you think they are. It is a very long process and time-consuming work to make it in show biz. There were promises and more promises, but in fact it was very uncertain to find people true to their word.

Finding it was not my cup of tea, I came back to my job as a teacher, still yearning for adventure. As William Feather said, "One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."

I read a lot about Canada and got very interested in migrating. Luckily, in 1966, I stumbled upon the news that Canada was desperately seeking trained teachers. I mailed my credentials to each province to acquire a teaching license and, within a few months, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario each mailed me a license and the list of school boards to which I could apply.

I had some friends working in Nova Scotia and they seemed to enjoy all aspects of the Canadian life, so I decided to apply to the Canadian High Commission for immigration. I did very well in the interview and the case was approved. It as exactly the adventure I was looking for! I made all the necessary preparations: passport, medical exam, purchasing travel ticket, visa completed.

I landed at the Halifax Airport, via Montreal, on August 2, 1967. It was my first time on an airplane and it was beyond anything I could have imagined. I was filled with such anticipation for what lay ahead of me in the coming months.

Travelling by bus to Pier 21 was an exhilarating experience. It was refreshing to see the vast green fields, scenic views, and not much population around. This was something I didn't often see while living in the densely populated city of greater Delhi.

After staying at Pier 21 for two weeks, the immigration officer arranged my interview for a teaching job and I was on my way to teach at Duncan Macmillan High School in Sheet Harbour. We were six teachers staying at Lind Haven Hotel for $21 per week. It took time to adjust to a new place. The local people who were not exposed to new cultures, the harsh weather, Canadian teenagers, and a lack of the ethnic food I was used to, all made me feel lonesome.

But, as they say, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." I started mingling with the local people and took summer school courses and tried to learn conversational skills.

The next year I changed location and got a job at the Chester Municipal High School in Chester, Nova Scotia. Now things started looking better. As Francis Bacon said, "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

I joined the Masonic Lodge and made some friends. Over time I got to meet a lot of people. Mrs. Eleanor Bankhouse, one of my colleagues, introduced me to her mother, Mrs. Grant, who was looking for a boarder. Living with her made me feel at home. It turned out to be a blessing. It improved my conversational skills and helped answer my daily questions and problems.

In 1970 I met Saroj Sharma in Dartmouth and she captured me at first sight. It took me three years to get the courage to ask for her hand in marriage; and it was worth the wait. She was a trained technologist in nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, and X-ray, not to mention, a very brilliant and well-liked person. She was working in the Victoria General Hospital.

We moved from Chester to Halifax. We are blessed with three daughters, Anjoo, Anita, and Divya Kiran, who are making their contributions to the community and country. We worked hard to provide them with the best of our Indo-Canadian heritage and taught them to live by our motto, "Good, better, best, never let it rest, till your good is better, and better is best."

My wife and I are both retired now, but still very active as volunteers in Indo-Canadian Associations, hospitals, Hindu Temple, multicultural functions, and musical performance. We love helping charitable causes, live concerts, travel, and drama. We conduct motivational speeches for Passage to Canada projects on racism, immigration, and human rights.

It gives us great pleasure to illuminate students and new Canadians. We totally believe in what Robert Kennedy said, "You are happiest when you are making the contribution." I am glad we chose Canada as our country. We are very proud of it. It is a very peace-loving and caring country. If there is a paradise on earth; here it is, here it is, here it is!!!