To viewers of "Chai Time" on Omni TV who might have followed the link on the show to reach my blog, I thought I'd (a.) link to the article the host Tarannum referred to and (b.) say a little bit more about my background.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was awarded a scholarship (the Ranjit Azad Singh Memorial Scholarship) and a fellowship (the Basant and Harnam Kaur Singh Fellowship) in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

These scholarships, which were endowed by members of the Indo-Canadian (Punjabi) community, made it possible for me to explore issues of identity and culture in the writing of personal narrative (creative non-fiction). After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, I turned to corporate freelance writing (along with technology journalism) to make ends meet, primarily in the United States and Europe, which over time led to writing about environmental, technological and social trends for major companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA. And, in the midst of it all, I made the acquaintance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who taught me about making a closer spiritual connection with the land as a way to work out my own crises of cultural identity (I'd experienced quite a bit of racism growing up) and reconnect with my Punjabi and Sindhi roots.

So, since I didn't have a chance to do so yesterday, my thanks once again to the donors of scholarship funds to the UBC Creative Writing program. I benefited greatly from working with some of Canada's top authors; and the ability to write well is coming in especially handy as I synthesize trends (and my personal experiences) to understand the large questions of our time, questions revolving around the economy and the environment – and our individual abilities to develop the inner strength we'll need to face the tumult of the coming years and decades.

Finally, thanks to Chai Time for the opportunity to be on their excellent program!