The joy of getting an award for doing something that stemmed from a mere thought of inspiring women through stories and striking photography, is an awesome feeling.
On June 26th, 2009 I received the Canadian Ethnic Media Assoication (CEMA) Internet award for South Asian Life, for our inspiring stories on young South Asian woman. The reward to me stood as an acknowledgment of the work being done at South Asian Life. Our pursuit to showcase women up and coming, heros, and survivors, stemmed from a deep level of commitment to our community and readers.
Growing up in a family of women with my parents being separated gave me a greater understanding on how women deal with hard times than men. The emotional strength that pulls together loved ones and families by our strong women, can only been seen within the four walls of their home. I also witnessed growing up, fear, waiting beneath the emotional layers of everything they loved. And I felt their skin crawl and heart sink as I looked into their eyes, and wondered if they will ever be fearless?
How does a women pull her life back together from such experiences? I think she doesn’t! I believe she becomes someone else. A stranger within her own body. Sometimes it’s hard for a woman to love someone and let go, sometimes she wishes she didn’t love as much, to ease the pain. Sometimes she just doesn’t know what to do or how to feel anymore.
Life has blessed me with this gift and opportunity to showcase such women: extraordinary, passionate, mothers, single mothers, heros, survivors, givers, do’ers, and leaders within our community. We wanted to showcase these women through striking photography and thought provoking content to our readers, and this award tells me, my team (Amanda Reid, Mandy Kahlon, Neha Brar, Nancy Dhillon, and everyone else), that pitched in to make all this happen, that we are doing something special.
Thank you CEMA, the judges, OMNI, and Rogers for putting together such an excellent event and association. I especially want to thank Madeline Ziniak, VP Rogers, for going out of her way to help, thank you Madeline!
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