FEATURE
The Global BC Team is eager to start their day! Sonia sits proudly with Weather Reporter Yvonne Schalle, Traffic Reporter Kaitlyn Herbst and her charming Co-Host Steve Darling calling me. The odd conversation on the phone here and there became longer and longer as did our phone bills. We decided we had to meet in person, so Harry flew to the UK and we both knew this was it. Within 6 months, on my second trip to Vancouver, Harry went down on one knee on a blustery, cold dark evening at English Bay, proposed and I said yes. My parents and sisters were both stunned and happy for us. I told my bosses at the BBC I’d be leaving to start a new life in Canada. They were speechless! I then had to share the news with the audience. The reaction made me feel very emotional. I was inundated with emails and calls from people saying they were happy but so sad that I was leaving them. That’s how I felt deep down, happy at finding my soulmate yet sad at leaving my family, friends and audience who were the centre of my universe. In less than a year, my life changed beyond anything I could have imagined. I had been introduced to Harry, fallen in love, got married, le the UK to live in Vancouver and then to top it off fell pregnant the next month. It was eventful to say the least! Being a working South Asian woman, how do you handle the 10
APR / MAY 2016 News With A DESI View
Armed with ideas, our Morning News Team gather at the station for a production meeting and we talk about what people need to know this morning, where we will send our reporters and how best to tell these stories. Then it’s off to make up, and we’re ready to wake you up from 5am till 9 am. stereotype to “just be a mother� or “just be a wife?� I feel extremely blessed to have parents who always encouraged me and my sisters to get an education and always drilled into us the importance of going out and making something of ourselves. We were never put into a stereotypical box or told as women our only role was to stay at home. It was the complete opposite. We were taught to be independent and strong. We are 3 girls, no brothers, so my dad especially made a point of making us feel we could go out there and achieve anything. To him having a hard work ethic, ge ing a good education and becoming something was
far more important than the cultural pressure to marry us off. One of the things I love about my husband too is he shares that progressive thinking. It’s important as we have a daughter too. I feel very strongly that all parents should encourage their girls to go and get an education and be something. It’s important to be able to stand on your own two feet and be an equal. If you want to stay home, it’s ok if it’s your choice but it should never be forced. I chose to stay at home when I had my daughter for the first couple of years and it was a truly valuable experience. But what I don’t think is ok is when girls in our community are not given the choice of further education and told they should be ge ing www.desitoday.ca