Monsoon has been BAD

Monsoon has been BAD

Thursday Feb 23: Toronto – It finally happened, what we all feared, Monsoon Communications finally went BAD.

The North York Civic Centre was buzzing with anticipation to hear what Daisy Wright, renowned career coach & the author of the bestseller: 'No Canadian Experience, Eh?‘ had to say in her bold presentation topic, BAD.

Gautam Nath, Partner, Monsoon Communications, was there to listen and take away what Daisy so neatly packaged as BAD – Be Bold, Be Audacious and Be Dynamic.

Applying her philosophy to the business, it was apparent to him how Monsoon had been BAD.

BOLD - in setting up shop in Toronto to address strategic & communications needs for organizations interested in the Multicultural Markets. With fluctuating budgets, changing scenarios and diverse consumer needs, it was indeed a BOLD step to set up shop. We go where no man has gone before.

AUDACIOUS - in getting out there and taking steps to be involved at the forefront. It was Monsoons fearlessness and drive to venture out and be noticed that helped the company rise from being a new kid on the block to someone to be reckoned with. Monsoon today, stands tall among 15 or 20 year old veterans in this market and is equal to the best. We bring mainstream advertising standards to ethnic markets.

DYNAMIC – With the dynamic nature of the customer and Canada’s immigration numbers, we are nimble and we are quick. We stay at the edge of technology bringing both traditional and new age media to our clients. We understand smart technology and its advantages and challenges.  

We are BAD and we believe in going forward with one mission – when you think multicultural marketing, you think of Monsoon Communications.

Daisy helped set the room on fire. Everyone was challenged into thinking how BAD they could be. Eager to go back into the world and be BAD, eager to show Canada how we newcomers were not just BAD and far more BAD than we were ever before.

The discussions got quite interactive with CAMP (Communications, Advertising and Marketing professionals) members asking Ms. Wright clear and direct questions straining to gain insights from her every word. They hung on to her experiences and her powerful stories  as a newcomer to Canada. It is always good to hear from someone who has been there and done that.

Rogers Television crew were on site, capturing every moment to sharing with a broader audience at a near future date.

Everyone was upbeat, with batteries recharged and eagerly waiting to get out there and to be BAD.

One anecdote that I found quite cute from a marketing perspective was a story Daisy mentioned she had heard about, a prospective employee purchased and sent a prospective employer a shoe. Yes a shoe! Neatly wrapped and sent along with a note and a resume. The note said, “They told me to get a foot in the door. Now that I have my foot in the door, I request if you could read my resume because I think I am a great fit for your organization and can contribute to your present and future success". The employer was so taken aback by this approach, that she made it a point to go through the resume and to meet the person face to face.

Thank you Daisy for an insightful evening, thank you CAMP for bringing it all together and when you think of multicultural marketing – Think of Monsoon Communications.

Internationally Educated Professionals (IEP) 2012 Convention Toronto

IEP 2012 came and went, organized by PCPI Canada, this annual event saw 1700 registrations yesterday.

Silma Roddau and her team brilliantly organized yet another smooth operation that left every delegate breathless.

The day started early at 0830 hours with Christopher Alexander, the Chair of PCPI, opening the convention followed by an address by the key sponsors.

Then came the keynote speaker Lionel Laroche, who entralled the audience with his effective and humorous presentation. Lots of food for thought and sparkles were left behind for the audience. CBC Television captured the moment and broadcast a short clip the same evening.

AnneMarie and Dwight Drummond, entrees from CBC eminence, mCeed the day with their charm and eloquence. CBC rocks!

Then three IEP's were invited to share their journey and yours truly was one of them.

Samuel, Gautam and Vinod, 3 IEP's had our moment in the sun and shared our golden nuggets with the large audience. They hung on to every word as we represented their vision and their journey ahead.

Break time followed and the group then broke into the breakaway sessions. Eminent speaker panels led each session and the delegates divided themselves among the rooms to imbibe knowledge on their subject areas.

The marketplace was buzzing with over 50 booths representing agencies and colleges all aiming at enriching the newcomer experience in Canada.

The lunch boxes were a welcoming break after such intense sessions that they were devoured in an instance. Then, with satiated stomaches, the delegates ventured forth to attend the afternoon keynote address.

Donna Messer is no novice, she immediately had everyone up in their seats, buzzing with excitement and eagerly hanging on her every word. Truly an eventful day, no one wanted it to end and yet, there was another surprise, an afternoon breakaway session for skills building that delegates had difficulty deciding which one they wanted to attend.

Rhonda capped it all with her culture cover and some happy souls left with prizes for Their day of discovery.

The IEP convention gives every attendee some fresh food for thought, a few new contacts and hope in their hearts. Don't think they met their soul mates even if Valentines Day is around the corner but surely showed them the light at the end of the tunnel.

We welcome the first white weekend of the season, temperatures are ever so cold, love lies in the heart and good food in the stomach. We are proud to be snug at home and look forward to our new and beautiful life in Canada.

Thank you IEP for keeping us warm.

Monsoon goes Camping

Not the one you are thinking of up at Lake Simcoe but CAMP in this case is Toronto’s leading network of Internationally Trained Professionals with a Communications, Marketing or Advertising background.

This networking group of like minded professionals meet every month to share common interests and look at ways to give back and to prosper in their new life in Canada.

Gautam Nath, Partner, Research & Agency Branding at Monsoon Communications was invited to speak at the 2012 inaugural event held on Jan26th at the North York Civic Hall.

In his one hour conversation with a tightly packed room of professionals, Gautam shared some insights into Canada’s multicultural profile and then followed by his 30/60/90 Day Plan as a newcomer settling into Canada. His journey as a newcomer over the last two and a half years that resulted in being awarded the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award 2011 motivated the audience and energized them in their quest to success. There were many simple tips and learning's shared as he unfolded the story of his Canadian adventure.

Rogers Television crew was on location to film the event for a documentary they intend to release shortly on newcomers to Canada.

This is one of the many ways that Monsoon gives back to the fraternity, keep watching for more.

Monsoon Floods the Rosewater in Toronto

January 12, 2012: The queue reached the bottom of the stairs when there was a sell out event on multicultural marketing held at the Rosewater Supper Club.
The event, held by the American Marketing Association and sponsored by Monsoon Communications was attended by over a hundred participants from Corporate Canada.
Michael Adams, Chairman of the Environics Group, opened with a brilliant overview on the evolution of multiculturalism in Canada and presented a historical panorama of its development over time. This was followed by an active and lively panel discussion on multicultural marketing challenges and successes by 5 key panellists - Bobby Sahni (Rogers), Camon Mak (RBC), Gautam Nath (Monsoon Communications), Kamal Baig (Rubicon Foods) and Robin Brown (Environics Research Group) and moderated by Roxanne Tsui (Sensu Communications).
Interactive in nature, the AMA format then saw 5 breakaway groups, each cover one pertinent topic and revert back to the full audience with their consensus.
The concluding remarks by Craig Lund, President of the AMA Toronto Chapter formally announced that multicultural marketing had now been sanctioned formal recognition as a special interest group within the AMA and we would now be seeing regular subjects being featured under this umbrella. Monsoon was proud to have been associated with this inaugural event and looks forward to bringing you more news on latest developments in multicultural marketing in the future.

Crabs For Thought

Dedicated for my friend Puru who passed away much before his time. He would have blogged this if he was here today. RIP Puru, we all miss you.

15th December, 2002

Crabs For Thought

I have written two pieces over the last three weeks, and I pine for readers' comments. Maybe it is the Christmas season, and Santa has stolen the month's agenda.

More likely, and as I said in my last column, it could be George Bush who done the stealing, leaving everyone else numb. It is time I lightened your gloom, and brought you some Christmas cheer with a recipe that would set great chefs and taste-bud-licking-gourmets dancing with joy.

I have this friend Gautam Nath who is crazy about sea-food. Mention crab to him and he breaks into a jig and a whoop. He is Bengali, and so is my wife. When together, they break into an animated discussion about shoshur-maach, cerab, ilish-maach, and what not. All gibberish to a tandoori-chicken loving Punjabi - me!

This friend, a veritable globe trotting market researcher, set up a Crab Lovers' Club in Delhi last year, and trotted up a membership of an 'Eager Fourteen Acolytes' within a week. So far, so good! Then came the problems. He was the chef catering to his acolytes' gastronomic yearnings, and with the club's meetings always held at his place, and at his cost too, it finally led to the demise of the noble institution. Now it's run as a clandestine underground club with secret passwords and special invitees only.

Here is one of his famed recipes for Chilli Crabs that I stole. The italics are entirely my additions to make the cooking easier for you.

First, the ingredients!

One kilogram of fresh cleaned crab in the shell. Separate claws, and rent body asunder into two parts before crab bites you.
500 grams finely chopped onions. Also a pair of hankies to wipe away tears during chopping process.
500 grams tomatoes whole.
4 table spoons red chilli powder. (Sachets of Eno are an optional accessory, and dosage depends upon the fire in your belly after eating Chilli Crab.)
A table-spoonful of turmeric.
Lemon juice. (If you are going to let the chillies burn your guts, you might as well add a few acid drops to accelerate the job)
A handful of chopped coriander leaves. (Large hands half full, normal hands full-full, baby's hands too dirty - so throw coriander leaves away and rush to shopping mall for more)
Four medium size cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
One small piece (size of your thumb) ginger, finely chopped. (Ensure that you chop the ginger, and not the thumb)
Salt to taste; yours, not your mother in law!
Two cups of washed Basmati rice
One cup of cooking oil.
Two cups of milk.
One wife willing to clean the mess.
One fire extinguisher.

Having collected all this stuff through the morning, the cooking comes next.

1. Invite three friends over for the bash.
2. In the absence of wife, or refusal by her to participate in the sport, pour a round of drinks for your friends.
3. Take a deep pot. (You have to have something to cook in)
4. Put in the oil and let it come to heat, keeping all randy dogs away from the oil.
5. Having shooed away dogs, cats, etc., add bay leaves, ginger, and continuously stir for a minute till light brown.
6. Pour another round of drinks for eager friends to prevent their departure.
7. Stir in the onions, and let them brown until they give out their water.
8. Blanch the tomatoes in a separate pan of boiling water for a few minutes. Remove and throw away peels, and roughly mash up the rest and add to frying onions.
9. Put in turmeric powder and a cup of water and let it cook, stirring it occasionally till it becomes a thick paste.
10. Add the crabs and gently stir as you see the color turning red.
11. Tie down impatient friends with nylon rope before they slink out of the house.
12. Add the red chilli powder (more if you like to sweat - highly recommended in case you want to save the cost of going to the gym, less if you want to live long.)
13. Add the lemon juice and stir the lot for a few minutes.
14. Add water till the crabs are two thirds covered - Stir and leave it on slow fire to cook for 10 minutes. Cover.
15. After 10 minutes, remove the cover and put the heat on high, stirring occasionally till the water level reduces to about one fourth the level of the crabs. Add salt to taste and stir gently, shut the fire.
16. Boil the rice separately (in half water, half milk) and keep ready. Two cups rice, two cups water and two cups milk with a touch of butter and salt would do fine.
17. Take pity on friends, untie them, and pour another round of drinks.
18. Pick up and place the crabs in a see through dish. (Keep bikini clad females and male life guards out of see through dish) Then pour its gravy on top and garnish with the coriander leaves.
19. Discover that you haven't used the garlic, so throw it into the dustbin before someone discovers the mistake, and makes you feel stupid.

The Serving

1. Since the preparation is for four, and with the three hours you took to get the chilli crab together, your friends may have sneaked out of your house for the nearest restaurant. Be prepared for nasty notes, and terminated friendships. Having a few friends handy in the cupboard could be useful under the circumstances.
2. If your wife fell for the gimmick and joined you for the crabs, take phone off hook and prepare for uninterrupted thrashing of a lifetime. Do not argue while thrashing is in progress, lest it leads to divorce.
3. If wife walks out after thrashing you, try inviting Saddam Hussein and George Bush for a peace conference. Ensure you have a pair of toilets with gold fittings for visiting dignitaries to use after downing the chilli crabs.
4. In case Saddam and George don't turn up, sit down, roll up your sleeves, eat crab, and howl like lonely werewolf in the Arctic night.

Purshottam Bhardwaj

Human Library - Toronto Public Library

Speakers' library

Library users could check out a "human book" for a 30-minute conversation with the goal of exposing readers to people they might not otherwise meet.
Staff writer

It’s the next big thing for book lovers; no, it’s not a new e-reader, it’s an innovative, livelier way to read “books” — no printed pages or electronic gadget required. Recently, the Toronto Public Library went “old school” with its inaugural one-day Human Library program that harkens back to traditions of storytelling.

The program offered face-to-face conversations with a mix of interesting people. Library users could check out a “human book” for a 30-minute conversation with the goal of exposing readers to people they might not otherwise meet.

“This is really reflective of our experience, of our diversity and that people bring all kinds of differences to the city,” says city librarian Jane Pyper. “We all have a tendency to know what we know and be with whom we are familiar with, and this is a way of crossing that ... and being with someone who is different.”

Across several library branches, 60 “human books” from all walks of life came to speak on a wide range of life experiences, from living with a disability to immigrating to Canada.

Cairo-born Gautam Nath was a “human book” who talked to people about his experience with identity and immigration. Nath, the son of an Indian-born diplomat and a Czech-born mother, immigrated to Canada in 2008. “Re-imaging my identity was challenging while I also struggled in a recession-struck job market,” says Nath, who is now Partner at Monsoon Communications, a multicultural advertising agency based in Toronto.

Nath, who also runs several self-help online groups for newcomers, spoke to his “readers” about mixed identities and the challenges of finding your place in the world.

“I was fascinated by the profile of the other ‘human books’ as well as the range of readers who checked us ‘books’ out,” says Nath. “As an immigrant to Canada, it was a lovely opportunity to share my story and have others hear of our journey to Canada, our past life and our aspirations for the future.

“As newcomers to Canada, it also allowed immigrants an opportunity to meet and ‘read’ stories of Canadians from all walks of life.”

The pilot event was a success and the Toronto Public Library is now considering building on the collection in 2011.

Article in the Financial Post

Mary Teresa Bitti, Financial Post · Mar. 18, 2011 | Last Updated: Mar. 24, 2011 11:53 AM ET

Gautam Nath is very active in Toronto’s immigrant community. In addition to being director of Cultural Markets Research at Environics Research Group, he is a director on the board at Multilingual Community Interpreter Services (MCIS), has been invited to join the advisory board of York University’s Internationally Educated Professional (IEP) Bridging Program and mentors newcomers through the TRIEC's mentoring partnership.

He brings something to his role as mentor that many of his counterparts do not: Mr. Nath is a newcomer himself. He moved to Canada with his wife in November 2008 and, like many of the people he guides, had to restart his life and career.

“I built a career over 25 years in India with corporate multinationals in a variety of roles including marketing, corporate communications, change management,” says Mr. Nath. “But I had no network when I landed in Canada. When I talk to people, they relate to me because the experience is so fresh and it is one they are living. As a tourist, you know you have a safety net back home. As an immigrant you have moved life. There is no network, no brand image. You walk down the street and you are as strange to yourself as you are to every one else.”

For that reason, Mr. Nath says it’s important for new immigrants to move fast and start meeting people and building connections. This is particularly true for foreign educated professionals, less than a quarter of whom find employment in their field.

“They land here and realize although they have education and experience, they are essentially starting from scratch with respect to getting placed in a career commensurate with their education and training. And that can chip away at confidence. On the flip side, all that knowledge and expertise is going to waste,” says Nora Priestly, project manager, Internationally Educated Professional Bridging Program, York University. “Then there is the challenge of settling their families into a new city, new home — all the aspects of starting a life in a new country.”

While many of the attributes and benefits of mentorship apply to everyone, mentoring is a critical leg up to new Canadians, says Ms. Priestly. The bridging program was designed to offer new immigrants two types of mentorship. “Professional mentorship gives them the opportunity to be connected to, or sitting in, the industry where they want to be,” says Ms. Priestly.

“They get an inside take about common practice in Canada, very pragmatic suggestions about how to get to where they want to be, as well as a quiet reassurance about knowing the cultural terrain. It builds confidence and shows individuals they are not the first to tread this trail and that it is possible for them to succeed here.”

The Bridging program also offers peer-to-peer mentoring, where new participants are paired with other IEPs further along in the program. “They are helping them to feel like they belong. And they can work together so that the relationship is equally valuable. The faster you get settled in and feel connected, the more chances you will be successful,” says Ms. Priestly.

Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles facing new immigrants is lack of Canadian experience. “Employers want Canadian experience. And when you have someone coming in whose first language is not English, whose name is difficult to pronounce, and who has worked in organizations Canadian employers may never have heard of, that’s tough,” says Mr. Nath.

“One of the key messages I give to the people I’m mentoring is that you have to make your own opportunities. Netgiving or volunteering in a way that you can use your wisdom and experience is a way to get the Canadian experience employers want to see and to build a network.”

Mr. Nath’s own volunteer efforts as a marketing adviser led him to a meeting at Environics and his current role. His efforts on behalf of other new immigrants have led him to be shortlisted for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants award for 2011. “Imagine, just two years in the country to be recognized in this way. Thanks to God’s support, my network of friends and a bit of hard work.”