Namaste,
Thank you for being here today.
In memory of my father Deepak Sharma, who recently passed, July 30, 2023.
Deepak Sharma was born on August 5th,1945 in Lahore, Pakistan to Nirmala Devi Sharma and Raj Kumar Sharma (Markanday). He is survived by his wife Sheela Sharma, his loving daughters Priya and Roshni and their husbands Florian and John, respectively; his grandson Tej Alexander; and his loving brother and sister, Kiran Sharma and Neera Sharma and their families.
Deepak studied at Modern School and at St.Stephen’s College in Delhi, India. In 1965, Dad moved from Delhi to Kenya. In 1974, he arrived in Canada from Kenya with Sheela, and Roshni. They settled in North York before moving to Scarborough where the family has settled since. Deepak worked hard towards establishing a career in Accounting, became a designated CMA and found his calling here. He worked at Midas, Signode and finally continued and successfully completed his career as a Chief Financial Officer-Vice President at Omron Canada.
Simplicity
Despite many hardships as an immigrant in Canada, Dad rejoiced in ghazals and found solace in cooking delicious food for his family and friends. In the early days, he also loved swimming, and was an ALL India Champion and played squash with his friend Charan Sharma. He always counseled us to “Keep It Simple”. Dad was also described by his family as bhola: simple and innocent which is a wonderful testament to his outlook on life. I think it helped him to survive the toughest times.
He loved eating my sandwiches, and eating cut up fruit. I remember him saying to me in the last month, “I love when you make me your sandwiches”. They were really nothing too special except they were simple and made with love. It was funny, he never ate a full apple or any other fruit, except when it was cut up.
Joy
Dad found joy in simple things: a nice walk, a good drink, and watching the stocks on BNN, a simple sandwich. In the early days, I remember him coming home on his lunch break, in a full suit, having a simple lunch of buttered toast sometimes with Marmite, cheddar cheese and juice. He would watch the Flintstones, a cartoon about a prehistoric family. He would nap for 15 minutes. Simple. I found comfort in watching him do this. He always had a small “kanga”, a comb, to comb his beautiful head of hair and he always kept it in his “knicker”, his shorts.
Sweetness
Dad found sweetness in everything and everyone: Sabko Salaam Karta Chalun! He was the life of any party, his love of music especially ghazals was entertainment for all. He loved cooking really special Indian dishes, often looking for a makhani or mughlai type of cuisine, knowing full well it was not the best of healthy eating. He loved rabbri, ras malai, anything malai really. He always had a fondness for green chili with EVERYTHING and we loved how his nose and forehead would sweat eating really spicy food.
When you are witness to his life, it demonstrates one thing: Love seeking to know itself. Constantly. Love seeking to identify with its surroundings and with people. It was his Love seeking to gain strength in Simplicity, Joy and Sweetness.
Namaste/Thank you.
