A lack of South Asian greeting playing cards within the GTA has prompted one Brampton woman to begin her own line of vacation playing cards for individuals from these communities.
Shivani Sharma says the concept stemmed from her battle to find Diwali playing cards for family she couldn’t meet up with in the course of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
“We couldn’t find any Diwali playing cards available in the market,” she mentioned.
That got here as a big shock given the dimensions of the South Asian diaspora within the Toronto space.
South Asian languages have many extra phrases for household relations than English does, going nicely past phrases like aunt, uncle, cousin, grandmother and grandfather. For instance, in contrast to the phrase “uncle,” there are totally different phrases to describe a father’s brother and a mom’s brother.
Not having the ability to give personalised playing cards for everybody within the household was painful for Sharma, she says.
“We’ve grown up with these titles and to really find a way to give somebody a card that has that title written on it has a sense of belonging hooked up to it,” she mentioned.
WATCH | Sharma reveals off a few of her playing cards and shares their story:
When Shivani Sharma tried to find Diwali playing cards for family she couldn’t meet up with in the course of the pandemic, she was upset to uncover none existed. Taking issues into her own fingers, she determined to begin a company and make her own.
Diwali is a five-day pageant of sunshine celebrated by Sikhs, Hindus and Jains world wide. It’s one of the vibrant and important festivals in Indian tradition.
On Diwali, Sikhs additionally have fun Bandi Chhor Divas, recognized additionally because the “day of liberation.” It commemorates the day Guru Hargobind ji was launched from jail, and on the similar time helped safe the discharge of 52 Hindu kings as nicely.
Sharma says her husband, who was with her available in the market whereas she struggled to find acceptable playing cards, urged creating one thing of her own.
After additional encouragement from her household, Sharma launched Mubarak playing cards. Mubarak is an Urdu phrase for “congratulations” and popularly used amongst South Asian communities.
She’s since expanded to making playing cards for different South Asian festivals as nicely.