In the month of March, my involvement with Asia Today gave me the opportunity to interview individuals making a difference in unchartered territory who truly brought to my attention how our community is stepping forward in all walks of life. We are a society that has always had a large part to play in industries such as healthcare, law, and engineering. However, we do not have the opportunity to have a lot to choose from in role models in sports or politics of South Asian descent especially here in Arizona. Even growing up in California, while I did see South Asians in politics, fellow community members in the field of sports and wrestling were rare. After moving to Arizona, I also saw a drop in South Asians in politics.
This month, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Arjan Singh Bhullar, the first Indo-Canadian UFC fighter, who will proudly be the 1st to enter the UFC cage wearing a turban to raise awareness about the Sikh religion and community. His fight which is coincidentally being held on Vaisakhi Day (April 14th at 12:30 PM) will take place right here in Glendale, Arizona. I also had the opportunity to sit down with Mayor Stanton who proudly shared his pleasure at watching our community step forward in politics speaking to the CD8 race where Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, a South Asian candidate is running for a congressional seat in District 8 in Arizona. In addition to his positive thoughts and wishes for Dr. Tipirneni, he also asked more from our community to step forward and make a difference in the communities we live in.
I think it is extremely important for our youth to have options in all walks of life and sometimes lack of role models in certain areas can influence their decisions to not follow their dreams. This is why efforts by women like Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, who is leaving the traditional occupation we South Asians hold as medical practitioners to make a run for Congress and wrestlers like Arjan Singh Bhullar will pave the way for the upcoming generation in unchartered territory. Traditionally encouraged to be doctors, engineers, or lawyers, sports figures or politicians are not aspirations our children have growing up and seeing a lack of people of our color in those positions can further intimidate a child that may have those aspirations.
Running for politics or chasing non-traditional careers may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I encourage all our readers to support those that are paving the way to open up these career options and serve as role models for our community and its’ upcoming generations. If eligible, go vote for the CD8 special election coming up on April 24th and go watch the UFC fight in Glendale, AZ on April 14th to support our very own Arjan Singh Bhullar.
We are looking forward to the exciting activities the month of April has in store for us and look forward to reporting on these upcoming events and much more in the May edition. In addition to the paper subscription available to our readers, we also launched an ePaper last month that is mobile and touch-screen friendly that can be emailed to you upon request. Feel free to subscribe at https://www.asiatodayaz.com/subscribeepaper.php. Thank you for your continued support!
