I have been a part of Shan-e-Punjab for the past 13years. I began to dance because it was fun and something to do with some other girls my age. I continued to dance and began to fall in love with it. I started to meet people I shared the same passion with. It became something I would look forward to attending. Although we started out practicing in Sonia's garage for small events, it was something that was more fun than anything I had ever been apart of. It was a struggle to be able to express your passion and be able to present it when there were so many obstacles standing in your way. As a group we came together and were determined to succeed and reach our goals and objectives, which after approximately 15 years we have achieved, but we will still always have more. One thing that really sticks out in my mind is winning the Greater Victoria Music Festival Awards in 1996-1998! I feel it was the beginning of something great. I don't think any of us really new what was to come but we went out there and won them over!

A few years after being in dance Sonia and I were talking about dance and what it meant to us and how much we enjoyed it. We began to brainstorm on ideas to open ourselves to the public. We created an idea to put on a summer camp for the kids at St. Margaret’s School, the first which was held in the summer of 1997. It was a way for us to learn about our culture and then share this interest with the rest of the community. I myself believe that Shan-e-Punjab was a huge part of my life while growing up. It was a positive avenue for me and I believe it really kept me focused. I was able to focus on being creative, learning about my culture, meeting people and being apart of something positive. I in return wanted to offer that to other youth.

Once the summer camps came and went we really began to focus on how much we all really had a passion for this. Some of the thoughts we all shared was the feeling of accomplishment, success in meeting our goals, our perseverance, our passion, our ability to be unique, efforts to be creative and being a team, but mostly having fun learning about our rich culture and traditions in a safe, fun and educational manner! This was mostly demonstrated in the success of our performances and creativity for new ideas such as the summer camps. For me it was like a thrust! I loved it and wanted more. We soon with Sonia's efforts became a school! This was the most exciting thing, to see something that you began doing become a huge accomplishment not only for me but my colleagues, students and for everyone involved. It was absolutely amazing!
Soon after that Sonia approached me with the idea of teaching. I was so excited. We decided to have age groups and I must say I was the first teacher for age’s four to six! I had never really done anything like this before but all I knew was that I was meant to do this. I began to teach and it was an incredible feeling that for me sometimes is difficult to share in words (haha you laugh). Shan-e-Punjab became so very popular that we have taught well over 300 students since then. Students we recruited came from various dance backgrounds, some with many years of experience and some with none, all in all as a team we worked tirelessly as we all shared the goal for dance. I am proud to say that two students I taught, at ages five and four respectively are still with the school, nine years later. I have passed the baton to Janessa Sundher, who has now taught this age group for two and a half years consistently, and one of her students is the youngest sister of the two girls I just mentioned.

Due to some personal circumstances regarding Sonia, Shan-e-Punjab had to take a break for about two years. After that time period, all it needed was Sonia again, and it feels like we are where we left off but even better, because we’ve had a few years to realize the legacy we have created through lots of learning. It is actually really amazing to see how after many years the talent we have built, learning from mistakes to only do better the next time. I know this school is something special, a family away from family. I am so thankful that I am a part of Shan-e-Punjab!