September 14, 2017

A lesson in pursuing your passions.

The first time I met Suresh, we had coffee in the lobby of the government-leased building where we both worked, in the basement and the fifth floor respectively.

I don’t quite remember how we had been introduced, how the connection was made, but I remember asking him about his camera gear that he had with him, and him telling me stories about his side gig in wedding photography, and his passion for food, food photography, travel, and exploration. It was clear—blatantly obvious, actually—that this young man was destined to do great things, and I was glad to have met him so I could watch his ascent from afar.

We stayed in touch since then, crossing paths often unexpectedly. Suresh invited me to pop-up food events, to presentations by food writers, to dinners with local chefs; I tagged along, mostly excited to get access to a world I knew little about, but was eager to learn.

Suresh Doss is a household name in the Canadian food scene now; through incredible hard work, a commitment to what he loved, and by being a generous, caring, and nice person, he has done what he set out to do, what he told me he wanted to do, all those years ago when we first met.

This morning, Suresh hosted his first segment as part of a new, regularly-occurring show on cultural hubs with great food, on the CBC, our national broadcaster. I listened in live, rapt, happy to hear this person I knew, this person who inspires me, bring his voice to others, begin to inspire them.

It was a reminder to me that the pursuit of passion is not something to be taken lightly: caring deeply about something, and putting in the hard work to excel in that area leads not only to personal success, but can bring delight to others.

Thanks for all the delight, and for the constant inspiration, Suresh. We’ll meet again for a bite sometime soon.