Here's my cdesi story. Before I moved to Canada, I did a bit of research on the net on how to prepare myself for the move. Found one small site by a guy who had immigrated about a year back and he had posted his experiences and advice. It really helped a lot in organizing my documents and stuff, I also got good info from him regarding the details on how to import my car from the U.S. At that time itself, I had decided that after I move and settle down, I'll start something similar to help others.

Well, I moved and a couple of years passed by while I got acquainted with Canada. And afterwards, I figured it was high time to do something. So I was originally doing research to start something of my own when I came across Canadiandesi. It was a very small site with hardly any content at that time, but I could see the potential right away. I communicated with Rashmibhai via email and posts a few times and got to know that we both had a similar purpose. So rather than re-inventing the wheel, I figured I'll just work with Canadiandesi to attain my objective.

I think the site started picking up slowly but we didn't have too many regular members then. Things really started taking off after Massood joined the site, I think. His lightning-fast and accurate answers to people's queries gave the site a big boost.

And then Chandresh joined soon after followed by Jake. Chandresh's experiences in Canada and his sincere and detailed postings touched a lot of people and started many meaningful debates. Jake brought with him an artisitic and creative edge and even started a new section on Arts and Culture. It was around this time that you could see some of the potential being realized, even in those stages of infancy. The biggest draw was always the immigration content, but now you could see that people who're on the other side of the equation (i.e. already settled in Canada) were also getting interested.

And since then we've had a lot of quality members join and contribute to the site and its obvious that this will only go up. The biggest draw of the site is obviously the content and for this every single member who's posted queries or who's responded to the same deserve credit. However small they may be, each contribution is invaluable to someone who happens to be looking for that same exact information.

The first meeting and now the second meeting coming up at Biomed's will hopefully bring us all closer to attaining our objectives. Like many others, I'm also looking forward to the picnic, I think that should be a fun event.

With all the progress we make in numbers, I hope we never lose sight of the original goal which is to do our bit for the community, both by providing information through the website and by volunteering for services. Despite our differences in opinions, I hope we can stay continually focused on this. Rather I hope that one day we can expand our goals to do something for our new home, Canada and all Canadians. And then do something for our homelands as well...the list of aspirations is neverending.

One thing at a time though. Congrats to everyone!

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Are you there?

thanks GG, BL ...It is great to see how far it has reached and it has the potential to go much much ahead . when i joined in late 2003 this site had 1500 or less members in a short span it is now 5000...this itself shows the potential of CD.

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What can be imagined, can be achieved.

Congrats all,

To make this forum more successful, we should come up with the new ideas.

Apart from the discussions and chats, we should set and start some kind of programs and help each other and new desis.

few ideas :

1)make a cultural group and club (club already exists I guess)
2) make a team which can help new desi to find apartments and get other things done when they arrives.
3) make a team which can provides the information regarding jobs and help new desi getting job here.

set some objective for this forum. people from this group can take part in different teams.

Any views and suggestion pls. Senior desis can comeforward in this regard.

Cheers
Raj

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A person is never more on trial than in a moment of excessive good fortune.