The Diwali spirit continued in Westminster on Friday (20th November) as 130 young professionals and two fantastic speakers attended the City Hindus Network Annual Diwali Dinner in the House of Lords.
The Lord Popat of Harrow hosted the dinner in the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’ as the guests were treated to a tour of the Commons and the Lords before a drinks reception and three course dinner on the Terrace overlooking the Thames.
Following a traditional prayer to start the evening, Lord Popat commenced the proceedings. He explained that the night was about inspiring and empowering the next generation of British Indians to go as far as they can go.
Lord Popat said “I am very excited to have you all here […] because the members of the City Hindus Network - those of you who are seated in this room – are our future. And by ‘our’, I don’t just mean the Hindu community, or the British Indian community, I mean our country’s future.”
The first of the night’s principal speakers was Manish Chande, a Senior Partner at Clearbell Capital and a hugely respected figure in the real estate community. He told the inspiring tale of his background and how he felt he’d managed to achieve so much.
Amongst a list of ‘do’s and don’ts’, he told the young professionals to “Respect each other’s different views and backgrounds but never compromise on core issues. For me one of those core values is integrity. It can take years to build integrity but one small slip and it’s gone. A major error of judgement can be forgiven – a lapse of integrity never.”
Later in the evening the keynote address was given by Tushar Morzaria, the Group Finance Director of Barclays. After receiving an extremely warm welcome from the audience, Tushar gave an insight into what life is like at the top in a major City firm, and how he’d encourage others to get there.
He spoke of the importance of passion for your career: “The day you wake up in the morning and you struggle to get up means you need to change your career” and the need to “Do something that you are prepared to give your time to, make you read more, make you successful.”
Tushar spoke of the increasing challenges of getting the work/life balance right, saying “People spend more time at work than anywhere else, so it’s important you get it right” telling the young professionals “Success is measured in more ways than your career” and “You need to work out what balance you want to have.”
Rounding off the evening was the vote of thanks from two members of the City Hindus Network Executive Committee, Dipti Vyas and Shefali Davda. They thanked both speakers for their unique and inspirational insights into their professional lives, as well as thanking Lord Popat for his generosity in hosting the event.
Speaking after the event, Harrow Councillor Ameet Jogia said “this was a truly inspiring and fun evening. It’s very rare to get a chance to hear from someone like Tushar about how they’ve made such a success of themselves, and it’s fantastic that he’s so humble. That the event was aimed at my age group really helped to make it relevant.”
Speaking to Asian Voice after the event, Lord Popat said “it was a real honour to have Tushar and Manish there with so many members of the CHN. The number of positive comments people made about the evening was fantastic and I look forward to working with the CHN again in the future.”
