Balbir Singh Sidhu Memorial Bursary in the Faculty of Science

Albert Camus may have been describing Balbir Singh Sidhu when he said:

But what is happiness
Except the simple harmony
Between a man and the life he leads

Born in Kenya, near the shores of Lake Victoria, he completed his formal education at age 16, when he had to leave school to help his father on the family’s sugar cane farm, but his unquenchable thirst for knowledge spurred him into becoming a life-long learner, teacher and mentor. Fluent in English, Swahili, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu, he had an intellectual’s appreciation for literature, music and poetry, in particular Urdu sher-e-shairi, and ghazals.

He immigrated to Canada with his wife Gulwant Kaur in November 1967 and pursued a career in Real Estate, where his resourcefulness, perseverance and knowledge of finance and banking impressed his clients. His mental agility with numbers (fractions, percentages, rates), strong work ethic and professionalism was respected by his colleagues and peers.

He had a fascination with things mechanical and could speak the language of cars, engines, torque and horsepower, dazzling the car dealers with facts, figures, and statistics.

In the pre-television and pre-internet era, the photojournalism of National Geographic opened up the wonders of the world and infected him with wanderlust. He travelled extensively in East Africa and India, and in 1965, he faithfully chronicled his journey around the world with postcards that he mailed back. Following his retirement, he pursued his dreams of cruising through the Panama Canal and up the Yangtze River, visiting Australia, China, and South America.

His integrity, dependability, trustworthiness, sincerity, tranquility, and above all, kindness, endeared him to young and old.

The family has always marveled at his ability to seat an infant or toddler on the palm of one hand and lift that arm high up in the air. He would encourage them to stand on his hand, the child giggling, my father smiling, each trusting the other, always the trust, a test of balance, agility and neuromuscular development.

The family recalls being lovingly welcomed into his home with open arms, having his full attention focused on them and their concerns, and being introduced to the taste of a variety of fruits. By the way, his love of fruit was legendary, and he was known for treating the fruit with respect, using surgical precision when peeling, slicing, or dicing, then sharing it with everyone at the table. They declared that nobody could match his fruit salad in taste, texture, colour and variety of fruits. When stuck, he would add dates to make it a Nav-Ratna (nine jewels) fruit salad.

He will be remembered as a respectful son to his parents, a devoted husband to his wife, a loving and caring father and grandfather, a distinguished patriarch, a gentleman and a scholar. He was always so smart, always so attentive and always happy to see his family, a gentle, dignified, upright human being, an example of how to live a vigorous and engaged life into one’s final decades.

A life well lived
leaves its gentle pattern
on the hearts of all...

And the world is a lonelier place
because one person
touched it with warmth
and goodness and grace.

- by Tejinder Sidhu, his daughter