CREDIT: SHEFALI DEWANI
Fanshawe Indian Club was founded by students to bring together the Indian community, in order to celebrate and share the different cultures in India with the students of Fanshawe.

“Leaving home to come to a foreign country to study and [to have to] handle school, work and house pressures all on your own is not easy,” said Rishabh Rai, founder of Fanshawe Indian Club (FIC).

With the support of Fanshawe International Centre and Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), FIC was founded in 2014 in order to provide a home away from home for international students at Fanshawe.

International students, unaware of the immigration rules and lifestyle in Canada, often need support in order to live happily. Fanshawe International Centre provides aid to these students in order to help them settle comfortably in Canada.

However, the students often miss their cultures and festivals when they move to Canada.

Following the FSU vision, ‘students serving students’, FIC was founded by students to bring together the Indian community in order to celebrate and share the different cultures in India with the students of Fanshawe.

Five students from different academic backgrounds formed FIC, even though they had nothing in common with each other apart from the fact that they all were international students from India.

“I am an interior designer, Amrit Nagi is in construction project management, Vikrant Thakur is in media, Siddhant Dhanda is taking public relations and corporate communications and Akash Dubey is in accounting. And our diverse backgrounds enabled us to form an amazing team since we have expertise in different fields. We call ourselves five rings,” Rai said.

According to Rai, five rings stands for strength because it symbolizes five fingers of the hand that make a fist.

Since the formation of the club, the team has been showing their perseverance by conducting various events and seminars for the benefit of not only the Indian students, but also other international students.

FIC has been responsible for conducting immigration seminars and other informative sessions for the benefit of international students to help them make appropriate decisions regarding their career and future stay in Canada.

Apart from these academic events, FIC has also been conducting more cultural events for the benefit of all students.

The most recent event that turned out to be a major success for FIC was conducted in November 2015. It was a celebration of a major Indian festival Diwali.

The majority of people in Canada have a perception that Indian culture consists of only Bhangra dance. Hoping to to change that, FIC makes sure to include as many variations of Indian culture as they can within an event.

“It is our dedicated team work that makes us the most happening club in the FSU,” Rai said. “With the five rings and our other talented members of the club, such as Anuraj Singla, the current president of FSU, Noel Baretto, our head chef and all the other staff of FSU, we have managed to pull off one of the greatest events in FSU with about 400 guests and we will keep organizing better events in the future.”