Manmohan 'Mani' Singh Grewal
Managing Director
Sandy Crossing Enterprises, Inc | Salt Lake, UT (USA)
Ancestry
Khanjarwal, Ludhiana (Punjab)
Birthplace
Akalgarh, Ludhiana, Punjab (India)
Residence
Draper, UT (USA)
For the CAUSE of HUMANITY
He was the ‘best shot’ in college, but could not get very far with it. But now as a politician and businessman in the USA, he has become a big gun in every sense of the word – he owns two dozen guns as well.
Not everyone is blessed with the kind of childhood I had. Sitting on my mother’s lap, I, a two-year-old kid, was listening to my five-year-old brother, singing a religious song at a local Sikh temple when I climbed on the stage and started pretending to sing with him. People laughed and laughed because I was learning to speak, yet I sang. My father, Sardar Bharpur Singh, took the cue and started teaching us singing.
Three years later when the US Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, visited Sudhar to inaugurate a charitable hospital, we sang in his welcome. Rather impressed, he gave us his signed visiting card. “I would like to see you both in the US Senate Chamber someday,” he said. Little did I know that I would enter politics in the USA on growing up.
The credit of my success goes to my father
Dad sold his ancestral land in Khanjarwal village and settled in Pul Sudhar, near Halwara. He and my mother, Raminder Kaur, both were school teachers. I was born on 5 March 1961 after my brother, Gurmant, and before my sister, Charan Kamal.
Dad was my one-in-all: my mentor, teacher and friend. He used to take me to his school and teach me reading and multiplication even before I turned five. While I was exceptionally good in academics, I was near perfect in a few household chores as well because of Mom. She was a hygiene freak and taught me too to wash dishes and clothes when I was seven.
But it didn’t stop at clothes. I loved polishing shoes and would ask my parents and siblings to give me their boots every morning before leaving for school so that I could polish them. I remember washing dishes, mopping the floor and boiling milk before leaving for school. One day, I spilled boiling milk all over my foot. Since I was alone at home, the neighbours rushed to my rescue.
Because Dad often took transfers to different locations and schools, I never studied in one school for very long. He would take me wherever he went. In grade 5, I joined mom’s school and realised I was the only boy in a girls’ school.
I was a very naughty child and often got into trouble, often dragging Gurmant veer ji into it. But my parents hardly scolded me. Good at Chess and Badminton, I also loved singing kirtans and was often invited to sing at various religious events and marriages. When Dad taught us target shooting, I pursued it with passion.
Completing my matriculation with the best student award in 1976 from GHG Khalsa School, Gurusar Sudhar, I moved to freedom fighter Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha’s village to finish my schooling from Government Higher Secondary School, Sarabha. My singing continued, and I sang with Gurdas Maan and many other Punjabi singers. I topped school and joined the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in 1978 to study Crop Sciences in Horticulture. I was the best shooter at the university. I certainly could have become an international shooter.
When you are destined to meet, you do
There was a time after college when I considered joining civil services or studying management but moved to Liberia in June 1983 as Gurmant veer ji was already settled there. I worked as a Technical Manager of an import house, Pan African Chemicals. My boss, Jittu Sarna, was a extremely inspirational man, my mentor and is still a close friend. My role was simply to help the local agriculturists with agri-chemicals and diseases.
In 1984, Gurmant veer ji and I started our business, Liberia Trade Development Corporation. We were the only foreign company providing pest control services in the country and got involved with the US Aid Project, World Bank Projects, embassies and foreign diplomatic missions and other organisations. We were the exclusive distributors of the British company, Imperial Chemical Industries and became members of the British Pest Control Association. We even started writing columns in newspapers to help the farmers and proposed the Liberian government to launch Green Revolution.
As life was on track, my mother went to Punjab and published a matrimony advertisement in one of the leading newsdaily, The Tribune, asking for a match for a ‘Jat Sikh boy settled abroad, own business, no dowry, caste no bar’. We got 40 replies. I went to India to meet all these applicants not knowing I knew the maasi of the first girl I’d meet. Her maasi, Inderjit Kaur Sandhu, had known me as a child by my pet name, Bittu. So when I finally met Lippa, we knew we were destined to be together. A convent-educated graduate, I took to liking her instantly. We got married on 26 March 1989.
A couple of months later, we moved to the UK and then to Liberia, but by the end of the year, unrest in the country compelled us to flee the country, leaving all our possessions behind. I couldn’t have taken a chance as we were expecting our first child and Lippa was in a delicate state of health.
Tough times make you a master
Losing everything in Liberia was a big setback but we were eager to start afresh. In 1990, we came to Canada, where our daughter Shehnoor was born. Lippa and I decided that since we were from India and our country had a big population, we would have only one child.
While Lippa devoted herself to raising Shehnoor, I joined Khalsa School, Vancouver, as a Punjabi and Music teacher. But the experience at the school was not good as I was not only a teacher but also their school-bus driver and weekend camp caretaker, so I left that job and started working with Chardi Kala newspaper and also as the Office Manager of a window-manufacturing company. I participated extensively in the community activities and used to sing at cultural programmes.
Gurmant veer ji and his wife, Narinder ‘Nina’, joined us in Canada in 1992, and I brought them within the folds of politics. When we all took a cruise on the Canadian waters, at Coal Harbour in Burrard, I suggested him to raise the issue of Komagata Maru incident in the parliament. They became the first couple in the history of all Commonwealth countries to sit as MPs together in parliament. Soon after they brought up the issue of Komagata Maru incident, the Government of Canada apologised.
We moved to the USA for a better life
In 1996, we moved to the USA in Salt Lake City. While working for a transit company as a bus operator, I saw a local newspaper advertisement for the post of a marketing director with the US Chambers of Commerce. It changed my life. I was given the job, but they were reluctant to hire me with the turban, so I cut my hair in December 1996, with the thought that Sikhism is not restricted to hair. My role was to take the issues of local businesses to the Chamber and vice versa. I worked hard day and night, trained many people in different states, and became the top performer. I was also honoured twice with the President’s Club Award for my accomplishments in marketing in 1998 and 1999.
The Governor of Utah appointed me to the Multicultural Commission, where I served two terms. Before that, I was Vice President of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce for four years. Later the Governor appointed me to Workforce Services and Investment Board, where I served two terms. With Dr Dinesh Patel’s mentorship, I became very active in our community.
Lippa and I bought Sandy Crossing Enterprises Inc, USA, in 2001. It had a 65-acre land, gas station, a truck stop, an ice-cream parlour, a trailer-park, a restaurant, a water company and a few other rental properties. It was like running a small town. Seven years later, we sold the business at four times the price and ventured into businesses of motels, gas stations, etc.
For the good of others
Having given my best in serving the citizens of Utah, I have also taken steps to promote Guru Nanak Dev ji’s message of love and peace. I created history in Utah by drafting and obtaining a proclamation from the Governor of Utah to recognise Sikhs, Baisakhi and the Guru Granth Sahib. I organised participation in the Utah Parade with a Sikh float, depicting Golden Temple, which won Mayor’s Award.
I have always been vocal on humanitarian issues and raised voice on Sikh issues and injustice. I wrote to the US Senators and Congressmen about the intervention to release the Sikh prisoner Sarabjeet Singh, jailed in Pakistan. I also organise events to provide food for the homeless and victims of disasters.
My wife has been my biggest support all through. She is also my best friend and my business partner. Shehnoor is very close to her and talks to her 10 times a day when travelling. She has graduated in Law and studied Global Enterprise and International Affairs for post-graduation from the University of Utah. Now she works for the federal government in Florida.
Philosophy
We are equals, so respect every individual.
I love…
Gardening. Plants talk to me and I to them. I also like singing, writing, flying and sightseeing.
I’d suggest the youth…
To become rich at heart. The idea is simple: If you can dream, you can do it.
Success Mantra
Success is when we are satisfied with what we have, instead of being envious of more successful people.
The world doesn’t know that…
I was a skinny teenager, so much that I put layers of clothing to enhance my stature and posture and gain confidence.
AKA
King of Raisins | Punjabi-American farmer
Gallery
ISBN : 9788193397695