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What is your current state of mind?
Grateful. Boundlessly optimistic.

What are the components of bliss?
Watching the elation of fresh graduates and their families at the convocation. Lingering over cups of tea with my wife on Sunday morning.

If you could invite anyone from history to dinner who would it be?
Gandhi. Perhaps I could convince him to stay long enough to teach us – again – how arms could be used for hugging instead of killing!

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given, and from whom did you receive it?
“Surround yourself with talented people, and relentlessly empower and promote them.” – my PhD thesis supervisor, Dr. Don Aspinall

What is the one thing you’d change about yourself?
My height. Even two extra inches would be great!

What is the most outrageous thing you’ve heard said about yourself?
My daughters tell me – wrongly of course – that my jokes are not funny. Other than this, people have been pretty kind to me.

What would it take to make you go, WOW!!!?
A serving politician who actually thinks of the next generation rather than the next election.

Who are your real life heroes?
My father, for never accepting that good was good enough.
My wife, for never knowing what ‘giving up’ is.

What feature / quality do you find most interesting in another person?
Humility, especially among high achievers.

What word or phrase do you most overuse?
“Why not?” and its various iterations.

What is your earliest memory of childhood?
My mother crying inconsolably at hearing the news of her father’s death. I was about three-and-a-half.

You have $100, what do you spend it on?
A golf ball that knows what to do.

What has been your greatest memory?
Watching the birth of my children.

What would your autobiography be called?
Serendipity.

What’s your pet peeve? What really ticks you off?
People who don’t respect time.

Who is your favourite fictional hero?
007 – for doing so much good and having fun doing it.

Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever met?
David Johnston, the University of Waterloo President and Governor General designate. His limitless interest in everyone around him makes him so irresistibly interesting.

You have an afternoon all to yourself away from everything / everybody. How do you spend it?
Savouring– over a glass of single malt– wonderful memories of the bygone days when I actually used to have an afternoon all to myself.

You arrive at the pearly gates. What does St. Peter say to you?
What the heck are you doing here?

If the whole world were listening, what would you say?
Ek Pita Ekas Ke Hum Barak – quote from the Sikh holy scriptures – there is one father, and we are all his children.
Professor H. Deep Saini