Hello! I am Syed Rafat Alam. Born and brought up in Hyderabad, India, I came to Canada in August of 1971 where I did my college and specialized courses to get my designation,

I am a designated accountant, RPA, and a member of the Society of Professional Accountants of Canada.

Outside of my professional arena, I have number of other interests. I am an avid reader, I dabble in singing, and I read and write poetry. English and Urdu are my favourite languages. Although I wish to someday learn as many languages as I can. I see beauty and sweetness in every language. Currently I read Paulo Coelho a lot. Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, and John Grisham, are some of my other favourite authors. Oscar Wilde I re-read a lot. Some of favourite books by these noted authors are Anna Karenina, Picture of Dorian Grey, The Alchemist, and The Firm. Of late my interests lie in books that have a historical back drop or those that contain a message for humanity.

Urdu poetry fascinates me. Especially Ghalib and Iqbal. Daagh, Jigar, Faiz, and Faraz, also have taught me a lot I think. Poetry to me is a metaphor. Makes me look at life differently and colours my world. If God wanted us to look at things only one way he could have made it so. It would have been so boring if all of us looked like clones of each other, ate the same foods, wore the same clothes, spoke the same language. Zombies personified.

As much as I love Ghazals, I must say in all fairness to the poets that Ghazal singing is not every ones cup of tea. Not in a formal environment at least. Ghazal is an art and an institution which is a convergence of voice, ragas, and expression. One can be nothing short of an Ustad before entering this citadel.

My love for music is all encompassing including instrumental, vocal, folk, pop, from Indian classical to Calypso and every thing in between. Just like a heart beats to a rhythm for us to keep us alive, music beats to a rhythm to keep the universe alive. My personal singing endeavours have been Bollywood male and western rock renditions. From Kishore Da, Rafi Saab, Hemant Da, Mukeshji to Elvis and Sinatra.

My favourite country is India. There is definitely a bias at work here, but it can also be logically proven to be a very likeable country. In that it offers a smorgasbord of cultures. This is what makes this country so rich for its cultural mosaic. Every province offers its culture in its absoluteness, with its own music, language, dress codes, mindset, heritage, etc. As an Indian I feel I have the nuances of every hue and shade of every culture in India mixed with my own brand of Hyderabadi culture. It is probably the only living true democracy in the east. India can write a book on co-existence. Like the French saying, “where ever God plants you, you must flower”.

Lastly, I like to keep an open mind and be a student of life as much as possible. The more we know it seems the more we realize how little we know. Either we stay blissfully ignorant or intoxicatingly knowledgeable.