Mr. Baldev Kohli was born in 1941 in Jamsher Khas, a small village near Jalandhar Kent in Punjab, India. He had a beautiful childhood, growing up with 2 brothers and 2 sisters. In India, Mr. Kohli was working as a technician repairing typewriters, calculators and adding machines. He also worked alongside his family who had their own “Bhattha” business, making bricks. In 1971 at the age of 30 years old, he got married to Surinder Bajaj.
Shortly after getting married, Mr. Kohli came to Canada in 1972 on his own, as a way to provide for his family along with his wife who was pregnant at the time and had to stay in India. For a few months, Mr. Kohli stayed with Kamloops family friends that he knew from his village in India. They supported him as he looked for places to work and provided him shelter until he found a job and his own place to live. Mr. Kohli’s first job was as a janitor in Kamloops. He experienced discrimination from his co-workers being a minority South Asian employee amongst those who worked with him. He also worked in a restaurant. The owner of the restaurant was very nice to him and used to always help him.
In 1974, Mr. Kohli got a job at CP Rail in Kamloops as a section man. He had to work outside on the tracks in winter and summer replacing rails and ties, and adjusting the switches. At CP Rail also Mr. Kohli experienced discrimination and racism, and found it very hard to work with his colleagues. With support from his supervisor because of his extremely hard work and dedication, he then moved to Savona, BC, a very small village of 200 people.
In December 1975, his wife immigrated to Canada with his 3 year old daughter. That was the very first time he saw his little daughter since she was born. His wife supported him in every way and gave him strength to overcome the obstacles and become successful in his life. They had a beautiful son in 1977.
In 1988, the family moved to Kamloops. After all the obstacles of discrimination, Mr. Kohli became the leading track maintainer. Mr. Kohli worked day and night in hot summers and coldest winters covered in snow to give his family a good life. He also supported his family in India as their family business went down because of the floods which was the main reason for him to move to Canada.
After 26.5 years of service, Mr. Kohli retired from CP Rail. He moved to Surrey in 2004. Still after retirement, Mr. Kohli kept working at different jobs for a few more years. In 2007, his family convinced him to quit work.
During retirement, Mr. Kohli found a new hobby of carpet bowling. He goes to different community centers in Surrey to play carpet bowling. Mr. Kohli and his wife also used to play carpet bowling in Savona. He organizes senior games tournaments and takes his team to different places in BC like Cowichen Lake, Kamloops, Kelowna, Victoria and Nanaimo. He has won and continues to win many medals playing carpet bowling tournaments.
Besides carpet bowling, Mr. Kohli spends his time working as a volunteer in Lakshmi Narayan Temple, Surrey. He is also a member of Vedic Senior Parivaar committee of the temple. He helps the committee organize the weekly events, birthday parties, picnics and other celebrations for the seniors. His family is very proud of his achievements and always looks up to him.
