This Brampton woman couldn’t find Diwali greeting cards. So she started a company to make her own

A lack of South Asian greeting cards in the GTA has prompted one Brampton woman to start her own line of holiday cards for people from those communities. 

Shivani Sharma says the idea stemmed from her struggle to find Diwali cards for relatives she couldn’t meet up with during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. 

“We couldn’t find any Diwali cards in the market,” she said.

That came as a huge surprise given the size of the South Asian diaspora in the Toronto area. 

South Asian languages have many more words for family relations than English does, going well beyond terms like aunt, uncle, cousin, grandmother and grandfather. For example, unlike the word “uncle,” there are different terms to describe a father’s brother and a mother’s brother.

Not being able to give personalized cards for everyone in the family was painful for Sharma, she says.

“We’ve grown up with these titles and to actually be able to give someone a card that has that title written on it has a sense of belonging attached to it,” she said.

WATCH | Sharma shows off some of her cards and shares their story: 

Diwali is a five-day festival of light celebrated by Sikhs, Hindus and Jains around the world. It’s one of the most colourful and significant festivals in Indian culture.

On Diwali, Sikhs also celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas, known also as the “day of liberation.” It commemorates the day Guru Hargobind ji was released from prison, and at the same time helped secure the release of 52 Hindu kings as well. 

Sharma says her husband, who was with her in the market while she struggled to find appropriate cards, suggested creating something of her own.

After further encouragement from her family, Sharma launched Mubarak cards. Mubarak is an Urdu word for “congratulations” and popularly used among South Asian communities. 

She’s since expanded to making cards for other South Asian festivals as well.