Ridge Residents – The Sharda Family
We have a truly diverse community on the Ridge, some who have been here for 30+ years and others who have recently joined our community. We will share their stories and welcome suggestions on who you would like to get to know better. Contact WPRRA with your suggestions.
The Sharda Family
Ravi and Deepti Sharda, along with their daughter Manya, migrated to Canada 11 years ago from England, where they had lived for about 9 years. Their first home in Canada was in Sunshine Hills. Since then, they have been joined by their Aussiedoodle, Oreo.
Deepti is a CPA, and currently works as CFO for an environmental engineering company in Burnaby. She also supports development of new enterprise resource programs within her organization, a side passion of hers. It keeps her challenged and interested; she enjoys managing people and processes.
Ravi’s previous profession was as a banker. About 3 years ago he decided to make a shift to not-for-profit and is now a Business Development manager for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. He finds the work very fulfilling and meaningful at this time in his career. Ravi is also a hobby gardener and loves to create a beautiful yard for all to enjoy. Whenever he gets an opportunity to get outside, he feels so renewed and happy.
Manya is a Grade 10 student at Seaquam, where she is in the baccalaureate program. She loves animals so living nearby the horses on the Ridge is a big plus. She plays field hockey and spends as much time outdoors as possible.
The family have always loved this area of the lower mainland so when they decided to look for a larger home with more private outdoor space, they chose to look in Panorama Ridge. Their family has grown with Ravi’s Mom joining them and, with Ravi’s two sisters living nearby with their families, it becomes a very busy household on weekends as they love to host.
They moved into their home in October, 2021. The home they chose backs onto a green space and has an expansive deck, a basketball court, putting green and a hot tub, creating a welcome space for entertaining and keeping the kids busy on weekends.
Since moving they have been busy renovating. While they love the character that an older home offers, it was time to give it an update. They are finally feeling more settled and able to further enjoy the neighbourhood. As an active family who love the outdoors, they really appreciate the proximity to so many trails and parks close to home or easily accessible. They enjoy the long walks through Joe Brown Park with Oreo. They love that they can head all the way down to Mud Bay or into the watershed park and also like to explore on their bikes.
When thinking about some of their favourite things about making their home on the Ridge, Deepti said how much she loves the horse stables nearby and the unspoiled natural character of the green spaces. Ravi appreciates the rural feel to the neighbourhood – untouched trails and fewer streetlights. They both enjoy the convenience of having easy access to main highways, to the city (Vancouver), and the ocean. And, of course, they love their new home as it is the right size for the family, and it has some character to it that they find interesting.
Some of the challenges they find living on the Ridge are, having come from a different type of neighbourhood in Sunshine Hills, the lack of streetlights, particularly when walking their dog at night near vacant lots or empty houses. They do appreciate and understand the desire to keep a rural feel on the Ridge but feel that there could be a few more streetlights in some areas. On early dark winter nights when there is a lot of traffic it can be challenging when crossing the street if there isn’t enough light. They really appreciate the sidewalk. Diane pointed out that the city calls the sidewalks “pathways” along New McLellan/56, not sidewalks, which is why they are somewhat rustic.
Another challenge at times, can be the heavy traffic and speeding on New McLellan, especially when there is an incident on Highway 10 that diverts traffic to New McLellan. Because there are few traffic calming measures like speed bumps, cars go much faster than it is safe to. They wish there was some way to encourage drivers to slow down. Speed bumps can play an important role in helping to achieve this, as they witnessed when living in Sunshine Hills.
When asked what was most important to them in Community they stressed the importance of interaction with neighbours, involvement in the community and getting to know each other. Especially for people whose families don’t live nearby, neighbours are often the ones they will spend more time with. Even if you don’t spend time with your neighbours, they know how much value there is in knowing them and being available to support each other.
They offered kudos to the WPRRA for getting the dog park commissioned as it provides a welcome space for people with dogs. Now it would be great to get a family park developed. They suggested we try to create a community area where there are picnic tables, swings or a playground where people can gather, play, have a picnic.
They were very disappointed this year on Halloween as they had no children come to the house, which is something they were so used to in their old neighbourhood. They suggested that perhaps the community could get together and set up a Halloween gathering at one of the parks one year.
To sum it up, the Shardas love their new home and they are very keen to get to know more people and get involved in the community. They encourage everyone to get out in the neighbourhood, talk to people, get to know them. One of the first things they did when they moved in was to get out and introduce themselves to their neighbours. It’s important to build trust as you never know when you’re going to need each other. At the end of the day, we are all human and we need contact with others and feel comfortable where we live.
It was such a pleasure to get to know this family. Please join me in welcoming them to West Panorama Ridge.