Ex-news anchor, news magazine show host/reporter. Award winning documentary narrator. Voice-Over talent, public speaker. translator. Special project media consultant. Workshop presenter. Community engagement specialist. Event moderator/Panelist.
Geetika brings a wealth of personal and professional knowledge to her podcast.
Growing up in India, Geetika always dreamed of having her own show - a place where she could talk about societal issues that everyone can see but no one talks about A place where problems and solutions could share the same stage.
Her first break was in 1999 when ZEE TV in India was looking for new faces for ZEE News. Geetika was one of a handful of candidates selected in an India-wide search. She received training as a news anchor and reporter with ZEE News and anchored national and international bulletins. She then moved on to co-hosting a morning news magazine show on Delhi Doordarshan. In 2001, Geetika immigrated to Canada as a television broadcaster in an independent category.
Like most immigrants, the initial months were a bit of a shock! Her educational background and professional experience had no meaning to potential employers and schools. That is when Geetika first heard of the no ‘Canadian experience’ resume gap.
Geetika recalls beginning her job search the very first week she arrived in Canada. She walked in a saree to the local news station that happened to be a few blocks away from her apartment. Her resume was pretty impressive but she didn’t even know the closest intersections around her new home.
Determined not to give up, she applied for odd jobs to start her new life but kept sending her CV to all the local news media outlets for the next several months. Her persistence paid off. She was finally referred to OMNI TV(CFMT).
Geetika was given an amazing project to narrate the CBC’s Gemini award-winning 32 - an episodes documentary in Hindi on CFMT, Channel 14 in Toronto. The program was so well received that it got repeated twice in the following years.
Her hard work, passion and love for storytelling were quite evident to her managers. She had many ideas to share and wanted to host a news magazine show in Hindi and get to know her community members who by now recognized her voice and watched her narrate the history of Canada every week on their television sets. She was offered to anchor a news magazine show - Badhai Ho! on OMNI 2. The show ran for 9 years and was known as one of the best talk shows in ethnic media in Ontario.
Geetika is as passionate, if not more, about helping new immigrants settle down in their new home as she was about her career.
After all, people come to Canada at different stages of their life for various reasons. Each person’s journey to integrate into the new community, school or workplace, and find new friends and social groups is completely different. All the more reason to share these stories of resilience, strength, hopes and positivity with those who are new or planning to come to this land of opportunity.
Geetika’s hope for this podcast is that it will provide a platform for immigrants to share their journeys and open up about challenges faced as families and community members, find solutions to the day-to-day immigrant life problems and much more!
Geetika’s notable professional achievements include:
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One of the 11 candidates chosen from an India-wide selection by ZEE News as a news anchor in 1999
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Hindi proof-reader and narrator of CBC’s Gemini award-winning 32-hour long documentary, “Canada -A People’s History”
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Being the launching face of OMNI 2, channel 14 in Toronto, in 2002
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Extensive experience as a voice-over talent for commercials in Hindi, Punjabi and English language; panel moderator, panellist, public speaker, and Master of Ceremony for prestigious galas.