By Harvinder Sandhu:
A recent recipient of the Kings Medal, Tarlok Sablok and his wife Shabnam are icons in the South Asian community here in Vancouver since the late 1970s.
Hailing from a family in the commercial construction business, Mr. Sablok was already well-versed in the amount of work and effort needed to be successful. Already fluent in English, Tarlok started his first job here at an industrial company as a shipper/receiver. He also opened a small retail business, Global Spice, which his wife ran while helping him with his notary work as a legal secretary.
In his fifty-plus years here in Canada, Tarlok has immersed himself in a number of community groups and professional associations while being a Notary Public and running his practice.
His story on how he ended up in this profession is interesting. “I was talking to my neighbour who was a notary and he suggested I become a notary. I asked him how and he told me to meet the man in charge, a Dr. Bernard Holter. I meet the man and he liked me so much that within fifteen minutes of talking, he said I was selected to enter the notary course. I was surprised, stating I hadn’t even applied yet. Dr. Bernard repeated that I am selected and for me to proceed with the application.”
He came first in the exam. Then something amazing happened. The Society of Notary Public of British Columbia made a flyer showcasing him in the center with 8 other new notaries. This flyer was sent to banks, real estate companies, mortgage brokers, anywhere and everywhere.
“I was the only Punjabi speaking person on the flyer and my business took off.” He shares how every Friday and Saturday he worked till 2 am finishing the past week’s work since he was so busy. “About 20% of my business was from the gora community, the rest were all apnas.”
His business came from as far away as Prince George from the Punjabi communities living in many small towns in the interior and up north. They would mail in the documents and come down a week later to sign. Today he has handed over the practice to his younger son, Akash.
Asked if there were any challenges in handing over the reins, Mr. Tarlok shared this, “I had a superiority complex, up to the extent that whatever I say was right. I had an ego problem. We had decided to build a new office about 15-20 years ago, and I was clashing with my wife and son on design of this office. It had green carpet with red granite counters. I was not happy but was out-voted by my wife and son. When we had the grand opening, the very first person walking in exclaimed, ‘wow what a beautiful office. Who is the designer.’ This went on as more fellow notaries and clients came. All congratulated on how nice the new office was. I was humbled that what I thought was not good, was in-fact very good.”
This and many other experiences have helped him grow to be the person he is today.
Tarlok has many different interests other than having a successful notary business.
His retail business was based on the South Asian community. He found a need in the ethnic market for spices; dry goods and cookware. So, he started importing products his community wanted and needed. One of the needs he identified early on was of proper pots to cook Indian masala dishes on flat electric stoves. The Indian cookware from India had rounded bottoms, and the stoves here were flat. This inspired him to create heavy flat-bottomed pots to cook Indian masala dishes. He had the design manufactured in India where it is popularly known as Canadian design and is still highly popular there.
He is a creative person who has acted in movies here, and in India. He has provided training to RCMP officers on Punjabi culture. He has given many motivation talks to numerous organizations as that is another passion of his, helping people. “Helping people has become my mission because it rewards.”
He shares stories, he has many and they are all good, of helping people understand themselves. And, how these same people then reminded him of his talk with them that helped them go forward in their lives. His focus has always been to help and uplift the person in-front of him. One story is of an RCMP officer that Tarlok ran into in Ottawa while there to receive the Kings Medal. The RCMP fellow approached and reminded Tarlok how his training on Punjabi culture impacted positively on this officer’s field work.
“Everybody knows knowledge is power. I go further and say knowledge is motivation, knowledge is meditation, knowledge is your strength, knowledge is your involvement. When I say knowledge, what I mean is knowledge makes you a good person, an interesting person. I never stop learning. I’ll pick up different subjects to learn about. I watch documentaries as a subject to study, every three months I switch to a new subject.”
Tarlok shares his latest subject to study is on evolution; how the earth is billions of years old whereas the human race in its current form has only been around about 100 thousand years. “Knowledge has made me very interesting.”
Tarlok is a past Director on the Board of Directors of The Society of Notaries Public of B.C. and the first South Asian, forty years back. He is the past Chair of the Vancouver Chapter of The Society, current Vice-president of Diabetes Association, and a recipient of the King’s Medal.
His other positions in volunteering are; Chairman for the South Asian Community Working Group of United Way, BC and Vancouver Societies of Notary Publics, and the Fraser Street Merchants Association. Most recently, he was elected as the Zonal Chair for the Canadian Diabetes Society.
Tarlok believes honesty, hard work, and perseverance will help anyone succeed. That is how he built his notary practice. The giving of time and self to help people, everyone who walked into his office, is how he built his life here.
