[Photograph of Ghulam Ali and Shushma Datt with unidentified individuals]

Photograph of Ghulam Ali and Shushma Datt with unidentified individuals.

Ghulam Ali is a Pakistani ghazal singer of the Patiala gharana. Ali was born on December 5, 1940, in the village of Kaleke in the Sialkot district of Panjab, pre-partition India (now Pakistan). He belongs to a musical family, his father was a vocalist and a sarangi player who initiated Ali to music from his childhood. At 15, Ali became a student of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, a master of the Patiala gharana (Patiala School) of Hindustani music. Ali started singing for Radio Lahore in 1960. Along with singing ghazals, he also composes the music for his ghazals. Ali has also contributed to Bollywood with his music. Ali is considered as one of the greatest ghazal singers of his era, as his style and variations in singing ghazals are unique. In 1979 he received the Price of Performance Award and in 2013 he was honored with the Sitara-i-Imtiaz Award by the President of Pakistan.

Shushma Datt is a pioneer in the broadcasting industry in Canada, known as the first Indo-Canadian broadcaster in the country. Born and raised in Kenya, Datt earned a university degree from the University of New Delhi in India. She then began her career in journalism by working as a reporter for the Times of India. From there Datt moved to London, England, where she was employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Datt emigrated to Canada in 1972 and settled in Vancouver, where she broke new ground by hosting Indian programming on CJVB, where she was the first announcer to broadcast in Hindi and Panjabi. In 1987, Datt founded Rim Jhim, the world's first 24-hour South Asian radio station outside of India. In 2005, Shushma secured an AM license to launch RJ1200, now Spice Radio, further cementing her legacy. In 2007 Shushma Datt received the Influential Women in Business Award (BC) for her many accomplishments in broadcasting and multicultural programming. She has also received the Order of British Columbia (1992), the Queen's Golden Jubilee Commemorative Medal (2002), the YWCA's "Women of Distinction" Award and the Humanitarian Award from the Vancouver Multicultural Society. Datt is listed as one of the 150 most influential British Columbians by the Royal British Columbia Museum and the 100 most influential Indo-Canadians by the Vancouver Sun. Shushma's work not only transformed ethnic broadcasting but also paved the way for women and cultural understanding in Canada.