Here we are in basketball season, something I never would have known if I hadn’t read Nav Bhatia’s book (written with Tamara Baluja, class of 2024), The Heart of a Superfan: A Memoir of Grit, Love, Family and Basketball (Doubleday Canada, 2024). I definitely never would have known what a superfan is.

Immigrating to Canada in 1984, Bhatia did as many new Canadians did—he worked hard. Having grown up in a land of plenty, few Canadians understand hardship and hard work in the same way that many new Canadians do. I’m related, through marriage, to a large and loving Sikh family and I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who began with so little and turned it into so much. And not just in terms of material wealth, but the generosity at the root of the Sikh faith.

Bhatia was no exception to this, but at a certain point he realized he had little going on in his life other than work. His wife lives with rheumatoid arthritis, their daughter has had severe health problems of her own, and in Bhatia’s culture and faith, that made it his responsibility to ensure they had everything they could need or want.

In India, he’d been a cricket fan, but cricket is not a popular sport in Canada. So, when Toronto (he lives in Mississauga) started its own basketball team, the Raptors, Bhatia decided this would be the thing he did for himself. From the beginning, he attended every home game—and gained a reputation as the guy with the turban who sat courtside, hooting and hollering in a way Canada’s more reserved fans do not, blocking cameramen’s lenses and shouting trash talk that truly annoyed opposing players.

Over time, though, as Bhatia showed his loyalty to “his” team and also showed himself to be kind and supportive of all the players as individuals, even when they were traded away from “his” team, he stopped being seen as “that annoying guy.” Instead, he became the fan that every team wishes they had—a superfan, a fan who always showed up and always showed his support, come hell or high water.

But there is much more to Bhatia’s story, a story of a man who has overcome tremendous adversity, from the tragedy of war in his young life to severe personal poverty, from institutionalized unfairness toward people of his faith to the casual daily racism faced by many Canadians who look or sound even a little bit “different” (than what, I always want to ask). From the kind of business problems that kept him awake nights to serious illnesses among those he holds most dear, Bhatia has coped with more hardship than most. Yet the thing people notice about him is that he never stops being kind, gracious, enthusiastic, and optimistic—a man with more integrity in a moment of his life than many people show in their entire lives.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the insertion of wise things Bhatia has learned in the course of his own life. Here are a few of my favourites:

“There is dignity in all types of leadership and all labour—both on the court and off. Don’t get caught up in the status of the job you’re doing. Your approach to the job, the honesty and the hard work you put into it are far more important. This is an especially important lesson for so many immigrant families. We put so much pressure on our kids to become doctors, lawyers or engineers because we want them to be better off financially than we were. We want them to avoid the hardships we faced. But ultimately if they’re happy earning a living and treating others with kindness, we’ve done our jobs as parents and that’s all we can hope for.”

“Don’t let politics or rivalries get in the way of friendship and treating others with respect and compassion. Look at the other person in front of you and search for the commonalities you share. I promise you’ll find some.”

“Pay your employees before the sweat on your arms dries. Take care of the people who take care of you.”

“All children are blessings. When they come into our lives, we’re better for it. They enrich us. They motivate us to do better. It’s our job to create a world they can flourish in.”

“It doesn’t matter how rich you are or what you’ve accomplished in life. In the end, your reputation is built on how you treat others.”

“Reach out to those who could use a helping hand. If you hoard your wealth, you’re only serving yourself. To make change, you must share your blessings.”

Much of the wisdom Bhatia shares resonates with me because it could be my parents saying those things. In superficial ways, they couldn’t be more different: A turbaned, brown-skinned man and a couple of white-skinned, red- and blond-haired British stock. Yet in the ways that matter—dignity, integrity, honesty, empathy, compassion—they are very much alike.

So, I guess what I enjoyed most about Heart of a Superfan is the way it reminded me that the best values in life are those that are truly universal. And Tamara Beluga has guided Nav Bhatia in writing a book that shows these to be the areas in which he clearly excels.

Books I’ve reviewed about being an immigrant in Canada:

Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America by Sheima Benembarek.

Wanda’s War: An Untold Story of Nazi Europe, Forced Labour, and a Canadian Immigration Scandal by Marsha Faubert.

The Nail That Sticks Out: Reflections on the Postwar Japanese Canadian Community by Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann.

How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love and Plenty by Bonnie Reichert.

Peace by Chocolate: The Hadhad Family’s Remarkable Journey from Syria to Canada by Jon Tattrie.