Amandeep Sandhu » anti-Sikh

Gwah de Fana hon to Pehlan now available online

aman — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 04:54:23 +0000

The Punjabi translation of ‘Roll of Honour’ by Daljit Ami is now available online. It is reaching book shops across Punjab by the weekend and other e-commerce sites by early next week.

The Punjabi title is spelt as ‘Gwah De Fanah Hon Ton Pahilan’. The publisher is Lokgeet Prakashan/Unistar Books.

Please buy. Please gift. Please bless!

Link here …

Interview in Open Road Review

aman — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 04:45:22 +0000

Kulpreet Yadav is an ex-Army man. He writes and promotes new talent through his magazine Open Road Review.

He liked Roll of Honour and sought to pursue the genesis of the book to the location in which it is based – Sainik School Kapurthala. Having visited the school, he wrote to me asking why I hadn’t visited the school after passing out from there in 1990. That and Lakshmi’s desire to witness/acknowledge the site led me to school last week.

This interview was done a few days before the visit but talks about how I was already making peace with the idea. Thank you Kulpreet.

Please read …

Nandita Haksar on 1984 and Roll of Honour

aman — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 04:14:54 +0000

In this country, where societies have crumbled, systems have eroded, ideologies have been bartered, I still believe in individuals who have risen above sectarianism to uphold what is the idea of a nation.

Of everything I have heard about Roll of Honour, one of the most precious is this by Nandita Haksar, the human rights lawyer. Though I met her only recently she has been my hero for decades.

Read the piece, one of the finest testimonial account of the 1984 violence. Here …

Gwah de Fanah hon to Pehlan in The Tribune

aman — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 19:56:57 +0000

Aparna Banerji is based in Jalandhar. When we went there to participate in the Gadri Babeian da Mela, she caught up with Daljit Ami. It was covered the next day in The Tribune. Aparna is a second generation Punjabi. She was born in Jalandhar, speaks the language fluently, and example of what it means to find assimilation.

Please read …

Gwah de Fanah hon to Pehlan in Hindustan Times

aman — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 19:52:13 +0000

Gwah de Fana hon to Pehlan was released by Rahul Singh, Rajesh Sharma, and Rajeev Kumar at the Chandigarh Literature Festival on October 31. The release marked the 30th anniversary of Mrs Gandhi’s assassination and seeks to bridge the gap between English and Punjabi, how the previous generation views the anti-Sikh pogrom and how the next generation is dealing with it. Ms Nirupama Dutt also put the book to discussion with Daljit Ami and me.

Hindustan Times covered the event. Please read here …

My Review of Helium for The Hindu

aman — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 07:48:48 +0000

The hope that the book evokes is that the next generation will acknowledge the previous generation’s culpability in the violence and will work to bridge hearts. The book moves and even upsets the reader but that is needed if we have to work towards a society that chooses not to bury its ugly past. As a fight for justice, if victims, arguments, and evidences are the three basis on which the law acts, then the book does a fine job of expanding the canvas of the narration of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. My hope is that the possibility of justice evoked in fiction comes true in reality.