Amandeep Sandhu » Punjab

Hindustan Times: Panjab will once again stand between Hunger and India

aman — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 09:34:26 +0000

Dear Friends,

recently my editor Karthik Venkatesh and publicist Arunima Mazumdar asked me to write a piece titled Lock-down Diaries for the Hindustan Times.

I decided to move the focus to something critical going on in Panjab which India does not notice – wheat harvest for the nation’s food security. To write the piece I spoke to many farmers but feature word limit restricts me from mentioning everyone. Still thanks to Devinder Singh Sekhon and Sukhwinder Pappi.

Note that every third roti you eat, every fourth morsel of rice, comes from Panjab. Under the threat of the Covid-19 contagion, Panjab once again walks the razor’s edge of caution so India can eat.

Please read more here …

Caravan: Lists Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines

aman — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 10:17:41 +0000

Dear friends,

recently, The Caravan magazine, for whom I wrote nine stories which sort of form the back-bone of my book, featured Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines as a must read.

Please see link here …

BLink Review – Paper Lions: A tale of loss and longing in Punjab

aman — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 07:59:09 +0000

Dear Friends,

Sohan S Koonar’s debut novel Paper Lions presents a ‘very detailed and greatly nuanced panoramic view from the ground of the decades which saw the end of a colonial era and the beginning of the modern Indian nation state.’

Please read my review here …

Review – Punjab Today: A Metaphor for Migration

aman — Wed, 29 May 2019 14:33:12 +0000

Book: The Rainbow Acres

Author: Simrita Dhir

Publisher: Om Books

The well-structured, quick read novel The Rainbow Acres by Simrita Dhir sketches the era when gold was discovered in California and depicts the lives and journeys of a man and a woman from their faraway native lands on two ends of the world to the West Coast of the United States. Dhir alternates the chapters between Kishan Singh and Sophia Morales, from Noor Mahal in Panjab and Acapulco, later Guadalajara and then the village Bahia de Kino in Mexico, to parallel how people are marginalized – either through ravages of nature or political turmoil –and how they become migrants seeking refuge in alien lands.

Please read more here ….

The Quint: Kartarpur Sahib: A Beacon of Peace in Times of Cynicism

aman — Wed, 29 May 2019 14:29:17 +0000

The national discourse does not get a simple fact: when two Punjabis meet, they hug as a way of greeting each other. It does not get it that former cricket stalwarts Imran Khan and Navjot Sidhu seek to re-write history.

Please read more here …

Punjab Today: We need to ask what is the worst that can happen?

aman — Wed, 29 May 2019 14:25:35 +0000

For 71 years now, in spite of how New Delhi and Islamabad define the relationship between India and Pakistan, the Sikhs have been making the prayer to unite with their Gurdwaras. The desire to go to Kartarpur Sahib has been a sigh of the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, a plea for peace in a sub-continent divided by the one of the most militarized borders, a soulful cry not only of the Sikhs but also of around 12 crore people of different sects, affiliations, who believe in the name of Nanak.

Please read more …

The Hindu Literary Review: The thin red line: ‘The Unsafe Asylum – Stories of Partition and Madness’ by Anirudh Kala

aman — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 05:49:30 +0000

Friends, after a long time I reviewed a book for The Hindu. The collection of short stories is by Dr Anirudh Kala, a psychiatrist and friend based in Ludhiana.

Please read here …

The Quint: Punjab Drug Menace: Amarinder’s Death Penalty Rhetoric Is Hot Air

aman — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 11:59:19 +0000

Friends, I feel we don’t need to sensationalise drugs. Neither do we need quick fixes. Thanks to Indira Basu and others here I am looking at the protest, recent events and the sub-text of the war on drugs:

The political discourse in Panjab now eerily sounds ‘like the drug-addled talk of an addict: when sober, every abuser talks about quitting drugs, seeking help, not wanting access to drugs – and soon after, they fail.’

Please read …

The Hindu BusinessLine: Democracy is an empty ritual in Punjab

aman — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 03:08:31 +0000

Friends, this is deeply personal and as public as I can get. I attempt to articulate the caverns in my mind and in my land by trying to tell Panjab’s story through the prism of rituals and mental illness.

On social media I asked the question: Can I build a book on this premise? The response was an overwhelming yes. I feel finally I am getting a grip on Panjab. Thank you Aditi Sengupta. I loved being pushed to articulate the demons that haunt me.

Please read here…

DailyO: On the Mumbai Farmer and Tribal Strike

aman — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 03:23:26 +0000

Yesterday, about 50,000 farmers and tribals marched into Mumbai seeking farm debt waiver. I reflected on it on Facebook and DailyO and Punjab Today chose to pick the piece as independent articles.

Please read DailyO piece here …

Please read Punjab Today piece here …