I have being trying to access Punjab a third time. The earlier two were when I was a kid, born away from Punjab and had heard of it in the legends and histories my parents told me. The second was when I was in Punjab from 1983-90 which has resulted in my book Roll of Honour. The first was a glorious Punjab, the second was a scared and confused Punjab. This third time I am distressed because this Punjab does not fit in with either the Punjab I grew up to like in stories or the Punjab I experienced during the terror of the days of the Punjab Problem.
This Punjab today is deeply divided, in denial, hurtling towards poverty and towards the ills of gender and caste divisions and drugs. Many Sikhs have escaped from Punjab, even believing that justice for the 1984 riots is not possible from the Indian state. The Punjabis who have migrated frown upon the Punjabis who have stayed back, often showing us down in terms of the relative advantages of those foreign counties where they now live as regulated or unregulated citizens. The British link to Operation Bluestar is an instance which prompts us to question these ways in which the Sikh community is divided.
Please read.
Tags: British files, Margaret Thatcher, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Operation Bluestar, SAS
Faiz said, ‘Bol zubaan ab teri hai …’ (Speak, the tongue is yours.) Roll of Honour review from the site where it all happened – Punjab.
‘The account feels intensely personal with a raw visceral quality.’
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
Vinod Joseph, writer of ‘When The Snow Melts’ reviews the book.
‘Where ‘Roll of Honour’ scores is its excellent depiction of the heartache brought about by Operation Blue Star and the subsequent assassination and riots, the break-down of trust between the Hindu and Sikh communities and the questions of loyalty it created for the Sikh community in India.’
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
Sikhchic.com, a news central, the Sikh Canadian website run by T Sher Singh reviews Roll of Honour. Read here.
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
Rosalia Scalia, who is writing her novel on 1984 and has already written a number of excellent short stories around Sikh and other themes, interviews me for the Sikh Canadian website Sikhchic.com. Read here.
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
I met Saumya at the reading at Jamia Milia Islamia. All the students, the youth, were so smart and engaging and knew much more than I did when I was their age, in a similar course. I am glad they are reading Roll of Honour. Saumya went ahead and reviewed the book, read on.
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots, school
Shri Rajesh Sharma teaches English at Punjabi University, Patiala. He had read Sepia Leaves last year and expressed the desire to follow my writing. Here are his views, read on.
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, Punjab, riots
‘We write to heal, the healing process never started in Punjab.’ Read on here.
Tags: 1984, military school, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, riots, sodomy
Anuradha Goyal was herself growing up in Punjab in the 80s. In her review she says:
She says: ‘Author beautifully brings out the impact of external and internal violence in the life of a teenager in mid 1980s. It is an important piece of literature for a turbulent phase of Punjab written with an intensity that takes you back to the time.’
Please read her review.
Tags: 1984, military school, Mrs. Gandhi assasination, Operation Bluestar, riots, sodomy