In Search Of Meaningfulness Of Relationships

Writer: Sukhinder
Sadhu Binning’s poetry collection ‘Yaar Mera Dariya’ (River My Friend) could be called an experiment in search of the meaningfulness of relationships.
This search is not limited to the human relationships only; rather, this journey of search extends to the human surroundings leading upto the relationship of man and nature. Sadhu Binning’s poems talk about human relationships extending to the boundaries of space, time and matter. These poems also talk about our cultural, political and economic relationships.
These poems also talk about the distinction between the Eastern and Western cultures. Sometimes, after reading these poems, one gets a feeling that writer of these poems is showing a little bit too much emotion towards the Eastern culture.
Discussion about the Sadhu Binning’s poetry collection ‘Yaar Mera Dariya’ can be initiated with the following piece of his poem ‘Dialogue with the poetry’:
Poetry is
to show affection towards people
to sing songs of
their pains and sufferings
in hour of need
to hold flag high for our rights
In this book, Sadhu Binning feels the need to tell that man has a very deep relationship with the poetry. Since the ancient times poetry has been with the man at all the times. Human spirit speaks through the poetry. Through the words of poetry man has learnt to express his desires, wishes, pains, sufferings, happiness, sadness and emotions. Thus giving them an emotional meaning to make one realize of its own existence. Through our poetic expressions, we not only like to express ourselves through this mode of expression; rather, we also start vibrations in the consciousness of our listener/reader. Thus it results as an inspiration for every nano particle of his body to get into the mode of galactic dance. That makes a beginning of establishing our relationship with it.
Banks of rivers became the cradle of human civilization. In the beginning of human civilization man settled on the banks of rivers. Perhaps, this helped to cement the foundations of friendship between man and the river. Rivers not only became the source of his survival; they also became means for his transportation too. River shares his pain, suffering and celebrations as a close friend. In these millions of years friendship between man and river became natural. In this process of mutual relationship development man also started feeling the pain of the rivers. Sadhu Binning understands this mutual relationship between man and the river very well:
When some
big commercial boat
floats with a speed on its waters
angery river throws pebbles
lying on its banks in disgust
and throws foam in anguish
and when hens
float together in rows
or a couple sitting in a small boat
paddles slowly
river flows silently
as if dancing with joy

river my friend
unfolds his heart in this fashion
(Yaar Mera Dariya)
Just as Sadhu Binning talks about the friendship between the man and his surroundings, he also talks about man’s friendship with the grass:
During my stroll grass asks
you never sit down with me
and share your moments of joys and pain
neither you ever sing any song
once a while you just come worn out
and leave exhausted

Is it true you don’t remember anymore
gossips you enjoyed with your friends
sharing singing with your sweatheart
all those sweet moments of life sitting on me
spent moments playing with my roots
you have become an alien for me
as someone becomes an outsider
for its own self
(On a Stroll)
Unending greed of man has not only destroyed the natural resources; rather, it has also polluted its own surrounding environment to its maximum. By throwing industrial trash in the rivers and streams it has planted seeds of its own destruction. Emission of poisonous gases from the chimneys of factories is making the environment poisonous. With the increase of pollution in the environment global warming is on its increase. That’s resulting in earthquakes, tornadoes are coming, hurricanes are creating a havoc, and sunamy waves are killing hundreds and thousands of people. Hundreds of kinds of new diseases are spreading. Man’s eternal survival on our planet earth could be possible only through the development of a healthy relationship of man with its surroundings, environment and trees. If man will try to run away from this truth then it will be cultivating thorns under its own feet. Sadhu Binning is also conscious of man’s breaking relationships with air, grass and trees:
During my stroll
air tells me
grass asks
trees complain
(On my stroll)
There is one notable difference in Eastern and Western Cultures - Life Style. In the eastern cultures the family values are given utmost importance; but in comparison western cultures put more emphasis on the individuality. With the expansion of the consumer culture, with the increasing urge to fill their houses with the dazzling consumer goods some people are forgetting that homes are not built by piling up your homes with consumer goods. But existence of these houses is possible only due to the healthy relationships of human beings living in those houses. Sadhu Binning is also experiencing such feelings:
My new house is shining
full with dazzling goods
a good view for the eyes but

this doesn’t satisfy the inner emptyness
or
now this new shining house
is empty even with its fulness
deprived of memories and stories
(Home)
Canada is a country of immigrants. People have come here from every part of the world to get settled here. Majority of them have come here due to economic reasons. Such people might be enjoying much happiness and comfortable life in their new adopted country Canada as compared to their old country of birth they have left behind - but they will never feel in tune with the surroundings, environment, weather of Canada. Whenever they get an opportunity, they express their homesickness for their birthplace. Remembering the fields, rivers, environment and weather of their homeland they feel sad. Showering praises on their homeland they cross all the boundaries. Reading of Sadhu Binning’s poem ‘White Fairy’ we experience similar feelings:
I shiver
coming close to you
to play with you
to slip over you
i don’t feel an urge
as in a torrential rain
in unpaved streets
my heart would get excited
(White Fairy)
But among the Canadian Punjabi poets, Sadhu Binning is not the only such poet who writes poems expressing homesickness. One can also find such expressions of yearnings in the poems of many other Canadian Punjabi poets. Especially in the writings of such writers who even after living a long time in Canada mentally fail to adjust themselves with the Canadian cultural, social, economic and political environment.
In his poetry collection ‘Yaar Mera Dariya’ Sadhu Binning talks about many other subjects too.
Talking about the relationship of man and woman, without any hesitation, Sadhu Binning accepts that for centuries in order to preserve its control over the woman the man dominated society has put her under several kinds of mental slavery. This is the reason that the absence of man and woman’s relationships based on mutual understanding in many houses instead of husband and wife living like sweethearts they are living like enemies. That’s why they live like husbands and wives merely for a worldly show off. Such couples mentally and emotionally many times even physically attack each other and do not shirk even to severly injure each other. For such unstable human relationships responsibility also falls on our religious, cultural, social, literary, philosophical and political institutions who are providing them false knowledge. In which woman has been called as illiterate, animal and a foot shoe. Through the following stanza of his poem Sadhu Binning shows as how wrong definition of man and woman relationships embeded in our cultural traditions has been responsible for centuries for the destruction of human relationships. In this poem Sadhu Binning is pointing towards this facts very boldly:
And you
had decorated your body with
modesty, humbleness, obedience
your part of traditions had
instructed you
with your weapons
to win over my fiery arrows
guarding your weapons
clad in your glittering sari
just like me, you were also absent
in your own life’s celebrations
it was meant to be like this, our bed
a comic battleground
and in which as always
it was you who was meant to get injured
and it did happen
What really impresses while reading Sadhu Binning’s poetry is the reminder that in the journey of our life in celebrations, in moments of sadness, in moments of achievements, in moments of frustrations we should never forget that our ultimate dream is the development of the healthy relationships. These relationships could be human, cultural, social, political, economic, environmental or about our surroundings.
To develop an awareness of the meaningfulness of human relationships in the minds of the readers could be considered as the chief motive of the Sadhu Binnings poetry collection ‘Yaar Mera Dariya’.
In my views, any writer who commits for such an aim of his creation is not a small thing to achieve.
For his such an achievement, my best wishes are with Sadhu Binning.
(Malton, September 10, 2008)

In Search Of Mythology From The Contemporary History

Writer: Sukhinder
Gurcharan Rampuri is a well known Canadian Punjabi poet.
He had published his poetry collection ‘Agnaar’ (Fireplace) in 1993. Before that Rampuri had published ‘Kanakan Di Khusbo’ (Fragrance of Wheat), ‘Kaul Karar’ (Promise), ‘Kiran Da Alna’ (Nest of Rays), ‘Annhi Gali’ (Dark Cave), ‘Kanchni’ (Breakable), and ‘Katalgah’ (Lethal Chamber). He is active in the field of punjabi poetry writing since 1949.
Rampuri is a conscious progressive poet. As a creative poet, he is never in search of any metaphysical truth. He is only concerned with the joys, sorrows, wishes, hopes and frustrations confronting the common man in his life time. In his poetry, he makes fun of the traditional value system. In more explicit words it can be said that Rampuri is a Canadian poet writing poems which promote humanistic values in our society.
Majority of the poems included in the poetry collection ‘Agnaar’ are about the Punjab crises. Reading of those poems gives an impression that Gurcharan Rampuri is a mythological punjabi poet. He analyzes contemporary history with glasses of mythology on his eyes.
From 1985-1991 Punjab, a province of India, was going through a great upheaval. Majority of the poems included in ‘Agnaar’ were written during that period. This period was full of crises for the Punjabis. Selfish political rulers and misguided leaders were responsible for giving birth to this crises in India. During this time the people in power had given an opportunity to the religious fanatics to flourish so that they can use these people to finish their opposition. Religious fanatic forces with the instigation of the ruling class created such an environment of terrorism that common masses were feeling it hard to live in these times. In this situation common people were crushed from both sides. On one hand religious fundamentalist terrorists were making them target of the bursts coming from their AK-47 machine guns; on the other hand people were facing oppression inflicted on them by the police. Punjab police was inflicting oppression by making an excuse that these people are providing shelter to the religious fanatic terrorists.
To understand the poems of Gurcharan Rampuri written during this period we can start our discussion with his poem ‘Talk of Changhezs of our Times’ :
While criticizing the Changhez Khans of yesterday
dear comrades !
let us not forget the Changhezs our times
it is true that the history of
old oppressive times
is drenched in blood
but its not so much dangerous
as the Harnaksh Aurange of our times
to spill blood of the people
who initiate riots
in the name of color race
in the full day light
who insult the humanity everyday
Rampuri is a poet of clarity. Talking of mythology and history he emphasizes that we often talk of oppressors / assassins of old times; but we hesitate to talk about the oppression inflicted upon the common people by the vicious rulers of our own time. Today’s rulers are even more dangerous oppressors in comparison to the rulers of old times. They only care for getting into power. To keep their hold on the power they incite people to fight with each other in the name of religion, color, race and caste and spit rivers of blood of the innocent people. When the mentality of rulers is like that of murderers then how they can do justice with the people? In his poem ‘Dwarf Heads’ Rampuri has very beautifully portrayed the images of narrow minded and animal like criminals, sick with their ego, who are sitting on the power seats as rulers :
Hope of justice
in that court is not possible
whose judges can be bought
today’s juries, courts, conventions
dwarf heads are sitting in power seats
People sitting in the seats of power, merely for the sake of a momentary fun, incite people to get into feuds based on their religion, color, race, caste and they, even, put the security of the whole country in danger. Rampuri’s poem ‘Hanuman, Prince & Sarbokhad Mountain’ can help us to understand such kind of political corruption :
Today, on the seat of the judge
a murderer is sitting
that’s why in every city
daggers swords tridents
fake slogans and gun powder
are roaming, sniffing the blood
of the innocent human beings
It is a tragedy of our times that people with corrupt mentality and dwarf heads, in order to achieve their illicit aims, install corrupt people on the chairs of cultural and religious institutions. As a consequence, these protege incite the common masses in the name of religion, race, color, gender. To start riots they spread hatred by giving speeches like deadly poisonous cobras which are full of religious fanatic slogans.
Such religious fanatic goons are roaming without any fear in many provinces of India; but during the period of 1985-1992 the way such religious fanatic terrorists had terrorized the people of Punjab and the way people of Punjab had suffered no other province of India had ever experienced. Without any hesitation, Rampuri considers leaders of the ruling class at that time responsible for this pain inflicted on the people of Punjab. These criminal minded politicians incited a fundamentalist religious saint of Punjab to disturb the peace of the province. This religious fundamentalist saint in the name of religion and to murder innocent people of Punjab made alliances with goons, murderers and terrorists. These gangs of religious fundamentalist criminals and murderers murdered innocent people travelling in cars, vans, trucks, trains and walking on roads with the bursts coming from their AK-47 machine guns. By murdering thousands of innocent Punjabi’s these religious goons filled the streets, fields and roads of Punjab with the blood coming from the bodies of the people killed. Rampuri is brave and very explicit in his poem ‘Sinners’ when he shatters the masks of these political leaders who were responsible in criminalizing the politics of Punjab. Rampuri becomes very rigid when he points out such criminal minded politicians:
He is guilty
who put a fake jewel on the
head of a powerless snake
fed him milk
at higher places popularized him
arranged concert
poisonous cobra
made garland of his own neck
To understand majority of poems of the poetry collection ‘Agnaar’ one ought to have knowledge of the Indian mythology and political, social, cultural & religious happenings that took place in Punjab during the period of 1978-1993. By having such knowledge readers of Rampuri’s poems will be able to understand easily that when Rampuri talks about some very popular character of Indian mythology then he is giving reference of some political/social/cultural/religious leader or character who had emerged in Punjab, India during this time period of crises. Rampuri’s such poems are not of single layer. To understand these poems you have to get into the cellers of Indian mythology/history. You have to do a little bit dusting of times to recognize the characters buried under the dust and we have to recognize in what form these characters have taken birth in our times once again. To understand this fact Rampuri’s poem ‘Still Duryodan Is In Power In Hustanapur’ can help us:
Prince is telling the lies :
‘when the big tree falls
then earth experiences tremors’
saying this, he let out the wolves
after the innocents
the prince himself hiding in the palace
In his book ‘Agnaar’ Rampuri is not merely talking about the Punjab crises or political corruption in India; rather, he has initiated a dialogue on many other subjects as well.
People of Indian descent are very proud of their thousands of years old Indian culture. In present times, India has made great progress economically and in the areas of science and technology. But it is still backward in the social and cultural areas. For centuries Indian society has not been able to get freedom from the leprosy of caste system. Still in many areas of India, in the name of caste system, people of higher castes are terrorizing people of lower castes. They are burning their houses. Their wives, daughters, daughter-in-laws are gang raped. They are not allowed to enter the religious places. They are not even allowed to take drinking water from those wells which are used by the people of higher castes. This leprosy of caste system was spread in the Indian society by a man named Mannu. Today, rulers of India for the sake of show off can make as much noise as they like to proclaim that India is a free country; but the reality is different. Still today poor and lower caste people are trampled under the feet of rich and people of higher castes in the name of caste based divisions created in the Indian society by Mannu. India will not be able to call itself a free country until Indian society gets itself free forever from caste based divisions created by the ‘Mannuism’ by giving equal rights to every man and woman living in India. Rampuri has very effectively described such pathetic situation of the Indian society in his poem ‘Ashes Forward Mind Backward’:
Millions of creative hands are busy
progress has been made in thousands of ways
but still the impact of
four divisions in society made by Mannu
has not been reduced
ashes are forward but mind backward
there is hue and cry among masses
Rampuri believes that our society confronts such problems when people stop thinking themselves and they start trusting blindly each thing they hear. In our times, people are so busy in their day-to-day lives that they have no time to investigate the facts to confirm the things they hear. They have no time to investigate the facts presented to them. The root cause of many human problems in our day to day lives is the baseless propaganda of lies spread by cunning and opportunist people. In his poem ‘Let The House Think Again’ Rampuri tells these people as how they can come out of such a dangerous situation. His suggestions are certainly of great significance. That’s why after reading the following piece of Rampuri’s poetry, we get acquainted with the philosophical aspects of his poetry too:
Let this house to learn to think once again
teach him how to keep silent
tell him: search meditation and get into it
kick the crown throne power
sing songs of truth once again
‘Word’ has played a great role in the progress of human civilzation. Knowledge and science also spreads through words. We are able to get acquainted with the progress made during thousands of years of human civilization through the medium of words. By making wrong use of words some people have inflicted pain and destruction on the humanity. Nazis like Hitler and Musolini had used the medium of word for the wider propaganda of oppression. But thousands of years of history of the human civilization is a proof that great minds have always used the medium of words for the betterment of the humanity.
Gurcharan Rampuri’s poetry collection ‘Agnaar’ creates awareness on the political, cultural, social, religious, economical, mythological and historical level. It makes the Canadian Punjabi literature richer in many ways. For writing and publishing such a worthwhile poetry book, my best wishes are with Rampuri.
 (Malton, September 21, 2008)

Dreams Of Migration And Realities - Article

Writer: Sukhinder
Canadian Punjabi novelists presenting the lives of the migrants on realistic level in their novels are not in a big number yet.

Canadian punjabi novelist Jarnail Singh Sekha has attracted the attention of the punjabi readers by presenting the life of migrants in a very interesting and realistic manner in his novel ‘Bhagora’. Happenings continue to happen very naturally and the reader never feels that anything in this novel is extra or it has no purpose.

Character development of this novel has been done in such a way that none of the characters seems to be extra in the novel. Every character appears in the novel at the right moment and talks according to the need of that moment.

Diction of the novel creates such a good feeling in your mind that at no place the characters of the novel become boring.

In developing the plot of the novel, problems related to immigrant life have been presented in a realistic manner.

In his effort to make ‘Bhagora’ novel more interesting Sekha has made use of theatrical elements. On such theatrical moments characters present their views on social, cultural, economical, political and religious matters. In this way through the characters of the novel the beliefs of the novelist also become obvious.

After reading this novel one also becomes aware that thousands of people after selling their houses, fields, property and after paying thousands of dollars to the immigrant agents want to reach Canada through illegal means. On their arrival in Canada, they want to get rich within a couple of years. But when after their arrival here they have to work hard, day and night, sometimes, even 18 hours per day and when they are also exploited by the businessmen of their own community they realize the realities of the immigrant life. They start feeling that they have wasted bigger parts of their lives merely in paying mortgages of their homes, hydro bills and installment fees of their immigration lawyers. Then they realize that the kind of life they had dreamed they would be living here in Canada is no where to be seen. They found that the life here is very tough. They don’t even get the time to think about the life they are wasting in this way.

Novelist Sekha also brings out this thing crystal clear in this novel that no single community or culture has all the good people. He also emphasizes that every culture has some bad things along with good things. The same way among the followers of any culture there are always some bad apples too. This is the reason, the novelist Sekha wants to remind us that if anything bad happens in a culture you should not blame everyone who believes in that culture to be responsible for this.

In the novel ‘Bhagora’ the main female character Dressler who being from German culture and Christian religion genuinely falls in love with the main male character of this novel Sukhbir who comes from punjabi culture and believes in Sikh religion. Dressler helps Sukhbir in everyway to reach Canada and get settled there. Though Sukhbir doesn’t care for Dressler’s sacrifices she had made for him and always dreams of getting married and living his life with his first girl friend Surekha he had left behind in India.

People belonging to many cultures and religions are living in Canada. In this novel ‘Bhagora’ novelist Sekha also speaks in favor of this thing that if the people belonging to different cultures and religions in Canada will marry their sons / daughters with women / men of different cultures and religions it will give strength to the multiculturalism in Canada. In this way people of Canada will be able to live with each other with more love and affection. However, narrow minded people will keep themselves imprisoned in the limits of their own religions / cultures / castes and as a consequence keep on bringing new crises everyday for their family members.

Canada is a country of immigrants. Except Canada’s Native people who are the native Canadians, everyone has arrived in Canada as an immigrant one way or another.

Novel ‘Bhagora’ has been developed around its main male character Sukhbir who arrives in Canada from punjab, India through illegal ways with dreams of becoming an immigrant.

Most of the immigrants have arrived in Canada mainly due to two reasons.

First reason for immigrants to come to Canada is the corrupt politics in their homelands. As a consequence of corrupt politics lives of such people were in danger either from the oppression inflicted on them by the police or by the agents of the secret spying agencies or their lives were in danger due to the religious fundamentalist terrorism.

Second reason for the immigrants to come to Canada is to live a better life as compared to the kind of life they were living in their previous countries they had left behind.

India’s province of Punjab was suffering from the effects of the Khalistani Terrorist Movement from 1978 to 1995. As a consequence, the people of Punjab were living in a continuous state of fear of becoming victims of violence at the hands of the Khalistani terrorists. At the same time people were also facing oppression at the hands of the Punjab police who was torturing and terrorizing innocent people in the name of controlling the Khalistani terrorist elements. To put a halt to the increasing influence of the Khalistani terrorists in Punjab India’s government had given a free hand to the Punjab police and the Central Reserve Police to shoot anyone who was a suspected terrorist or was posing a threat to their security. During this period, the Punjab police butchered thousands of Punjabi young men calling them suspected Khalistani terrorists. In the name of getting information from them about the Khalistani terrorists they were taken to the police interrogation centres where they were tortured so much that they were left like living dead bodies. Police broke their legs, their arms or they were given so many electric shocks that they lost their mental equilibrium forever. Thousands of innocent Punjabi young men were killed by the Punjab police by making fake encounters. In this way, these corrupt Punjab police officers filled their pockets with the prize money which was announced by the government of India for killing top Khalistani terrorist leaders and their army commanders.

During these days period of the Khalistani Terrorist movement emergence in Punjab the main character of this novel Sukhbir was a student of a university in Punjab and was living in a student hostel in the university campus.

The novel begins with the romantic flirtation of the main character Sukhbir with a woman named Surekha.

Thus, ‘Bhagora’ could also be called a romantic realistic novel. The novel begins with happenings connected with the romance of the main character Sukhbir and ends with the happenings related to his romance. Novelist Sekha has ended the novel ‘Bhagora’ in a very interesting way. Novelist tells us that many Punjabi immigrants spend their whole lives in this illusion that their culture is much better than other cultures. By becoming victims of such an illusion, they miss many golden opportunities of developing better relationships with people of other cultures. Sukhbir too as a victim of such illusions loses friendship of his best friend German woman Dressler:

“Dressler had walked away leaving him behind. Surekha had not shared even a single word with him. Madam Pal had also rejected him. At that time, he was considering himself alone. This loneliness was result of his own wrong thinking. What he had considered as just a minor thing had taken away everything from him. Both sides were hating him...”

Sukhbir had to leave India for the fear of the father of his first girl friend Surekha and he had to leave Germany for the fear of his second girl friend Dressler. Hanging like a ‘Threshenku’ (hanging between Heaven and Earth) between his two girl friends Sukhbir loses trust of both of them at the end of the novel. Because as an immigrant, in his new adopted country Canada, the glitter of life makes him selfish person and his girl friends do not remain as his first priority; even his girl friend of German background Dressler who had helped him in everyway in his tough days.

After keeping her like a mistress Sukhbir makes schemes to leave her. He is not ready to trust her because she was a woman who grew up in the western culture. It is a big problem among the migrant Punjabi’s that their children born in Canada feel at ease with children of other cultures and do not consider it a big thing if they decide to get married to them. But Punjabi parents still stuck with traditional values feel it tough to do so. Novelist Sekha has presented this confrontation of cultural and social values through the dialogues of the characters of his novel very effectively:

“Sukhe your thinking is very wrong, very wrong. Many white women have married our boys and have they gone anywhere after deserting them? I can see all those white women who have married our boys all of them are living very happily in their homes....similarly all those our women who have married white men they are also living happily in their homes...Cindi Hakins M.L.A. is an example before you...do not call white men and women untrustworthy...”

In this novel while it has been shown that the immigrant agents are exploiting those ones who are eager to go to other countries; at the same time in this novel it has also been shown that such immigrant agents are only concerned about as how they can make thousands of dollars from these would be immigrants. So many people lose their lives while trying to travel from one country to another through illegal means with the help of these travel agents. The following dialogue of this novel ‘Bhagora’ presents this truth before us:

“All of your clients arrive at their destinations?”

“O yes, we try our best that every one reaches at his destination, but we cannot guarantee it. For example, a few days ago some men lost their lives by drowning in a river with their own fault. Some times, they are caught by the police.”

Similarly in this novel one more aspect of the lives of the immigrants has also been presented very beautifully. It tells how businessmen of our own community exploit those people who come here using illegal means and force such people to work in conditions which are only suitable for animals. By always putting a continuous fear in their minds that as illegals they could be arrested by the police; and they as the owners of the factories and businesses were making them feel that by giving them work these traders were showing kindness towards them:

“Sukhbir had always in his mind the fear of getting caught by the police and the anger against those business owners who were paying him less money. By this time, he was also aware of this fact that his co-workers were earning from two and a half thousand marks for the same amount of work but in comparison he was only making six hundred marks...”

Because majority of the characters in this novel are from Punjabi culture, hence, the novelist has also focused on many problems of the Punjabi culture as well. Those problems have been broughtforth by novelist Sekha through the exchange of views by the characters. The following words spoken by the German woman Dressler, the second girlfriend of the main character Sukhbir, draws our attention towards the problem of the followers of the Punjabi culture:

“You cannot judge the greatness of a religion from the existence of its principles engraved in its religious scriptures. You can only make judgments by observing the character of the followers of that religion.”

In the beginning of the novel the main character Sukhbir had to leave Punjab, India due to the emergence of the movement of the Khalistani terrorism as well as an increase in the police oppression. After reaching Canada Sukhbir feels that a sort of stagnation has come in the thinking of the Punjabi migrants. They were mentally still trying to live in those times which they had left behind so many years ago in their old country. After so many years, now, in Punjab, India, though there are no more Khalistani terrorist activities seen and the oppression of the police has also subsided; but in Canada, at a distance of thousands of miles, Khalistani terrorists are still getting importance. During the Baisakhi Khalsa Day parade in the celebration of the Baisakhi festival the supporters of the Khalistani terrorists still make slogans in favor of Khalistani terrorists. Sikh Gurdawaras of Malton, Brampton & Vancouver are still exhibiting big photographs of the Sikh Khalistani Terrorists in the food courts (Langar Halls). After reading in the novel ‘Bhagora’ the description of the feuds taking place in the Sikh Gurdawaras in Canada in which Sikh Khalistani terrorists have been shown swinging their swords and injuring men, women and children one feels sad to realize that even after coming at a distance of thousands of miles from India, we have not been able to get rid of our bad habits:

“First they had a scuffle, then they brought out their swords. The head of the daughter of the president of the Sikh Gurdawara was injured. Someone’s arm was cut. Turbans of Sikhs were rolling under the feet of the Sikh hooligans shouting Khalistani slogans. It seemed as if Sikh Gurdawara was not a place of peace, rather it was a battlefield.”

Only at one or two places in the novel, one feels as if fake theatrical situation has been created. For example, the novelist shows that Surekha, the first girl friend of Sukhbir, is still waiting for his comeback in India. In the present day world educated women instead of getting into such confusion and waiting so long for someone who has gone to a foreign country find someone they really like and get married and enjoy their lives.

‘Bhagora’ can be considered as a successful romantic realistic novel written about the lives of the Punjabi migrants.

For writing such a fine novel, my best wishes are for Jarnail Singh Sekha.