In an unusual trip out of our home, my mother, Inderjit Kaur Sandhu, released the book Jat Sikh Women-Social Transformation: Changing Status and Lifestyle, by Amarinder Sandhu, at the Chandigarh Press Club on Saturday, August 30.

Amarinder has done extensive research on the subject and was particularly keen that my mother release her book, I suspect not only because of Inderjit Kaur Sandhu’s achievements, which are considerable—she was Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala (1975-1977), and chairperson, Staff Selection Commission (1980-1988), but also because she is considered an exemplar for Jat Sikh women.

Speaking extempore and choosing to address the audience in Punjabi, the one and only woman Vice-Chancellor of a university in northern India, spoke about the early steps taken to empower women through education in the state, dating back to 1890 when Bhai Takhat Singh started Sikh Kanya Mahavidalya, Ferozepore. A boarding school for girls opened four years later and in Barnala by Bibi Pardhan Kaur, daughter of Baba Ala Singh, the founder of Patiala dynasty also started a school for women.

Education produced eminent daughters in Punjab include Serla Grewal (Government College for Women, Ludhiana), Kiran Bedi (Government College for Women, Amritsar) who rose to commanding heights.

Commenting on the book, she went into some detail about the survey and contrasted the lack of education and decision-making power among women in the area under study, with the rosy picture that had she had mentioned earlier. She also lamented that some parts of Punjab were still living in dark ages. She also criticised the morally reprehensible murder of unborn daughters of Punjab that had just not stopped.

Amarinder’s book is an important documentation of the changing face of rural Punjab, and was the subject of her PhD thesis. The book, published by Unistar Books, a Chandigarh-based company.

Meeting Amarinder’s PhD guide took me back to my younger days when I would visit my mother at the university at Patiala. “You used to come from St Stephen’s and visit Prof H S Gill’s house,” she remembered.

We also met many other friends after a long time. The book release was widely covered in the media. My friend Baljit Singh has made a video and I am trying to have that put on the Net too.

My mother’s day out was a memorable one.

Read report in The Tribune

An integral part of our growing up years, Readers’ Digest was a window to the wonders that lay beyond our immediate geographical constraints. The news of its US parent filing for Chapter 11 to reorganise the company brought along a flood of memories and this resulted in my writing a small piece that was published as middle on the editorial page of The Tribune on Tuesday. From the number of phone calls that I received from complete strangers, it stuck a chord among others also for whom Readers’ Digest was a staple. Please click here to read the article.

An annual, low-key engagement this time of the year in Chandigarh is meeting participants of the Summer Program in Punjab Studies run by the dedicated Prof Gurinder Singh Mann. For the 13^th year, he has brought together a bright group of academics who have an interest in Punjab and its various aspects.  Prof Mann was at Columbia University when I lived in New York in the 1980s and I have fond memories of that time. Please click here to see my report on the group.

Patwant Singh was a truly multi-faceted personality. He was the polished face of the Sikhs in the later decades of his life. Patwant Singh was born in New Delhi, the city in which he died on August 7, 2009. In the 1980s I lived near his house because my mother, Inderjit Kaur, was Chairman, Staff Selection, Commission. She and my father, Giani Gurdit Singh, and sometimes I too, would meet Patwant Singh at his house. He was a good house-proud person and I have great memories of that time in the early 1980, when I was still studying.

Incidentally, I also have the honour of being a co-author, with him and Khushwant Singh, of a book that is just been published—Women, Many hues, Many shades.

Please click here to read my obituary of this great writer, perceptive thinker and truly an aesthete.

I have always had to share my mother with not only members of our family, but also thousands of her students, and many of her colleagues. She balanced her life in such a way that family got its time, even as her professional accomplishments demanded more and more from her. At times we wondered how she managed all that, but to children the jump from reading Superman comics to expecting a Supermother was a simple, almost a logical one.

We have reason to celebrate her life and accomplishments since Doordarshan has made a documentary on her in Punjabi, which lead to a renewal of ties with many, many old friends. Please click here to see the film, which was been broadcast many times over the DD Jalandhar and DD Regional channels since it was originally telecast in July 13, 2009.
TV critic Randeep Wadhera wrote about the programme and its subject  in the Saturday Extra section of The Tribune on August1.   Please click here to read his comments.