Canadian-Indian writer’s quest for roots
Gayatri Rajwade
(Reproduced With the courtesy of Tribune dated 3rd April 2007)

She started her writing career with Russian Embassy’s bi-weekly “Soviet Land” in Mumbai many decades ago.

The next phase of her life came 16 years later, in 1973, only after she had become chief editor of the magazine.

She quit to move bag and baggage to Canada and today, Canadian-Indian writer Minnie Grewal is the author of four books (not in Russian but in Punjabi!).

She also has a collection of short stories coming out in Hindi soon and is hard at work on her next two writing projects.

What makes Minnie’s foray into Chandigarh from Canada interesting is that she is here to research a story that is very close to her heart, one of her heritage and her roots.

“It is the story of the history of my village, Mehma Singh Wala, (Ludhiana district), through the life and times of my ancestors particularly my grandfather Bachan Singh Grewal, who was an advocate in Ludhiana and Nabha,” she explains.

While the subject may seem slender to the lay reader, what Minnie hopes to encompass is “hope” in her story.

“I am constantly told by young people in this country that there is no future here. My great-grandfather was a farmer in the village. His son, my grandfather, went out, got his law degree and was a gold medallist. He then supposedly went on to become the Chief Justice of Nabha, that too in the time of the British. So, why cannot youngsters today, with all the opportunities, do this too?”

However, many kilometres and dusty roads later, all that she has managed to discover in the course of her travels around the region is a man deeply steeped in philanthropy but not much else.

“He was a prolific writer and helped establish schools for girls and boys. He was a champion of women’s rights and derided caste and the difference it brought within communities.”

But there is little else. “Even the title of Chief Justice is something I heard of but there are no references to this to be found.”

All she personally has to draw on are her earliest memories of her grandfather, before he passed away in 1951.

“He loved me very much and used to call me ‘pahwa’ (referring to the four legs of the bed) since I was as short as them,” she smiles.

She remembers him reading out science books to her. “He opened up the world of planets, the sun and the moon to me. He used to ask me how long a train would take to go from the earth to the sun.”

Next in line is “something on my Russian experience.” After all if Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are her idea of light reading, she sure is equipped to handle the subject.

(Copyright 'Tribune' News)

(14 April 2007) Unicode