Chandigarh, July 18 (Inditop.com) Creating the twin of an Indian village in faraway Canada might seem improbable even for the Punjabis, who are known all over the world as a progressive community. But the little known village of Paldi in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district already has a namesake near Vancouver.
The existence of the twin villages separated by several thousand kilometres has been highlighted by Canadian Kathryn Myra Spencer in her debut novel “Paldi”.
“The book is spread across both Paldis, in Punjab and in Vancouver, and spans the years from 1958 to 2008,” Kathryn, a clinical psychologist, said at a book reading here.
To bridge the cultural divide, the author came dressed in a Punjabi ‘kurti’.
The novel itself is about two women — one in Vancouver’s Paldi and the other in Punjab’s Paldi. While Ella (who the author says resembles her) from Vancouver yearns for a life in the East, Anita (who is based on the life of Prabhjot, a woman from Punjab’s Paldi) seeks to adopt the values of the Western world.
The storyline deals with issues like the geographical and ethical divide, generation gap and life in the respective homes. Both protagonists yearn to visit the other Paldi.
The tale of the two Paldis begins from the story of immigrant Mayo Singh Manhas, a resident of Paldi in Punjab, 150 km from here, who migrated to Canada in the 1950s and set up a lumber village of the same name in British Columbia province of Canada.
For Kathryn, who lives near Lake Cowichan near Vancouver, the attraction of the Canadian Paldi started years ago. Always attracted to India in the pursuit of God, Kathryn stumbled upon the idea of penning a novel on Paldi when she learnt three years ago that a village by this name originally existed in Punjab.
Though the novel is partly fictitious and partly spiritual, the reality of the two Paldis is quite evident. In fact, the fiction is drawn from real experiences of residents of the two Paldis whom the author met over a period of time.
Kathryn got first-hand experiences from people in Vancouver’s Paldi, including Punjabi, Chinese and Japanese students who came to her elementary school there.
“The atmosphere of the village (in Canada) was so unique. They lived like one big family and spoke their native (Punjabi) language. Exotic food, spices, Punjabi suits, pickles — everything was part of their life. I was inspired to write something that honours the affinity between the two villages,” the author pointed out.
