So I am completely new to Sikhawareness ( page) and only became aware of it due to Dalsingh’s postings, specifically because for years he has been putting links up to my works for years which I only really discovered fairly recently. Then I decided to try and respond to him and naturally I was asked to sign up, so I have.
I am a British born Sikh, whose real name is Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon, and at school Ioved reading fiction, to the point I did an English Literature GCSE and then A level.
I am of the generation that always wondered why there aren’t any positive Sikh Characters in English Literature so I embarked on a journey which started at the V&A exhibition of the 300th anniversary of the Sikh Khalsa and ended up being this unpaar in Punjabi ( meaning no punjabi lessons were ever taken) learnt the Painti Alphabet and then thought now what…and promptly attempted to write in Punjabi to mainly counteract the kind of fiction our parents generation wrote.
Why? Because in it all British born punjabis ( Sikh or otherwise) were portrayed in a negative light and by those who don’t know what it is like growing up with both cultures.
So 20 years later, here I am, an amateur Punjabi Fiction Writer.
So Why am I posting this?
Dalsingh has given me the impression there may well be others out there like me who have been raised here, can read Punjabi, but not relate to the Punjabi of Punjabi Fiction or those locals and experiences and need Literature to read that either reflects their lives and thoughts or touches on fields that traditional Punjabi Literature doesn’t. Such as Science fiction, Spy stories, etc etc.. I can do a post about that later.
The reason I have done this post is a kind of a challenge to those of you who can read Punjabi but maybe would like to write fiction and particularly in an imaginative way as i have heard punjabi students have never been taught to write like that or think like that…
So here is Photo I found on the net and I have written below it in Punjabi, my attempt at writing an imaginative description..Would love to see others who are up to the challenge sharing their attempts..
i'm no expert at all at Punjabi, and there may be errors, but I hope I have at least attempted something that depicts the photo in words. Certainly I will remain a student all my life...Be interesting to you your interpretations
I don't know how strong other people feel about what I am going to say
1) Where a word already exists in the punjabi dictionary we should learn it and get into habit of using it
2) however where we need NEW words that are business, science or technological I am against always adapting the from English but also super against them being sanskrit based words no normal punjabi can use.
3) Where we we need to adopt words they don't always have to be from English. Not sure how you feel about it but I find the way chips ( UK meaning) or stawberries are said in Punjabi it sounds wrong and its embarrassing when UK kids call the Punjabis freshies for doing it. Pizza is a bag bear as punjabis say it with the zz but that doesn't matter as its such a common word it has become the punjabi word..I feel there are other languages that have similar rhythm to punjabi that can be adopted from if necessary. For Example Spanish. In the case of Chips I prefer to say Freet ( literal punjabi way of saying the French Frite ) or Fragula for Stawberries from Italian and I use these in my writings. What is the view of others?
4) Just coin new words, eg for Aquarium in Pakistan they say MuchiGhar, but I have used ਜਲਪਿੰਜਰ in my stories used which seems popular amongst my readers anyway.
Anyhow I think I'll enjoy listing actual words from Punjabi dictionaries here as well as trying my ideas for point 2 above
ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ got a reaction from dalsingh101 in Panjabi Vocabulary Builder Thread
ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ got a reaction from GurjantGnostic in Punjabi Literature : Descriptive Writing Challenge
