Amritsar (Kuljit Singh) Under the able guidance of Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Prof. (Dr.) Karamjit Singh Ji and under the guidance of Dr. Manjinder Singh (Head, School of Punjabi Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar), the School of Punjabi Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar organized a meeting with renowned expatriate Punjabi writer Shri Jarnail Singh. At the beginning, Dr. Manjinder Singh welcomed the guests by offering them saplings. In his welcome remarks, he said that migration is not only a physical phenomenon but more than that, it is a psychological phenomenon. Therefore, its multidisciplinary study is very important in the present times. He said that Jarnail Singh is a renowned expatriate Punjabi storyteller. His stories paint a vivid picture of the life experience of Punjabi immigrants living in North America. Later, Mr. Jarnail Singh said that he was born on June 15, 1944, in Hoshiarpur district.
He studied up to tenth standard from Nasrala High School. Being a bright student, he passed tenth standard with first division. He got the taste for literature from his family. He came to know many subtleties of narration from the stories told by his grandfather. He had a great desire to study further, but due to family difficulties, he could not get higher education at that time. He joined the Indian Air Force in 1962. By joining the Air Force, he has seen the cruelty of war very closely. During his service, he got the opportunity to read novels by Nanak Singh, Jaswant Singh Kanwal and Gurdial Singh. In this context, he realized that the genre of short stories is the best medium to express human emotions. He married Kulwant Kaur in 1967. He fulfilled his desire for higher education while serving in the Air Force. He first completed his Intermediate, then his BA and then two Masters in English and Punjabi. After 15 years, he left the Air Force. Then for eleven years, he worked as a ‘Field Economics Investigator’ in the grade of Accountant at the Central Cooperative Bank, Hoshiarpur.
In 1988, he migrated to Canada. He worked as a supervisor for 20 years in a renowned security company of Canadian ex-servicemen in Toronto. During this time, struggle, labor, hard work, and sincerity have been the main principles of his life. Giving information about his creative process, he said that his story can be considered as three stages of art. He wrote three collections of stories in India – ‘Meinu Ki’, ‘Manukh Te Manav’ and ‘Sameen De Haani’. These collections are mainly about peasant and military life. The next three collections – ‘Do Tappu’, ‘Towers’ and ‘Kaale Varke’ were written by him while living in Canada. These stories are not limited to Punjabi Canadians, white characters have also appeared in them in a full form. There is conflict and tension between Eastern and Western cultures in his stories and there is also a fusion. These stories with unique storytelling style, fictional consciousness and creative vision form the second phase of his storytelling.
In the stories of the third phase, he has exposed the cruel motives of capitalism and neo-colonialism which are depriving man of his human qualities and human dignity. These stories are related to international issues. After this, Dr. Balwinder Singh (Head, Punjabi Department, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Drauli Kalan) said that in Jarnail Singh’s stories, he has fictionalized issues such as 9/11, the display of women’s bodies in the name of fashion and modeling, the inhuman treatment of Canadian natives by white colonialists, the immorality of America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, pollution in the environment and human behavior, consumerism and profiteering, etc. The Assistant Professor of the Department, Dr. Harinder Kaur Sohal, thanked the guests and said that Jarnail Singh’s sincerity is exemplary and worthy of praise.
The role of stage management was played by the Assistant Professor of the Department, Dr. Baljit Kaur Riar, excellently. He said that Jarnail Singh is the first storyteller to transform untouched topics related to international issues into artistic narrative, which has broadened the thematic scope of the expatriate Punjabi story. At this time, Dr. Rajwinder Kaur, Mr. Praveen Puri (Director, Public Relations) Dr. Kanwaljit Kaur, Dr. Kanwaldeep Kaur, Dr. Jaspal Singh, Dr. Harinder Singh Tur, Dr. Ashok Bhagat, Dr. Chandanpreet Singh, Dr. Anju Bala, Prof. Ravinder Kaur besides many scholars and experts also attended this event.