Home
Fauji Banta Singh and other stories by Sadhu Binning (TSAR $20.95)
The title story of Sadhu Binning's Fauji Banta Singh and other stories, recalls a lonely old-timer named Fauji Banta Singh who served in the British Indian Army for sixteen years, including 1919 when the British massacred Punjabis in Amritsar.
A very religious Sikh who lived near the Ross Street gurdwara, Banta Singh longs to return to his birthplace. To cheer him up, the narrator of the story jokingly suggests finding him a white woman for a good time. The old man says, "Sometimes I do feel the desire to experience the touch of white skin at least once in my lifetime. You know, this country is really awful that way-it is so hard for a person to remain pious. Nobody hides anything... It is hard not to have sinful thoughts, even while one is reciting the sacred text-forgive me, my dear God.";
Then Fauji Banta Singh looks up to the sky, as he always did when addressing God. In old age, he recited the holy book countless times and prayed for the well-being of his children and grandchildren.";
"These are stories that I originally wrote in Punjabi,"; Binning says, "and then sort of recreated them in English making necessary changes to make them sound more suitable to English readers. English is my second language and I have had a love and hate relationship with it since my high school when I was regularly beaten by my English teacher for making simple mistakes. I can still feel the sting of his stick on my cold hands early winter mornings.";
In this collection, Binning concentrates on reflecting everyday lives to encompass "the successes and failures, the growing and painful irrelevance of the old, changing values and the conditions of the women, the place of religion and tradition, and the ever-present echoes of distant Indian politics and national extremism.";
Born in Chiheru, Punjab, India in 1947, Sadhu Binning immigrated to Canada in 1967. A founding member of Vancouver Sath, a theatre collective, and Ankur Magazine, Binning is a central figure in the Punjabi arts community. He sat on the BC Arts Board from 1993 to 1995. He has been on several advisory boards including Rangh Magazine. His writing has been included in close to thirty anthologies both in Punjabi and English. He has written several plays, fifteen books in Punjabi, four books of Punjabi poetry, two fiction collections in Punjabi, and one novel. Also a translator, he is a founding member of Punjabi Language Education Association and has actively promoted the Punjabi language in B.C. schools. He edited the literary monthly Watno Dur from 1977 to 1982 and he currently co-edits Watan, a Punjabi quarterly. He began teaching Punjabi at UBC in 1988, eventually becoming a professor of Punjabi language in the Department of Asian Studies.
978-1-927494-25-7
A very religious Sikh who lived near the Ross Street gurdwara, Banta Singh longs to return to his birthplace. To cheer him up, the narrator of the story jokingly suggests finding him a white woman for a good time. The old man says, "Sometimes I do feel the desire to experience the touch of white skin at least once in my lifetime. You know, this country is really awful that way-it is so hard for a person to remain pious. Nobody hides anything... It is hard not to have sinful thoughts, even while one is reciting the sacred text-forgive me, my dear God.";
Then Fauji Banta Singh looks up to the sky, as he always did when addressing God. In old age, he recited the holy book countless times and prayed for the well-being of his children and grandchildren.";
"These are stories that I originally wrote in Punjabi,"; Binning says, "and then sort of recreated them in English making necessary changes to make them sound more suitable to English readers. English is my second language and I have had a love and hate relationship with it since my high school when I was regularly beaten by my English teacher for making simple mistakes. I can still feel the sting of his stick on my cold hands early winter mornings.";
In this collection, Binning concentrates on reflecting everyday lives to encompass "the successes and failures, the growing and painful irrelevance of the old, changing values and the conditions of the women, the place of religion and tradition, and the ever-present echoes of distant Indian politics and national extremism.";
Born in Chiheru, Punjab, India in 1947, Sadhu Binning immigrated to Canada in 1967. A founding member of Vancouver Sath, a theatre collective, and Ankur Magazine, Binning is a central figure in the Punjabi arts community. He sat on the BC Arts Board from 1993 to 1995. He has been on several advisory boards including Rangh Magazine. His writing has been included in close to thirty anthologies both in Punjabi and English. He has written several plays, fifteen books in Punjabi, four books of Punjabi poetry, two fiction collections in Punjabi, and one novel. Also a translator, he is a founding member of Punjabi Language Education Association and has actively promoted the Punjabi language in B.C. schools. He edited the literary monthly Watno Dur from 1977 to 1982 and he currently co-edits Watan, a Punjabi quarterly. He began teaching Punjabi at UBC in 1988, eventually becoming a professor of Punjabi language in the Department of Asian Studies.
978-1-927494-25-7
Submitted on November 7, 2014 in By David.
