Pool of Life
The Autobiography of a Punjabi Agony Aunt
Published on 1. August 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-84519-602-8 (ISBN)
Description
Eleanor Nesbitt's introduction contextualises the life of Kailash Puri, Punjabi author and agony aunt, providing the story of the book itself and connecting the narrative to the history of the Punjabi diaspora and themes in Sikh Studies. She suggests that representation of the stereotypical South Asian woman as victim needs to give way to a nuanced recognition of agency, multiple voices and a differentiated experience. The narrative presents sixty years of Kailash's life. Her memories of childhood in West Punjab evoke rural customs and religious practices consistent with recent scholarship on 'Punjabi religion' rather than with the currently dominant Sikh discourse of a religion sharply distinguished from Hindu society. Her marriage, as a shy 15-year-old, with no knowledge of English, to a scientist, Gopal Puri, brought ever-widening horizons as husband and wife moved from India to London, and later to West Africa, before returning to the UK in 1966. This life experience, and Gopal's constant encouragement, brought confidence to write and publish numerous stories and articles. Kailash writes of the contrasting experiences of life as an Indian in the UK of the 1940s and the 1960s. She points up differences between her own outlook and the life-world of the post-war community of Sikhs from East Punjab now living in the West. In their distress and dilemmas many people consulted Kailash for assistance, and the descriptive narrative of her responses and advice and increasingly public profile provides insight into Sikhs' experience in their adopted country. In later years, as grandparents and established citizens of Liverpool, Kailash and Gopal revisited their ancestral home, now in Pakistan a reflective and moving experience. An Afterword by Eleanor contextualises the current UK Sikh scene. The book includes a glossary of Punjabi words and suggestions for further reading.
Reviews / Votes
"This narrative offers a fascinating and thought-provoking glimpse into the long, diverse and well-lived life of a Sikh woman, a perspective sorely lacking given that much of Sikh history and experience has accumulated through male lenses. In her later role of an agony aunt, Kailash Puri was attuned to the deepest hurts and peak moments of members of the South Asian community." - Dr. Doris Jakobsh, University of Waterloo, Canada"Her individual biography intersects evocatively and movingly with the shifting realities of Partition, transnationalism, diaspora, race, gender, sexuality, and religion... As early as the 1950s the Sikh feminist began to address issues of marriage, sex, and relationships in magazines that no Punjabi had dared to discuss... A vital contribution to autobiography and multicultural literature." Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, Colby College, Waterville, USA
"Pool of Life reflects the wisdom of a woman who naturally engaged with the people around her whatever the context: in village life and the academic world, in pre-and post-partition India, in Great Britain, Nigeria and Ghana, always with an observant eye and a sympathetic ear. It is a book from which one can learn intellectually and emotionally about culture, life and change." Hugh Johnston, Professor Emeritus in History, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada
"Through Kailashs eyes the reader can understand, from a new position, changing British attitudes to immigrants, changing gender roles, women in the workplace, and other topics relevant to twentieth-century social and cultural history. Her experiences will complicate any simplistic assumptions about gender relations, womens empowerment and self-expression, and attitudes towards immigrants. This book is a valuable primary source of autobiographical narrative helpfully coupled with a guide for further reading. It should be useful for those interested in Punjabi culture, understanding Sikhism as a living tradition, the Sikh diaspora, and twentieth-century British social history." - Suzanne Newcombe, Inform and the Open University, Religions of South Asia 9.1 (2015) 104105
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
ISBN-13
978-1-84519-602-8 (9781845196028)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kailash Puri is an 'agony aunt', media personality, award-winning author of many Punjabi novels, and co-author of The Myth of UK Integration. Eleanor Nesbitt is Professor Emeritus in Religions and Education at the University of Warwick and a founding member of Punjab Research Group. Her many publications include Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction and Intercultural Education: Ethnographic and Religious Approaches.