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This is an archive article published on May 27, 2024

‘Our tribute to America for all the country has given us’: NRI family installs Statue of Liberty replica at Punjab home

Crafted by sculptor Manjit Singh Gill from Ghal Kalan village, the 18-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty has been made from fibre-glass

statue of liberty, moga, punjab, indian expressThe 'Statue of Liberty' replica in Moga village. (Express photos)

The towering Statue of Liberty, synonymous with the identity of the United States and standing at a height of 305 feet in New York, now has a replica in a small village in Punjab.

The replica has been installed by an NRI family atop their house in Langiana Nawan village under Punjab’s Moga district. The head of the family, currently settled in Indiana state in the US, while speaking to The Indian Express, said the statue is their tribute to America.

statue of liberty The replica has been installed by an NRI family atop their house in Langiana Nawan village under Punjab’s Moga district.

Crafted by sculptor Manjit Singh Gill from Ghal Kalan village, the 18-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty has been made from fibre-glass.

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Gurmeet Singh Brar alias Babbu, 46, the owner of the house, said: “I always had this dream of getting settled in the US, the most powerful country in the world. I moved to the US in 2006 and started my transport business. In India also, my family owned a transport business started by my late father. This statue is our tribute to America which has given us a lot since we came here. Not only our business flourished after moving to the US, but we are also leading a good life. The first thing that came to our mind when we thought of having a statue related to the US at our Punjab home was the Statue of Liberty. The entire world knows where it is located, so a glance at it and people would know that our family has a US connection.”

Claiming that he was equally connected to his roots in Punjab, Brar said, “My grandfather is still remembered by people in Moga. Our country has also given us a lot after my father started the transport business there and ran it successfully for years but later, we moved to the US. I still visit Punjab every year at least once.”

Sculptor Gill said it took him around two months to finish the statue.

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab.       ... Read More

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