Opinion The Globalization of Punjab

I was born in a land owning family in a large village in the foothills of the salt range in what is now Pakistan Punjab. I grew up in Kolkota and my village,went to college in Jaipur and Philadelphia and settled in Gujarat. I could never quite make up my mind as to who I am,a Punjabi,a Bengali,a Rajasthani and now I am of course a Gujarati,for if no other reason the State had the civilisational strength to send me to Parliament from here. The Americans helped me to resolve my dilemmas for they called me an Indian. I was tickled pink to read a lovely edit in a national daily on the Punjabisation of India. I love it and with a little pushing myself can still get into the japhisation and papisation mode. My teacher Bhalla Saheb makes public fun of me by saying that with a little pushing I can take personal advantage of any part of India.

I was in the Punjab last week. I was looking forward to a bit of Punjabisation for the winter foods are great. On an earlier occasion going for my routine village safaris,I landed up in a Jalandhar well of farmer household,two stories,three cars and the works. The Dar ji turned to me and said Bauji how would you like your Scotch,Patiala. Since it was still three o clock I cried off. He was deeply disappointed and turned to the Lady of the house and said Bibi,bring out a glass of milk and some pinnis. Now this I like on a cold wintry day,particularly the churidar glass with hot milk and ghee dripping pinnis and damn the cholestoral. After all what are medicines for. I remember many decades ago The Guru Nanak Dev University had invited me to give some lectures on planning in a UGC sponsored course and I was in the University Guest House. Those were Bhindranwala days and even going to Harmohinder Singh Saheb was strenuous. I had to do it for my mother was a devout Hindu and everytime we went from Kolkota to my village she would of course get down at Amritsar and we would go to pray at the Golden Temple and if you do that when you are five years old you do it again whenever possible. On account of security the lady lecturers were staying in the guest house. In the morning when I wa shaving mybreakfast with toast and boiled eggs tending to stay off the obese side,The ladies came to my table and said sir why are you not eating parothis.I mumbled something about doctors and pat came the reply.You will become weak ( The Punjabi word used was ‘marhe ho jayo ge’)

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But this time around there were no parothis or for that matter sarson da sag,which I had to ask for.The first night at a party,there was chicken risotto,grilled salmon and pasta Bolognese. The hotel I stayedin was full of Punjabis but there was oatmeal porridge,muesli,healthy fruits and juices and Eggs Florentine and a cheese plate but no parothis,not even a measly puri cholley.

When the country is going Punjabised the Punjabis are going global and so it goes on.