Having a signed copy of the book “Grandfather’s Mulberry Tree” by Baljit Singh Ghuman on my shelf weighed on me for a couple of weeks, but I could only find the time to read it over the last weekend. Just a few pages in, I was completely hooked and locked myself in a room to embark on a journey of Punjab in the 1980s. Through the words of Baljit Singh Ghuman, I felt the shade of the grand old mulberry tree, and tasted its fruit. I saw the Singh in a white kurta-pajama being walked into the sugarcane fields by the police only to return as a corpse, and I heard the story of the Singhs being chased through the yellow mustard flowers as bullets flew past them. These stories, and many more that are in the book reflect the reality of every village of Punjab in the 1980s.
The stories are sprinkled throughout with words of wisdom from Shaheed Major Baldev Singh Ghuman himself, along with thought provoking questions about one’s path and purpose in life, and the decisions one makes and lives with.
My brief encounter with Baljit Singh was academic and community driven, but this book clearly demonstrates his artistic and writing skills in which he has shared his unique experiences as a teenager, as the son of someone who walked the path of truth in the face of death, and as a close friend of a victim of state sponsored terrorism.
“Grandfather’s Mulberry Tree” should be on the reading list of every English reading Sikh who wants to understand what the 1980s in Punjab meant for the common people. Baljit Singh has succeeded in capturing the gist of decades worth of history and struggle in one book, along with much more. This story of mustard fields and mulberry trees is the story of Punjab, of courage, and of Hukam.