Rashpal Sahota's Novel Release

Surrey (Canada), 23 July 2024: Ghazal Manch Surrey and Vancouver thinker's Forum held a joint event to release American scientist Rachpal Singh Sahota's first Punjabi novel 'Ape Di Bhal' and to discuss it. The ceremony held in the hall of Jarnail Art Gallery and Gurdeep Arts Academy Surrey was presided over by renowned novelist Jarnail Singh Sekha, novelist Rachpal Sahota and Manjit Kaur Sahota.  Devinder Gautam, moderator of the event, welcomed everyone and gave brief information about the novelist Rashhpal Sahota.  

Talking about the novel, Rajwant Raj said that this novel is a document presenting the dark side of the society, a story of destruction of human values ​​and oppression of all. It is a story of a very capable person suffering from caste divide, who despite being very capable is mistreated everywhere because of his caste. The story of the novel has a flow that takes the reader along with it. The novelist has painstakingly created this story from life experiences and presented it in a very artistic way. Rajwant pointed out some literal mistakes in the novel

Famous scholar Dr. Prithipal Singh Sohi said that he is seeing this novel in a realistic and progressive form. It presents a changing society. It also reveals that the marriage ceremony is the biggest obstacle in not letting casteism end. We get everything else together, but when it comes to marriage, even the great writers who call themselves revolutionaries or those who are trying to change the world do not marry their children in lower castes. 

Ajmer Rode said that casteism was not created by the lower castes, it was created by the alleged upper castes and upper caste writers should consider it their duty to write about the lower castes. He said that very few novels have been written on this subject in Punjabi. In this novel, the suffering of the lower caste people at every stage of life from birth is depicted very beautifully.

B.C. Former Premier Ujjal Dosanjh congratulated Rashhpal Sahota for this novel and spoke about the leprosy of casteism in the society. Novelist Harkirat Kaur Chahal also shared her personal experience of caste discrimination and described this novel as a beautiful presentation of the reality of society. Famous writers Nadeem Parmar, Malook Chand Kaller, Dr. Sukhwinder Virk, Sunny Dhaliwal and Sukhi Dhillon also congratulated the novelist Rashhpal Sahota for a good novel.

Novelist Rachpal Sahota thanked all the speakers for their ideas and suggestions. In the end, Jarnail Singh Artist, President of Vancouver Thinker's Forum, thanked all the personalities present in the event. In addition to others, Dr. Gurminder Sidhu, Amritpal Dhot, Dr. Baldev Singh Khaira, Krishan Bhanot, Satish Gulati, Sukhjit Kaur, Narendra Bahia, Darshan Mann, Randhir Dhillon, Rajdeep Toor, Hardam Mann, Akashdeep Singh Chhina participated.