Life on the Farm
When I returned to Punjab with my family in 1969, village life was very different from the England I had known. There was no television and, in our village, no electricity. Much of everyday life followed the farm — preparing the fields, planting crops, watering them, watching them grow and finally bringing in the harvest.
I remember the animals, the bullock carts, water being drawn from the well, wheat fields changing with the seasons, and the many small jobs that were simply part of daily life. As children, we didn't think of these things as history. They were just the world around us.
The Punjab I Remember
Farm and Fields
Famiily and Village Life
Evening and Storytelling
Memories That Remained
Life followed the seasons: ploughing, sowing, watering, weeding and harvesting, often using methods that had changed little for generations.
Families worked, ate and spent time together. Children grew up surrounded by parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbours and the everyday life of the village
With no television and no electricity in our village, evenings gave people time to sit together. Many of the stories I still remember were told to me by my mother and other members of the family.
I returned to England in 1972, but those few years in Punjab stayed with me. More than fifty years later, they have become the background to the stories I am now passing on