‘If I spoke Punjabi’

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Almost fifty people are running to become Canada’s latest South Asian MPs:

Who wants to be a Canadian millionaire (USD $14.92)?

For Jaipal Massey-Singh, Bal Gosal and Jagtar Shergil however, Saturdays for the past month and a half means knocking on doors, listening to complaints and plaudits and eating take-away food… All three men are running in the Canada’s 23 January general elections… [Link]

Fluency in Punjabi or Hindi is virtually a prerequisite for the ethnic vote. In the Punjabi area of Vancouver, the streetsigns are in Gurmukhi:

Nearby, a volunteer makes comforting noises into a phone receiver, before hanging up and saying wistfully, “If I spoke Punjabi, I would know whether or not I was promised that vote.” Mr Gosal says he campaigns in three languages, Punjabi for his largely Sikh constituents, Hindi for other South Asians and English for the rest. [Link]

‘If I spoke Punjabi, I would know whether or not I was promised that vote’If s/he spoke Punjabi, s/he’d also endure a cross-examination about his/her marital situation, village ancestry and parents’ health before being force-fed chai and laddoos. Michael Bloomberg also attempted speaking in Urdu in his re-election campaign for NYC mayor:

During his re-election campaign, Mr. Bloomberg soaked up the city’s diverse communities by hopscotching across its ethnic neighborhoods, and he even studied Spanish. He recorded campaign commercials in two Chinese dialects, Russian, Urdu and Korean, among other languages. [Link]

The desis-working-at-airports phenomenon is even more pronounced in Canada:

Then an expansion of the Toronto airport more than a decade ago attracted skilled South Asian workers from all over India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. [Link]

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p>I’m like a bird, eh:

Brampton has fast become one of Canada’s most multi-cultural communities. First it attracted people from Portugal and Italy, largely to work in the construction industry. [Link]

Speaking of Portuguesas from Canada, Nelly Furtado said this recently about M.I.A.:

I have heard bits of the M.I.A album and it is so cool… what a flow, what a style… and girl can dance! [Link]

She’s giving props to a Sri Lankan Brit on her ripoff of Brasilian Portuguese tunes. It’s sort of like me big-upping Truth Hurts for ‘So Addictive,’ only M.I.A. is, oh what’s the word, good.

58 thoughts on “‘If I spoke Punjabi’”

  2. 12 · Jay Singh said

    Though i’m not pleased with the level of punjabi there though… The young generations hardly understands theth punjabi,
    They are living in Canada so they shouldnt be expected to speak or understand theth Punjabi. They are not in India so they shouldnt be made to feel as though there is something wrong with that. You speak English in an English speaking society. Most Punjabis abroad speak Punjabi inflected with their own accent – there is nothing worse than a haughty language policeman laughing or criticising a Canadian or British kid because they cannot pronounce certain Punjabi words ‘properly’. They are not living in the pind or in Jalandhar so they should not be mocked because they dont speak Punjabi as if they still ate sugar cane straight from the field and got up to milk the buffalo every morning. Punjabis in the UK and Canada speak Punjabi as they please and as long as they communicate it is all good. At the end of the day they are Canadians/British first so their Punjabi will be spoken with a Toronto or Birmingham accent and that’s the way it should be! Personally I love it.

    Absolutely correct Jay. That is what Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon has attempted to show in his novels, and teh older theth intellectuals blew him away, but the average UK Joe on the street who can read basic Punjabi enjoyed it because it reflects the UK style.

  3. Lifestyle of Punjabis. Expression on Punjabi Culture, Punjabi Music, Punjabi Songs. Punjabi Dances, due to the long history of the Punjabi culture and of the Punjabi

  4. Lifestyle of Punjabis. Expression on Punjabi Culture, Punjabi Music, Punjabi Songs. Punjabi Dances, due to the long history of the Punjabi culture and of the Punjabi.

  5. Proud of Vancouver for being so damn proud of its Punjabi language that people can actually read it

  8. I taught myself to read and write Punjabi..I have never been there, but am told my spoken Punjabi is as good as theirs..I would use it to read and write, but I can’t relate to the subjects in their books… Thank God there is a new generation of writers on the net from the west, who write Sci Fi etc