.

The latter bought the manuscript rights and distributed it to a wider North American audience. The groom is often referred to by his family nick name “Baby.” It’s very common in Indian families to have funny nicknames that conjure some physical characteristic such as the case with the family friend Sonia, who is sometimes called “Mottu” to refer to her childhood chubbiness.

This required a lot of changes and re writing on my part to make sure all the characters were linked and that every switch to a new voice or perspective made sense and offered the reader a new piece of information, or some gossip that got them closer to the big day. And catch on a lot quicker. Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I have a fingerprint on every character, in part because I draw from my real life to inform theirs.

The bride’s name is Devinder, she goes by Devi, which is meant to sound a lot like the Diva she turns out to be. The protagonist must make a choice that will imprint the rest of her life.

An underlying trope challenges the restraints of living in a culture bound by outdated expectations. “Even though I’m not writing about them anymore, I still think, gee, what would Liam think, what would Meena think?

The groom’s father, Satnam, has fallen into religion and mysticism and thus has a spiritual name and the bride’s grandmother, Darshan, the all-seeing, and all-knowing matriarch’s, means sight. “I wanted her to be smarter. I’m Alive!; and The Wedding. On the flip side, many of their own peers have suggested they are ‘white washed’ for having adopted Western customs.

“It cuts both ways,” explains Gurjinder.

“I often wonder if you can ever stop becoming part of the diaspora experience.

Regardless of colour, all are portrayed as quintessential Canadians.

Her first book: “a very personal act of self exploration”

‘Everything Was Good-bye’ went through 20 drafts over five years, forming a journey that began when Gurjinder was just 34 years old. 

The fictionalized novel stems from parallel truths in the author’s own life—a technique she uses often. 

“I love fiction because it gives me latitude to play in a ‘what if’ space while still using real life as a springboard for my imagination,” she explains.

In it, a young Punjabi girl, Meena, falls for a boy named Liam—an event not welcomed by her widowed mother.

I live in a diverse community that has a high population of Punjabi Sikhs and I love using that cultural tension in my writing. This, of course, led to a loss of language.

“Though I lost my language, I did not lose my culture.

What's in a name?

With fifteen different narrators, I had no shortage of characters to name so some were chosen with more purpose than others.

For this novel, I knew I wanted to start with a wedding invitation being delivered as a way to set the context for all that would happen next. It’s a fusion of Punjabi and pop culture hits that serve as a soundtrack for the book. The first generations take the brunt of the racism, they assimilate to a degree, and they lose some of their culture and heritage in the process…

“In a way they pave the way so others do not have to assimilate as much and yet they are often looked down upon by subsequent waves of immigrants for having ‘lost’ their heritage,” she observes.

To demonstrate, her own children were once surprised to meet a distant relative who wore a turban while speaking fluent English with a British accent.

And everybody was very perfect. Richardson”), the story brings out drama, tension and all the mixed feelings that come with an extravagant wedding.