Whispers from the Rooftops

About the Book

Book Description The book is a varied collection of eighteen stories all very different. The connecting feature for them is that they are all about Panjabis’. Sometimes the backdrop for them is the Panjab, the land of the five rivers, and at other times it is England where the Punjabis made their second home. The stories feature secret love and betrayal. There is murder and retribution. Old age, loneliness, substance abuse, mental illness and the everyday struggle for survival all feature in the stories. Running alongside all this is humour, happiness and hope. One of the stories contains an emotional plea from a sister to a brother using the only means at her disposal to let him know her true feelings. The human capacity to show tolerance and compassion never ceases to surprise. There are stories where funny quirks in childhood develop into serious mental illness. Some of the tales have unexpected twists at the end, others leave you with many questions and baffling mysteries unsolved. Some illustrate how hard it is to accept tragedy as part of your destiny and demonstrate strong desire to manipulate the future. There are characters that display a quiet dignity in the face of intense provocation. Others have short fuses that lead to unexpected explosions. All the stories are of human interest and some have a historical significance. Most of all they are a window into a world far away and fast disappearing. The Panjabi culture is in transition and although change is inevitable it is accelerated by the infusion of the second culture. The travellers who straddle both become victims of circumstance something they never envisaged when they started their journeys.

About the Author

Dalbir Kaur Khaira was born in the Panjab in India. She arrived in England in 1956 aged eight unable to speak any English. She was educated in Shrubland Street Junior School in Leamington Spa and Aylesford High School in Warwick, where she became head girl. She qualified as a teacher at Matlock Teacher Training College in Derbyshire. She taught for thirty-three years in Primary, Secondary, Comprehensive and Special Schools. She married and had two sons. She has four grandchildren. Now widowed and retired she spends her time writing and travelling between India, America, Canada and England.