By Acharya S.P.Dwivedi
Mohammad Rafiq was known to people for his simplicity, open mindedness, active, and helpful qualities. He was all the time willing to support any one physically and financially. He was always seen in cheerful mood and high spirit. Rafiq was well known for his respect for all faiths, race and nationality. He had passion for poetry.
Rafiq sahib was one of the founders of Urdu Association, and was elected, couple of times, as its president.Later on, he founded with Acharya Dwivedi, Muhammad A.Malik, Kulwant Singh Parmar ‘Nadeem’, Inderjeet Sidhu and Ashok Bhargava the ‘South Asian Literary Society of Canada’(SALSOC) to promote Hindi, Urdu, Panjabi and Bangla languages and literatures. He worked as the secretary of the Society and provided his invaluable support in organizing the Kavisammelan/Mushaira, workshop and conferences. Rafiq was in Editorial Board of SALSOC whichpublished three anthologies of selected writers of Hindi, Urdu, Panjabi and Bangla.
By Acharya Shrinath P. Dwivedi
The Board of South Asian Literary Society of Canada (SALSOC) recently honored acclaimed Panjabi woman writer Inderjeet Sidhu of Surrey as a âPanjabi Woman Writer of Canadaâ. She is credited with publishing twenty- three standard and popular books of poetry, short- story and articles.
Although, Inderjeet was born in the city of Karnal, Haryana in India. But most of her childhood life was spent in a hilly and beautiful city Shimla, and she studied in Government College of Chandigarh. She started writing poems and short stories during her collegeâs life.Her first book was âMahakkiBhookhâ followed by a collection of poems âTan Manâ which was published by Lahore Bookshop of Ludhiana. Her book âHoniAnhonikeBaadâ was based on the tragedy of âBlue Starâ that created storm in political circles, and finally it was banned by the Government. However, she got exceptional publicity as a political activist.