Nostalgia of having spent childhood days in walled city of Ahmedabad is her new muse. Meenal Pandya, an NRG investment consultant-turned-writer, having penned down more than six books on issues that the Indian diaspora face abroad, is currently documenting ‘History of My Pols’ – which she describes is a book where history is interspersed with autobiography.
Pandya has been working to decipher Indian culture to Indians as well as Americans in general by writing about various aspects of Indian culture since last 35 years.
She has authored ‘Pick a Pretty Indian Name for Your Baby’, ‘Vivah: Design a Perfect Hindu Wedding’, ‘Here comes Diwali: The Festival of Lights’, ‘Here comes Holi: The Festival of colors’, ‘The Indian Parenting Book: Imparting your cultural heritage to the next generation’. Pandya writes with a focus of assisting Indians living abroad to fight in the face of challenges they face during extended assimilated with the foreign society.
“I write with a focus to share pain expatriates face. Firstly, I perceived the growing need amongst Indian parents to find a bilingual name like Vanesha (Vanessa), Avi for their new-borns which can make the Indian origin child feel integrated with both foreign and Indian societies. They needed names with easy pronunciation and a meaning in both the languages, and the book on names happened,” said Pandya.
Later, when she perceived the need of Indian diasporas to have jargonfree documentation of Indian ceremonies, festivals and rituals that can help them brief their young children; she came out with books on Indian weddings, Holi and Diwali. “Those books document the original ways of celebrating Indian festivals and ceremonies. These writings help Indians living abroad in imparting information on our cultures and customs and traditions,” she said.
While ‘The Indian Parenting Book’ is a culmination of years of understanding of how an Indian parent can impart their cultural heritage to their next generation, said Pandya, mother of two teenage daughters, who has her hundreds of articles on expatriate issues published in national and international magazines including India Today and Boston Globe.
Recently Pandya was thrilled to learn the fact that Ahmedabad is a prominent contender is likely of being nominated a heritage city by WHO. “However, with thrill and deep nostalgia of having spent my childhood in Khadiya and its Pols,” added Pandya, “I felt an overwhelming sense of loss that I has not been able to share experiences of community living – the unique Pol experience with my children. And hence the new project happened,” she said.
The project is still in its infancy but it is different. “I am tracing back to my roots. And I belong to Khadia. I have started documenting the Pol life in forties, fifties, sixties and seventies, the changes it has undergone. That would be an autobiographical book with historic perspective. I plan to incorporate ‘first-hand’ writeups of renowned NRGs who have lived in Ahmedabad’s Pols and make the re-live those days they spent in Khadiya, Manek Chowk and life of those days when freedom struggle was still on,” said Pandya.
The documentation of heritage of walled city in an autobiographical manner with a special emphasis on the architecture of Pol houses will assist many NRGs to share their memories of living in Pol with their next generations, who are unaware of the uniqueness of its culture, ambiance and construction, feels Pandya.
