Columnists

California Dreams

A Book Review by MANJYOT KAUR

 

CALIFORNIA DREAMS: INDIA SHINING IN THE LAND OF HOLLYWOOD, by Gurmukh Singh. British Columbia Books, Vancouver, Canada, 2006. 208 pages. Price: Rs. 999. 

 

"Southern California, where the American Dream came too true".

This line by American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of two quotations cited at the start of California Dreams, sets the mood for this coffee-table book quite aptly.

As slick and splashy as Hollywood itself, it is an easy-reading and riotously colorful celebration of Sikh and other mega-achievers of Indian descent in Southern California, an area which, according to Gurmukh Singh, boasts "the richest county in the richest state in the richest country in the world".

Of the more than 2.5 million Indians who live in the U.S. -  a group that the author characterizes as America's "best educated, most creative and wealthiest minority" - over 200,000 have made a home in this sun-drenched region.

California Dreams is Gurmukh Singh's third book. He is a former special correspondent with The Times of India.

After just a touch of scholarly gravitas, courtesy of the Foreword by Stanley Wolpert, Professor Emeritus of South Asian History at UCLA, a lengthy introductory chapter, entitled "The Journey So Far", follows. It opines that four Sikhs who arrived in San Francisco in April 1899 (members of the Hong Kong-based British Royal Artillery who received permission from the Immigration Service to stay in the U.S.) were, in all probability, the first Indians to reach California.

Starting with these pioneers, the patterns of Sikh and Indian immigration, along with the many obstacles these new arrivals faced, are skillfully traced right up to present times. Interspersed with this historical recounting are numerous short anecdotes of community and individual achievement.

Enlivened on virtually every page with attention-grabbing photos and tabloid-like headings ("From Delhi Hut to Mars Mission" and "Doc With a Pen", to give but two examples), this section leaves the reader in an appropriate frame of mind to venture into the body of the book.

The highly successful Southern Californians of Indian origin who California Dreams so glowingly features are outstanding figures in many fields of endeavor: as top-flight medical professionals, innovative entrepreneurs, and influential community leaders, to name but a few.

It is noteworthy that, of the twenty-four people who receive in-depth coverage in their own chapters, thirteen are Sikhs. For the purposes of this review, I will focus only on this subset, in the order in which they appear in the book.

Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah was the first Indian dentist to come to the U.S. under a Guggenheim Fellowship, back in 1950. Besides his professional career, chairing Los Angeles' Cultural Heritage Commission and Hollywood Art Commission, as well as donating a building that became LA's first gurdwara, are only a few of his remarkable achievements.

Educated as a soil geologist, the LA-based philanthropist Dr. Awtar Singh endowed an academic fellowship worth more than $400,000 at the University of California at Berkeley. He has also donated most generously to many other institutions of higher learning, both in the U.S. and India.

President and CEO of Future Computing Solutions Inc. and SecureMart.com in Yorba Linda, Bicky Singh is also the founder of sikhpoint.com, a highly-regarded website that serves the Sikh community and disseminates the message of Sikhi worldwide. Besides being a prominent collector of Sikh art and coinage, he is notable for owning more than five hundred patterned turbans (and matching ties and shirts!).

For over a quarter-century, Dalip Singh Sethi has been the sole turbaned dealer for General Motors in the entire United States. Wishing to share his profits with the community-at-large, his Riverside-based "Perfect Attendance Program" awards twenty scholarships, a dozen brand-new Chevrolet cars, and twenty cutting-edge computers to local schools every year.

The Bhindi Badshah ("Okra King") of North America, Harbhajan Singh Samra is a farmer turned self-made multimillionaire. This ground-breaking (literally!) entrepreneur heads a company, headquartered in Palm Springs, that is a continent-wide leading supplier of over forty agricultural products, from ginger to guavas to gourds.

In the city of Riverside, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Harkeerat Singh Dhillon has joined with prominent politicians, business leaders and members of academia to promote education, the arts, commerce, and multiculturalism. He considers his role in forging Riverside's "sister-city" relationship with the Indian metropolis of Hyderabad to be his proudest accomplishment.

Inventor of the world-renowned Sahota Perfusion Balloon, Dr. Harvinder Singh Sahota was the first Indian cardiologist in the U.S. to hold a patent. Over the years, he has accumulated over two dozen patents in the field of angioplasty, a record by any Indian-American cardiologist.

For more than forty years, Inder Singh has been a tireless promoter of India and Indian interests in America. As President of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin and Founder-President of the Federation of Indian Associations of Southern California, his influential political, cultural and philanthropic activities are known far beyond regional boundaries.

Keeping alive the legacy of his grandfather, Gaddar Party leader Kartar Singh Dukki, is Jagdish Singh Khangura's life-mission. A successful young entrepreneur and business owner, he set up the Kartar Singh Dukki Education Trust to "perpetuate the memory of Gaddar heroes" and to "fulfill his grandfather's revolutionary dreams".

Dr. Jasbir Singh Mann, an Anaheim-based orthopedic surgeon, is equally well known for his research and writing in the field of Sikh studies. Since the mid-1980s, he has led the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Foundation, organized a plethora of international conferences on Sikh theology and philosophy, and expounded his views in numerous scholarly journals and books.

Dr. Joginder Singh Sidhu is a renowned scientist, inventor and designer. The world's smallest and lightest camera is only one of more than forty innovative products he has developed for the consumer market. He was also instrumental in designing the Smithsonian Institution's Sikh Gallery in Washington, D.C.

As head of the Los Angeles-based Chugh Firm, Navneet Singh Chugh is a highly successful attorney and certified public accountant. He is Chairman of Premier Media Inc., which publishes India Journal in LA, and sits on the Board of Trustees of a wide range of non-profit and private companies.

A professor at California State University at Long Beach as well as a prolific writer, Dr. Rajen S. Anand served as Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. He was the highest-ranking Indian appointed by President Bill Clinton.

With page after page of inspirational "success stories", California Dreams will surely appeal to a broad audience. Bursting with eye-catching photos, but much more informative than the typical coffee-table book, it is written in an entertaining and easygoing style that many people will find quite suited to their taste. Perfectly designed for casual perusal, it definitely does not have to be read cover-to-cover to be thoroughly enjoyed.

One glaring shortcoming mars this book: although there are women whose accomplishments are briefly described in its introductory section, every featured person in all 24 main chapters is male.

While some of these two dozen men have wives or other female family members whose merits and achievements do receive a paragraph or so of mention, it is indeed dismaying that, of the over 200,000 Indians who reside in Southern California, not one woman out of a community so noted for its exemplary success in fulfilling "the American dream" was chosen to receive in-depth attention.

Despite this deficiency, California Dreams is a quintessential "feel-good" book that many people will not only want to savor for themselves, but also purchase as a gift for family, friends and business associates. A real crowd-pleaser, readers of all ages - Sikh and non-Sikh - will undoubtedly find a most pleasant sense of gratification and validation in its vivid and action-packed pages.

 

February 26, 2008

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