Rear View Mirror

Rear View Mirror (RVM) is an anthology of three generations starting in 1878 till the present. It is over 85 percent based on the true and the actual events that happened to the author. The rearview mirror of a car is hundred times smaller than the front windshield. The humans always look through RVM to glance in the past, trying to live in the times long gone, and tend to ignore the front windshield to see what is lying ahead of them. But the people who forget the past, they are condemned to repeat it. Those who do not look through the front windshield, they do not survive for long. RVM has many captivating and enchanting memories hidden behind it. It is always beneficial and valuable to observe things back into the past through the prism of life but always keep looking into the future, through the front windshield. It is good to remember the past, but don't live in it.

RVM is a compendium of three generations. It starts with the Gen 3, which looks back at Gen 2 and Gen 1. Gen 1 is the story of two brothers who were conscripted by the British in India. They fought in WW1 and WW2 and then retired. Each had a son who develops into Gen 2. They struggle and enjoy their lives. Each had lost a son at prime age in Canada, one in a car accident and the other was murdered along with his wife and the unborn son when a kettle bomb exploded, sent by his own father-in-law on Christmas Eve. The Gen 3 starts with life in India, born, raised, grown, and educated there. Then in the seventies, it moves to Canada, one of the best countries of the world. The fable twists and turns, meandering like the vicissitudes of a flowing river. The tale takes the main character of Gen 3 across Canada and the America, going through various circumstances and meeting very interesting fellows. The main character had dichotomy in his mind while leaving his birth land, like millions of immigrants who leave their saddened families and go to a new land of hope. He faces hurdles and tribulations for establishing his life in the new settings. His life ends tragically while enjoying and lying in the arms of his soul mate. There are torrid physical relations between Oksana and Mall, Bhinder and Sher, Erika and Steve. The Sikh youth murders in Vancouver are touched on, in a very brief detail.