Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-19-2021
Abstract
My great-grandfather was from Punjab, a state in India that is well-known for its fertile soil and agricultural prosperity. He was a farmer by profession, and he farmed until the age of 80. Although it may seem like a simple job, he engaged in a lot of physical labour and endured many physical injuries, with the most significant one being breaking his arm in his 70s. Farming also did not offer much profitability or income, so my family was financially unstable, and my great-grandfather was never able to seek immediate medical attention for his injuries. After his retirement, he dealt with the repercussions of his physical labour, including his unhealed arm, but he was fortunate that he would be the last to endure these hardships that came with being a farmer. After generations of my family farming in Punjab, my great-grandfather decided that farming was no longer a viable career option to support a family, so he invested his earnings to fund his children’s education rather than his farming practice. While my great-grandfather worked the fields, my grandfather and his siblings gained sufficient education to work in the big cities of India and find better financial opportunities. My grandfather was able to find a government job to support his family, and my dad eventually immigrated to Canada. As a first-generation immigrant, I find myself in Canada holding the privileges my family previously never had in Punjab, but I have always questioned the sudden disappearance of my family’s roots in farming.