A PDL User Shares Her Experience

A few weeks ago, my brother was searching for a picture of Shri Dhani Ram Chatrik on the Internet when he came across the website for PDL. It was there that he found the picture! Not only that, but in the course of his searching, he also found the book Baadshahyan by S. S. Charan Singh Shaheed. This book has always been very special to our family, as the author had presented a copy in beautiful large print to my grandfather (Late) S. Sodagar Singh Bhikhari, soon after its original publication in 1932. However, in 1973, when I was doing my BSc in Government College for Women in Amritsar, I took this book to college to select a poem from it for recitation at a college functions, and there I lost the book.

Although I felt strongly it had been stolen, still I searched for it frantically for many days with no luck. When I had to tell my grandfather that the book was gone, I saw the sadness in his eyes, the sorrow of losing a personal gift from his dear friend, and I was wounded. Though he did not say anything about it, then or afterwards, I have always lived with this regret and guilt of my impulsive decision to take the book to college. Alongside that grief was also the hope that one day, maybe, somebody would find it.

Now that my brother found another copy of this book on PDL, he informed us right away and sent us a link to the website. I signed up immediately and sat back in my chair, amazed at the treasures of the past that were right there on my computer screen. Initially, I had some problem in locating the archived pages of Baadshahyan, so I contacted Mr. Gurvinder Singh (the North American Coordinator), who was so helpful and sent me a direct link to the book (called Badshahiya on the PDL site). Seeing those old pages brought back memories of my grandfather's book and I read on and on. To date, our family has spent time exploring, not only this book on the PDL site, but the treasures contained in many other old books by more great authors, which are digitally available.

The dedicated team of PDL is doing a great job by preserving these treasures in the best possible way and making them available and easily accessible to anybody in the world, free of cost. There is no doubt now, that the future Punjabi generations will be richer because their heritage will not be lost. I congratulate the team and wish them all the best support from the community to reach their goals.

-- Navkiran