A Terrace man's passion for the literary arts earned him two lifetime achievement awards, which he will accept in the coming weeks.
Ravinder Singh Gill, who writes under the pen name Ravinder Ravi, will travel to Vancouver to accept one award from the North American Punjabi Writers Association and another from the University of British Columbia.
“Ravinder Ravi was chosen by the committee in honor of his significant contribution to the field of Punjabi literature,” said Anne Murphy, a UBC professor and chair of the nominating committee there. “He's been extremely active in the field.”
And for Gill, it's been no ordinary lifetime.
The 74-year-old teacher, poet, playwright, short-story author and world-famous philosophic pundit has lived a life marked by controversy in his birth country, India.
Gill immigrated to Terrace when he was in his 30s, continuing his career abroad from here.
He moved here for work in 1975 after immigrating to Canada in 1974. He was initially employed at a lumber mill, but it closed leaving him jobless after only one month. Another short stint helping build a house in Prince Rupert preceded a long, jobless stretch.
But in January 1976, the Nisga'a Elementary-Secondary School in the Nass Valley was looking for a substitute teacher to cover a one-month leave of absence. Gill would teach there until 2003, when he retired from the day-job to write full time.
While he's lived in Terrace more than 35 years, Gill's work is largely studied in India.
It was his travels that inspired him to reflect foreign values in his work, which pushed traditional boundaries in India and stirred controversy.
It's for his thought-progressing Punjabi publications that Gill will accept his first award on March 26 and another on April 2 at the UBC Asian Centre.
And although the awards came as a surprise to Gill, his resume already boasts 21 major awards for his works; a collection of plays, books, poetry, autobiographies, literary criticism and compilations published mostly in Punjabi but some in English. His works have also been translated into other foreign languages.
Some of his books can be found at the Terrace Public Library.