New Sikh Children’s Book “Fish Eat Fish World” Release, Feb. 4

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: Bhupinder Singh, a mechanical engineer and a Vice President of Newage Casting Co. a manufacturer and distributer for cast iron plumbing products in Houston has written four books on Sikhism and has also penned articles that have been published in magazines and journals. He recently released his first children’s book “Fish Eat Fish World” which will be launched at the Gurdwara Sahib of Southwest Houston this coming Sunday, February 4.

Singh’s previous books have dealt with philosophical issues geared towards adults, but this is his maiden attempt to reach out to young kids. He says he was motivated by the lack of children’s books and characters that deal with values that relate to their parent’s cultures while they grow up in the West. “English children’s books are mostly written by western authors and reflect the environment they grew up in,” he said. “I wrote this book to fill this void. In this book, I bring a Sikh character that Sikh children can relate to.”

While driving one day and listening to a kirtan whose chorus was “Nanak chinthaa math karahu chi(n)thaa this hee hai” (Nanak says do not worry, the Lord will take care of us all), Singh, 68, thought he could weave a story around this concept and made an outline for a story. He kept expanding on it till he got it finished and then found an illustrator to draw the pictures to go with it.

The book is about a young Sikh boy called Aman with long hair tied to the top of his head who is picked upon by bullies. As a father of two grown sons, he can relate to this when they going to school and were taunted by calls of “Door Knobs” and “Smurfs”, Singh recalled.  Aman’s Dadaji (paternal grandpa) gives him emotional support and counseling to handle the bullying.

He hopes that the final product, a 32 page brightly illustrated book, will appeal to Sikh and non-Sikh children and will provide diversity and broaden the stereotypes in the landscape of children’s books. He has received a lot of positive feedback from the people who have read it so far. “My best endorsement is when children take the book to school to share with their teacher,” he said, “and the teacher reads it to the other students in class.”

“The main take away from the book is trusting the Creator,” said Singh, “and realizing that He will take care of their needs. But, it is not about becoming complacent in life,” he continued. “Don’t sit back without making sincere efforts.”

Bhupinder Singh is the Vice President of Newage Casting Co. a manufacturer and distributer for Cast Iron Plumbing products in USA which he and his son jointly set up. He was born in Bhamo, Burma (now known as Myanmar) and had his early education there. He moved with his parents to India and completed his high school education in Imphal, Manipur. He did his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering Collage, Surat, Gujarat.

He is a Registered Professional Engineer practicing in USA. He started his engineering career in New Delhi and while working there he had opportunity to live in Japan and subsequently in South Korea. After a tenure in South Korea he immigrated to the US. He has written four books on Sikhism and  several articles that have been published in magazines and journals.