Recently, the 24th Annual Literary Conference dedicated to the memory of the late Padma Shri Surjit Patar was successfully concluded by the World Punjabi Sahitya Academy California. On the first day of the conference, a musical evening was organized on November 16, 2024. Guests started arriving at the Hayward, Sapphire Banquet Hall. Gulshan Dayal, Kanwaldeep Kaur and Laj Neelam Saini welcomed the guests at the reception table. After tea and water, Vipassana President Kulwinder welcomed the guest writers and literature lovers and said that the Academy has been working for the promotion and spread of Punjabi language, literature and culture since 2001. We have organized discussions and face-to-face meetings on the books of writers from time to time. The Academy has organized many major conferences during these years. Scholars, writers and critics from home and abroad have been participating. He introduced the executive of Vipassana and said that this year Charanjit Singh Pannu, Prof. Surinder Singh Sirat and Amarjit Kaur Pannu are the vice-presidents, Jagjit Naushervi is the general secretary, Laj Neelam Saini is the literary secretary and Gulshan Dayal and Tara Sagar are the financial secretaries. He paid warm tributes to Vipassana members Mr. Harbhajan Dhillon and Mr. Azad Jalandhari who passed away this year. After this, the Surjit Patar memorial session started. The sponsors of the conference Dr. Sarabjit Singh Hundal, Surinder Singh Sunnar, Dr. Dalvir Singh Pannu, and Gurdeep Singh Sekhon along with President Kulwinder, poet Jaswinder, Dr. Lakhwinder Johal, and Dr. Waryam Singh Sandhu graced the stage. The proceedings of this session were conducted by Dr. Sukhwinder Kamboj. The main sponsor of the conference, Mr. Jasvir Singh Gill, could not attend the conference due to his business commitments. Dr. Hundal shared many of his poems while sharing his memories of Surjit Patar. Eminent poet and critic Dr. Lakhwinder Singh Johal, who came from Jalandhar, recalled the years he spent with Surjit Patar and called him a very easygoing and sensitive person. He said that he had learned a lot from Surjit Patar, like the art of social interaction and the depths of poetry. Dr. Johal said that now, remembering it, it seems as if Patar had started realizing his early departure. He said that Patar Sahib took every literary work very seriously and completed it with dedication. Dr. Waryam Sandhu shared his fifty years of association with Patar in his unique style. He said that Patar’s memory will always remain in our hearts. He wrote brilliantly on every aspect of life and every problem faced by society. He shared the character’s story with emotion.
