Book review
`I have yet to know a man greater than him.'�Khushwant Singh
Known by many as the `Father Teresa of Punjab', Bhagat Puran Singh (1904_92) was an epitome of love and compassion whose contribution to society is indeed comparable to that of Mother Teresa's.
Born of his Khatri father's liaison with a Jat woman, Bhagat Puran Singh, n�e Ramji Das, had a lonely and difficult childhood, but instead of leaving him embittered, it made him extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. Starting with Piara, a mentally impaired, deaf and mute boy, whom he adopted and literally carried on his back for fourteen years, calling him `the garland around my neck', he went on to devote his life to serving the underprivileged. Rendered homeless and penniless after the Partition in 1947, and with no help forthcoming from any quarter, he would sit begging outside the entrance of the Golden Temple, and use the money he collected to buy food and medicines for his patients. By 1948, he had set up the first Pingalwara�a community dedicated to the care of the disabled, the destitute and the diseased�in Amritsar.
It was several years before the Punjab government became aware of Bhagat Puran Singh's selfless enterprise and the Pingalwara was sanctioned an annual grant from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, enabling him to expand the institution. For his unmatched service to humanity, Bhagatji was awarded the Padma Shri in 1979, which he returned in 1984 as a protest against Operation Blue Star.
His Sacred Burden is a well-researched and moving biography of this great man whose legacy continues to inspire some of India's best minds. Profusely illustrated and anecdotal, it also carries a compilation of Bhagatji's personal jottings and the letters the author shared with him.

About the author Reema Anand, born and brought up in Ferozpur Cantonment, Punjab, is a poet, journalist and film-maker. Married into an illustrious Sikh family, she is settled in New Delhi. Her writing career spans a period of sixteen years, during which she has contributed regularly to national newspapers and international weeklies.