Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon or Roop Dhillon ( Punjabi: ਰੂਪਿੰਦਰਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ, born 1969) is a British Punjabi writer of fiction and poetry.

Early life and education

Dhillon was born in

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...

and initially raised in

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

. He studied at Oxford Brookes University and

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

and is an accountant. He has been living in Reigate since the mid 2000s.

Writing career

Originally intending to write an English novel based on the life of

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He s ...

in the mode of Alexandre Dumas, Dhillon became interested in writing in Punjabi after learning the

Gurmukhi Gurmukhī ( pa, ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, , Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). It is used by Punjabi Sikhs to write the language, commonly ...

alphabet in his thirties. His debut novel, ''Neela Noor'', was published in 2007. He writes in the locally spoken form of the language whose syntax is influenced by English; sometimes called 'Punglish', it had not previously been written down. His work is mainly influenced by Western literature and confronts social issues including racism, gender bias and incest. ''Bharind (The Hornet)'' is a collection of short stories and poetry. In his later novels such as the experimental gothic novel ''O'', he employs a genre he calls ''Vachitarvaad'', which encompasses science fiction, fantasy, horror and

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) Magical (foaled 18 May 2015) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who excelled over middle distances and was rated in the top twenty racehorses in the world in 2018 and ...

. Dhillon is a member of the Punjabi Writers Sahit Kendar in Southall and Baagi Batti, a British Asian group of writers who choose to write in their heritage language. He has been working on Chita Te Kala ( The White and The Black) for the last few years which has now been published. His Science fiction novel Sindhbaad ( ਸਿੰਧਬਾਦ) was released in 2020 and uses the lens of science fiction to examine the complexities of Punjabi society's attitude towards women, caste and religion using alien species to represent the religious groups that make up Punjabis. As a result Roop was awarded the Shivcharan Singh Gill Trust Award 2020 (ਸ਼ਿਵਚਰਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਗਿੱਲ ਟਰੱਸਟ ਸਾਊਥਾਲ 2020) for his contributions to Punjabi Literature. He has written a novel, Nagaan Dee Khed, set in the world of espionage with Covid and the Andolan ( Farmer's Protest in 2020/2021 in Delhi) as the background. He is currently working on a horror novel , Haul ਹੌਲ਼) and a collection of Magical Realism short stories ( ਖ਼ਤ).

Works

* ''Nila Noor, The Blue Light'', 2007, () * ''Beghar Baagh, The Homeless Leopard'', 2009 * ''Kaldaar, The Robot'', 2010 * ''Barcelona: Ghar Vaapasi'', 2010 * ''Bharind - The Hornet'', 2011, Lahore Publishers, Ludhiana * ''O'', 2015, Lokgreet Parkashan, Chandigarh * ''Gunda - The Gangster'', 2014, Khushjeevan Kitabaan, London * ''Samurai'', 2018, Gracious Books, Patiala () *''Sindbad', 2020, Khushjeevan Kitabaan, London () *''Chita Te Kala', 2022, Avis Publications, Delhi ()

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhillon, Rupinderpal Singh 1969 births Living people Punjabi-language writers People from Southall