Salinder Rai

Date of Birth:
1965
Birthplace:
Village Tapai, District Kapurthala, Punjab
Current City:
Golden, BC

Salinder Kaur Rai was born in August 28, 1965 in village Tapai, District Kapurthala, Punjab, India, and landed in Vancouver on November 12, 1983. She was engaged at this time and her fiancé living in Canada sponsored her and received her at the Vancouver airport. They stayed in Vancouver for three weeks with her husband’s uncle and his family. Then she travelled to Golden, BC on December 3, 1983, and got married in Golden on December 10, 1983.

Salinder recalls that there were seventeen families when she came to Golden and everyone lived together as a community. There was a lot of love and affection among the families in Golden. When she got married, all the women got together to cook meals and sweets at the gurdwara because there was no catering back then. There were Sunday programs at the gurdwara that everyone attended and langar (a communal meal) was served every Sunday. Festivals such as Gur Purab (Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday), Vaisakhi and Christmas were celebrated at the gurdwara in Golden.

Over the years, Salinder has sponsored her two brothers, sister and her parents to Canada. Her parents and brothers live in Surrey now and her sister lives in Toronto. Salinder has been living in Golden for the past thirty-four years and she visited India for the first time after eleven years of living in Canada. She is proud of being a Sikh Punjabi and is grateful to her family in Canada.