Ghostwriter for Indians in Canada
1.86 million people of Indian origin in Canada. Almost none of their migration stories are written down.
The 2021 census counted 1,858,755 people of Indian origin in Canada, 5.1 percent of the country. Half a million of them arrived after 2011. The generation that came first, through Vancouver in the seventies and Toronto in the eighties, is now in its seventies and eighties.
I write their stories. Memoirs, authorised biographies and family legacy books, for Indo-Canadian families, written by one named writer who understands both the country they left and the one they built in.
The Canadian version of the story
The first winter
Every family has this chapter and almost nobody has written it down. What it cost, what he wore, who he called. It is the detail a grandchild in Mississauga cannot imagine and most wants.
The credential that did not transfer
The engineer who drove a cab. The doctor who did a second residency at 44. This is the defining Indo-Canadian experience and it is almost absent from the record.
Punjab, and what came after 1984
A large part of the community carries a history that was never discussed at home. It is handled with care, at the family’s pace, and only as far as they want to go.
The business built out of a garage in Surrey
Trucking, construction, groceries, real estate. Firms now worth serious money whose founding stories exist only in the founder’s head.
The children who are entirely Canadian
The reason the book gets commissioned. A daughter in Calgary who speaks no Punjabi and wants to know where she came from before she cannot ask.
Where my clients are
Toronto and the GTA, Brampton and Mississauga above all. Vancouver and Surrey. Calgary and Edmonton. Montreal and Ottawa. Winnipeg, where some of the oldest families in the community have been for three generations.
The work runs over video and voice memo across the time difference, which is nine and a half hours to Mumbai and manageable in practice because early mornings in Canada are evenings in India. For books that need a room, I travel.
Why a writer who knows both countries
A Canadian writer will write the arrival beautifully and get the departure wrong. The village, the joint family, the reason a man left when the family was doing fine, the specific shame of a failed business in a town where everyone knew. Those need no explanation to me and they need careful, unpatronising context for a reader in Toronto.
That is the whole technical problem of a diaspora memoir. It has to land for an aunt in Ludhiana and a grandson in Brampton at the same time. A writer who knows one side writes half the book.
How it works
A first conversation, free, about an hour. Then a paid page in your voice, built from one recorded hour, so you can judge the voice before committing to anything. Then thirty to forty hours of interviews and six to twelve months of writing. One client at a time. My name appears nowhere unless you ask.
Defined engagements start at $2,500. Full books are scoped after the first conversation.
Begin a conversation Ask for a page in your voice
Questions Canadian families ask
Do you work with clients in Canada?
Yes, across Toronto, the GTA, Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa. Interviews run over video and voice memo, and I travel when the book asks for it.
How do the time zones work?
Early mornings in Canada are evenings in India, which gives a comfortable overlap. Most families settle into a fixed weekly slot within two sessions.
My father speaks Punjabi more comfortably than English. Is that a problem?
No. We work in whatever mix of languages the story lives in. The book reads clean for a grandchild in Canada while still sounding like the man who told it.
Can the book be printed and shipped in Canada?
Yes. Printing is arranged where the family is, and copies go to whichever countries the family lives in. Most of my families need shipments to at least two.
What does it cost in Canadian dollars?
Pricing is quoted in US dollars and paid by international transfer. Defined engagements start at $2,500 and full books are scoped after a first conversation.
The first generation is in its eighties.
Tell me about your family and I will tell you what the book could be. I respond within 48 hours.