This is a short description of the book by a librarian: "The author presents a scrupulous, unsparing look into the life and culture of his childhood village in Punjab, India, poised on the brink of the modern world in the first half of the twentieth century. The work is rich in ethnographic detail as it describes castes and superstitions, marriage customs, fairs and festivals, crops and animals, relationships between the different religions, including the painful events that occurred during the independence and partition of India to create the modern states of India and Pakistan. As Dr. Brard tells the story of his early life, his engaging straightforward style vividly evokes the faces of a people, their beliefs, antiquated technologies and social practices, as well as their history."