Mother publishes two books during lockdown
A Black Country woman has published two books during lockdown - one a children's tale and the other about Punjabi songs.
Santosh Ram, aged 40, from Coseley, has published Trisha’s Lockdown Diary and Punjabi Classics: 29 Well-loved song Lyrics with Full English.
The first one tells the story about the impact of lockdown on a young girl and her little brother, which was inspired by Santosh's seven-year-old daughter, Trisha.
The second has seen Santosh, originally from India, translate popular Punjabi songs into English, mainly targeting youngsters from Asian heritage living in the UK.
On the project, she collaborated with a man called Peter Ellis, a bio-technology teacher from London.
Santosh moved to England eight years ago. She originally comes from Jalandhar, a city in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
She said: "I came here in 2012. I worked in the Indian embassy for about nine months, in Birmingham.
"Due to my mothering responsibilities, I had to stop working. But as I am a professionally trained teacher, I uploaded my CV to a teaching website and from there he [Peter] got my details.
"He used to send me emails and songs, and I used to translate it and send it back. This back and fourth continued for three years and I didn't know he compiled it and published it as a book in my name.
"When he compiled it, and did the book, my little daughter, I was excited and showed it to her, and said 'look mommy has written a book'.
"She said 'did you write my name in it' and I said 'no', so she started crying.
"As a mother, I was disturbed. This inspired me to write the next book. I asked her at the dining table what do you want me to write, and she said 'you need to write a book about me, for me, and with my name on it', so that is how the second book came out."
Both books can be bought on Amazon.
