Surinder Kaur Brar was born in the district of Moga in Punjab, India and did her Bachelor of Arts at Sidhwa College and her master’s at Government College Ludhiana. Right after completing her Master’s degree, she found a teaching job at a government college in Gurudev Bahadurgarh, but after a year decided to join SD College and later became a vice principal and principal in the same college. Brar did two master’s degrees, one in Punjabi and the other one in English. Brar also served as a member of the Senate for 4 years.
Brar mentions in her interview that she is extremely grateful that her parents felt that it was important to educate girls and that she was one of the few girls at the time who were gaining an education. She also noticed that during her tenure as principal, the number of girls increased every year. Brar moved to Canada and then worked for multiple Punjabi Associations and wrote articles for a newspaper. She feels that it is important to give importance to Punjabi literature. She has published books in both Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi to increase the number of readers in Punjabi. Brar continues to work for Punjabi literature and feels that we need to bring back reading in Punjabi as most people no longer read books. In her interview, she reads some beautiful poetry that is “a must” to listen to.