Chandigarh, July 18 - Creating the twin of an Indian village in faraway Canada might seem improbable even for the Punjabis, who are known all over the world as a progressive community. But the little known village of Paldi in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district already has a namesake near Vancouver.

The existence of the twin villages separated by several thousand kilometres has been highlighted by Canadian Kathryn Myra Spencer in her debut novel 'Paldi'.

'The book is spread across both Paldis, in Punjab and in Vancouver, and spans the years from 1958 to 2008,' Kathryn, a clinical psychologist, said at a book reading here.

To bridge the cultural divide, the author came dressed in a Punjabi 'kurti'.

The novel itself is about two women -- one in Vancouver's Paldi and the other in Punjab's Paldi. While Ella (who the author says resembles her) from Vancouver yearns for a life in the East, Anita (who is based on the life of Prabhjot, a woman from Punjab's Paldi) seeks to adopt the values of the Western world.

The storyline deals with issues like the geographical and ethical divide, generation gap and life in the respective homes. Both protagonists yearn to visit the other Paldi.

The tale of the two Paldis begins from the story of immigrant Mayo Singh Manhas, a resident of Paldi in Punjab, 150 km from here, who migrated to Canada in the 1950s and set up a lumber village of the same name in British Columbia province of Canada.