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Canada to UK! - July 2003 |
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Vancouver Youth leaders and brothers Pavandeep and Nauraj Singh took us home and then straight to an evening semagam at the Singh Sabha, Surrey, for youth. About 300 youth and sangat came. A very fruitful program especially under the circumstances that not much is being done by gurdwaras for youth and there is the usual 'problems' between gurdwaras.
Vancouver Island Music festival Program at a gurdwara in Victoria on Sunday evening was cancelled - basically because committee was not interested! Our good friend and former Britisher, Jatinder Singh Khalsa picked us up from Courtney and drove us to Victoria.
Calgarry I shall add a fourth and a fifth just to help matters along... Sikh youths in Calgarry (3 names come to mind - Amritpal, Sehajveer and Manmeet) organised two programs in Calgarry (Tues/Wednesday July 8/9) in gurdwaras which were very successful and we also had some very fruitful dialogue with youth generally. There is great enthusiasm within youth in Calgarry for Sikhi. Well done lads!
Edmonton
Toronto The first program on Monday night was a resounding success. The Art of Living Organisation which has members from all faiths managed to gather an audience/congregation of over 400 within one weeks notice and we had one of our best 'spiritual concerts' ever. Then we struck a hitch! I think 'religions' are all great ... until they become institutionalised. Then the human weaknesses of power and greed step in. I think it has happened to all faiths and Sikhism is no different. We were stopped from doing a gurdwara 'hajri' at the aptly named Dixie Gurdwara Sahib. One would expect 'Dixie' things to happen here. We were schedued to do kirten at 7.30 to 8.15pm. A great many of the sangat had come from great distances to attend. We duly arrived at about 6.45pm. in pouring rain and sat in sangat listening to blissful 'Waheguru Simran Kirten' by various 'jatha's'. At 7.25pm, the Granthi Sahib attracted my attention and summoned me outside behind the 'Parkash'. He informed me that I could do kirten but my group-members would not be allowed on stage because they were not Sikhs. No non-Sikhs or even 'sehaj-dharis' were allowed on stage - gurdwara rules! I was taken aback as we were supposed to go on in 5 minutes. I did protest that we should have been informed earlier rather than 5 minutes before the event! I think the Granth Sahib had his orders. Needless to say there was a backlash and strong words when sangat members found out what had transpired. There were sangat members in tears. We left the building as quickly as we could - we did not want to create a scene but the damage had been done. We did get a posthumous apology from the President - I believe there is an election coming up!
One sangat member aptly said "If Baba Nanak turned up today with Bala
and Mardhana, they too would be thrown out by the fanatics, as both Bala
and Mardhana were non-Sikhs!
Michigan Kalamazoo, Michigan - Monday July 21st. A very interesting situation here! Small sangat but couple of committee members have objected to our doing a program in the gurdwara BUT the sangat decided to have a semagam in their previous prayer meeting hall -The Masonic Temple. We had a great 2 hour kirten program and then sangat members and attending committee members wanted to ask me some questions. We had a half hour discussion where various personal questions were raised including the fact that non-Sikhs cannot go on stage and that I tie my beard when doing kirten. All very amusing if I may say so, and so too found all who attended. Quite mysteriously, the committee member 'objectors' did not turn up! Well done to the sangat who carried out the program - the youth benefited but strange is it not? That the committee is supposed to serve the sangat, or does the sangat bow down to the dictates of the committee?
Grand Rapids - Tuesday July 22nd We flew to Heathrow, UK on Wednesday 23rd. July. Let us get back to English spelling ...! The itinerary for UK is at best very sketchy but we are committed to a tour. We have not been able to make great inroads into the Sikh community here as a majority are directly from Punjab and set in their ways. Their next generation - UK's official first generation Sikh youth have generally grown indifferent towards 'Sikh' practices though they retain the cultural links through 'bangra', food, clothing, Bollywood etc. After sorting out the sketchy itinerary we found that we had only one program within July - so a few days off! We performed at the 'Kabul-sangat' gurdwara in Southall on Sunday 27th. July. A great program from 4-5pm. The gurdwara was packed and I believe we drew the affection of the Afghanistani Sikhs especially with our rendition of one shabad in qawali form. We decided to head for Scotland on the Monday in a hired people mover. We drove close to Fort Williams on the first day and visited UK's highest mountain - Ben nevis, Loch Ness, Inverness, Ullapool (absolutely beautiful!), Edinburgh (one of the best cities we have seen so far!) and visited Lord Iqbal Singh - the only Scottish Sikh who holds a baronetcy, owns a castle (in a small village called Lesmahagow) and has commissioned his own 'tartan' cloth! He also owns an island off Scotland's coast which he has named Burns Island (after Scottish poet Robert Burns). On Thursday the 31st. we drove back into England - Manchester, to meet another very interesting and important Sikh - a 28 year old, to be more accurate, who has become a billionaire before the age of 30 and more importantly, proudly, a 'saabat surat destaar sira' Sikh -Reuben Singh! Furthermore, he is humble, does sewa in the gurdwara and is also a vegetarian. Waheguru Ji bless him with further success. We did a two hour workshop for youngsters as part of their weekend Sikh Youth Camp at the Sri Har Krishan Gurdwara Sahib under the leadership and stewardship of Bawa Jaspal Singh, a great sewadar of Manchester! sewak,
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