Dera Sacha Sauda

The Dera Sacha Sauda episode refuses to die out. The other day, it was the subject of a heated debate in our house too... here are the "exclusive" excerpts:

"He" stands, obviously, for the person I was having this discussion with.

He: How can someone dress up like Guru Gobind Singh? Use the same baptism mode? This man does not even measure up to the toemail of the Guruji.
We have nothing against the creation of Deras. They do not come under Sikhism and we have no issues with how someone else runs a spiritual center. But to mislead simple people with a well known image, and to benefit from the replication of such an image, when you are not worthy of any such replication, is not acceptable. For a corrupt criminal like him to even place the word "Singh" after his name, is a disgrace to Sikhsim.

Me: Sure he doesnt measure up to Guruji. Thats why he is copying, remember? But how does it make a difference to my faith if 10,000 ppl dress up like Guru Gobind Singh? I know they are not Guru Gobind Singh, and never can be.

He: That may be the strength of one person's faith. But the majority will not have a faith that strong.

Me: We are not responsible for the strength of other people's faith.
Tell me, why are there Dalit Sikhs in Punjab in the first place? To have a Dalit Sikh is to deny the very foundation on which the Sikh faith was built. "Ek noor te sab jag upajaya, kaun bhale ko mande"
एक नूर ते सब जग उपज्या , कौन भले को मंदे ॥
(One light has given birth to all, so who may we call Holy and who unholy?)
Are the people who exploit these poor Sikhs and keep them as Dalit Sikhs, worthy of being called "Sikhs"? They are the bigger criminals in the books of Sikhism।

Why is it that a state that was ravaged by the political play of the INC, voted the same party back to power? The party that was responsible for the economic devastation and the social fabric tarnishing of the state, was brought back with honours? How can a people allow this? Even a so called "caste driven" state like UP has shown better political sense! The current issue is also hugely driven by politics, but we as Punjabis continue to be drawn into a battle that is non existant to start with.

Human Gurus are not allowed in Sikhism. Go to the gurudwara in Sec. 38C of Chandigarh. You will find pictures of these "gurus" from various Deras in the basement of the Gurudwara. That is not the icing on the cake. The icing is that these pictures are placed in the form of a square "Pradakshina" . This gurudwara comes under the SGPC.

Sikhism also prohibits a Sikh from using any form of Caste identification. Yet, more and more Sikhs are found writing "Singh Chawla" or "Singh Banipal" etc. after their surname. I find that a recent phenomenon in the Obit columns of newpapers. It is not about rituals. It is about the spirit behind that rule. That spirit is violated when you place a matrimonial ad asking for "Ramgarhia Sikh match required for..."

If the SGPC needs to accuse anyone, it is itself. If Sikhism needs to look anywhere, it is within.

The third person in the room: "Will the two of you please shut up? "

The Weekend Roundup

The most interesting thing heard all week: Rahul Gandhi blaming the congress organisation for the UP debacle. Wondering why they would not have got the credit for any win.

The most preposterous thing heard all week: A man called Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (with a name like this, he became neither Ram nor Rahim) dresses up as Guru Gobind Singh, and the Sikh custodians, instead of sending him a letter, end up destroying public property. A totally different man loses his life.

The best news of the week: Global Warming is finally being noticed.

What is below is a part of the song from Jism. We usually do not notice the excellent poetry of film songs, but i have always found it awesome. Some song snippets end up meaning a lot. Have been thinking of putting them up on the blog for a long time now...

Won't attempt a translation. This is too good to be mutilated by my translation. Any volunteers welcome.

आवारापन, बंजारापन, एक खला है सीने मे,
हर दम, हर पल, बैचैनी है, कौन भला है सीने मे॥

जाने ये कैसी आग लगी है, इस में धुँआ ना चिंगारी
हो ना हो, इस बार कहीं कोई ख़्वाब जला है सीने में॥

कहाँ किसी के लिए है मुमकिन , सब के लिए एक सा होना,
थोडा सा दिल मेरा बुरा है, थोडा भला है सीने में॥

खंजर से हाथों पे लकीरें, कोइ भला क्या लिख पाया?
हमने मगर एक पागलपन में खुद को छला है सीने में॥

Yippee!

We finally have the DVD of Maachis(the film) at home... got it as a wonderful gift recently, which made the possession dearer.

You'll remember, this was a Gulzar movie released in the previous decade.
It was about the terrorism problem in Punjab.

The leads were Om Puri, Tabu, Chandradhur Singh and others, incl. Jimmy Shergill.

Things I remember from the film:

Song snippet:
अखियों मे बैठा था, अखियों से उठ के,
जाने किस देस गया...

Translation:
He sat in my eyes,
God knows where he went from there..

What i love about this line is the pain of living through the fact that someone who practically shared your days, just goes away one day,and you never see him again.
*******************

Dialogues from the film: (ओम पुरी)
चंद्रचूर : "तो अब कहाँ है, वो, घर वाले आप के?
ओम पुरी: "आधे ४७ ने खा लिए थे, आधे ८४ खा गया। "

ओम पुरी : " घर बाहर हमारे उजड़े, बाप दादे हमारे मरे, और आजादी कोई और ले कर आया? "

ओम पुरी : "सीली माचिस की तीलियों से आग नही भड़कती। "
(Referring to the fact that an unawakened population cannot bring about a revolution or reform movement. Classic Gulzar, the best possible way of saying it. )

What working with the Blind has taught me

A lot of people who know me personally, often comment on how it’s a very good job that I’m doing with the blind. Each time, I have tried to correct the person and inform them that actually, it’s the other way round. What I have learnt from the blind people I have worked with is much, much more than what any of them has gained from me.

Here is how my life is better because of the skills I learnt from the blind.

I can walk around my house in pitch darkness.

If I’m cooking when the power goes off, I don’t have to turn the gas off and wait for the electricity to come back. I can continue cooking most of the times.

I don’t have to wake up to monitor the maid or the house. Even in my sleep, I do it with the ears and the nose. The maid hates it. I love the extra sleep. I learnt that from the students who knew someone was entering the class, even when I did not know it until after the person had entered.

Even if I am entering a building for the first time, I will be able to find my way over the sections that I have covered, in pitch darkness. This is because I count my steps and make a mental note of all the ups and downs of the floor surface. I learnt that from the students I worked with.

When buying clothes, I have learnt to close my eyes and then feel the texture. The difference in sensation is quite impressive.

I have learnt that it is possible to have fun AND hate people who pity you at the same time.

I have seen that it is possible to dance to perfect formations by just counting your steps and perfecting them individually. You cannot see the harmony you have created on stage, but everyone else can, and its beautiful!

I have learnt that there are 2 ways in which you can react to abject pity from others. You can either learn to use it to your advantage, or you can push it back with even more vigor. Your repulsion to that pity gives you more strength.

The Inconvenient Truth

Just finished watching a documentary called "Inconvenient Truth" featuring Al Gore. At first, the name Al Gore put me off big time.

But from Minute 1, one was hooked. Its a strong "Must watch" recommendation. (I got it from the local DVD vala, so you might try your luck there too. )

The documentary is about Global Warming. One has already reached compassion fatigue with this subject.

I really do believe that human beings are digging their mass grave successfully(and rather quickly) with their wombs. If we do not stop exponentially growing, we are all going. But one did not know the extent. From 2 billion after WW2, we are currently at above six billion. As he says in the film, 10,000 generations to reach 2 billion, and one lifetime to multiply that by 3. Super!

There are people who really believe that human beings are a "resource". To produce what? As a species, we are parasites and saprophytes. We produce nothing that is of use to anyone other than our own species. In the utility order, we must be just below the crows because the crows at least serve to clean up their feeding areas. We do the exact opposite!

Then one person once told me "We are a resource because it is the children we produce that are creating the economic resources for this country. The BPO work force is coming from there. Its a matter of how you use this resource." I was dumbfounded. You want to produce children to work in BPOs! How completely selfless!

Seriously, I have nothing against this view. In fact, I quite enjoy the circus that is the human civilisation.

Personally, I am very happy when a natural disaster tries to wake us up. The Earth is really kind, because instead of going for one mega disaster and getting rid of us, it is still trying to give us gentle warnings. The earth will survive the mega disaster. We, apparently, will not.

But there is something that this video does : it gives us hope. It tells us that we might still not be too late. After the hard, irrefutable figures, that hope is a good take home. It lets you sleep at night.

A Tag by Neihal!

Thank you Neihal, and here's the answer.


Publish 5th paragraph of page 123 of the book you are currently reading. (if the page does not have 5th paragraph, take the last paragraph. And if the book doesn’t have page no. 123, take the last page.)


I read multiple books at the same time. At the moment, these books are

Super Sudoku Puzzles by J. Riley
At Wit's End by Erma Bombeck; and
Raat, Chand aur Main by Gulzar.


Let's choose Gulzar for this tag. (I would have liked to choose Super Sudoku puzzles, but blogger does not support grid paragraphs yet. ;-)).






बस एक पानी की आवाज़ लपलपाती है,
कि घाट छोड़ के मांझी तमाम जा भी चुके


चलो ना चांद की कश्ती मे झील पार करें।

I tag....Artnavy, ITW, Dharma, Chiya and Sugarlips.

I also tag the first 5 visitors to this post. So if you see this post and the no. of comments is less than 5, you are tagged.

I am a Minority!

I demand full minority protection complete with the benefits!

I belong to a small group called the "WTF" group. We are like this:

1. We see Arjun Singh's "I-am-Krissh-but-why-does-everyone-else-think-I-am-Dr. Dang" histrionics and go "WTF!"

2. We see a lot of new headlines in the papers and find that the myopic vision of 50 years ago on whether 2 ppl can have an inter-religious marriage or not, whether girls are old enough to decide whom to marry at the age of 16 etc.. we see reams of paper and air time wasted on these notions and go "WTF! As if these things are even worth discussing"

3. We see the K series of serials(for abt 2 minutes) during which we see the same expression captured abt 5 times and go "WTF! DD's Hum Log anyday!"

4. We see Rahul Gandhi and Aishwarya Rai trying to appear intelligent and go "WTF!"

5. We see the Sachar Committee Report that is trying to get jobs for a highly entrepreneurial community and go "WTF! Why are the real needs of the community not being addressed?"

The WTFs are a community that is not suited to living in today's India.

We are also completely unfit to watch modern television.

More thoughts to live by..

More things I read that lead to thinking and peace (none of these is mine): 

अक्सर वो कहते है वो बस मेरे हैं,
अक्सर क्यों कहते हैं, हैरत होती है!
aksar vo kehte hain, vo bas mere hain,
aksar kyun kehte hain, hairat hoti hai.

He, who is mine, often tells me that,
Why does have to tell me often? (bad translation)

गम होते है जहाँ ज़हानत होती है,
दुनिया मे हर शेह की कीमत होती है

Gham hote hain jahaan zahaanat hoti hai,
duniya ein har sheh ki keemat hoti hai.

There is sorrow where there is knowledge.
Everything in the world comes at a price.

हम से दिलचस्प कभी सच्चे नही होते हैं,
अच्छे लगते हैं मगर अच्छे नही होते हैं।
Hum se dilchasp kabhi sachche nahee hote hain,
Acchche lagte hain magar achchhe nahi hote hain..

Those, who are intersting, are seldom honest,
They appear nice, but they are not.