The countdown finally ended on Saturday and the day had come for me to meet the ‘Soch’ group. I had actually been waiting like anything to meet everyone. Having heard a lot about the group and members from the Path girl, it was time to associate faces with my imagination. We had booked a cab to go to other corner of the city where everybody was gathering in the ‘Khalsa House’ to do Path. The excitement could be judged from the fact that I was up by 3:00 in morning and was ready before 4 AM. The cab came and four of us started to a place which was going to be one of my favorite ‘to be at’ place from then on…
“Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh” The greeting was followed by exchange of names with those standing in the hall. I was introduced as the new member of the group. It was 4:50 AM and the small TV in the hall was playing 'ETC Punjabi' broadcasting live Kirtan from Golden Temple at Amritsar. There were soft beddings covered by neat colorful bed-sheets in the main hall, this was where we were to start Path in some time. As I washed my hands I noticed around 35 tooth brushes in the brush stand. Curious enough, I could not resist myself asking how many guys live in this house? “Officially 5, unofficially many…” answered one of them and we all laughed together.
There were mixed sounds from the Kitchen where Deg (Karah Prasad) and Langar was being prepared while reciting Mool Mantar. Soon we started with the Path. The number of persons were 5 at that time, but were soon going to increase. The best was the rhythm/Lai/Sehaj with which Path was being done. We all had formed a circle which went on widening as people joined us. I could see people getting involved deeply as they were reciting Path. Any pronunciation mistakes were corrected politely by other members. Everybody would take turns to recite the lines from the Pauri, and the rest would together recite the next two lines. It took little more than three hours to do Nitnem, which was followed by Asa Ki Vaar which was recited on Harmonium and Tabla. By the time we finished, the number of persons in the room was around 20. The Ardas was performed by Harman, Punjabi vich kavan taan ‘Rooh naal ardas kitti si ohna ne!’
Had I not known these guys are all IT professionals, I would have never guessed it that day! Saffron, Black, White Keskis with flowing beards and glowing faces; they were completely immersed in devotion & their voices echoing in the house, the atmosphere was all different with all this happening around. After Ardas Deg was distributed, followed by langar. And now these guys who were so good in religious aspects, proved to be good at humor; as we talked while enjoying the delicious Langar prepared by them. I was not at all feeling that it was the first time I was meeting all of them. So polite, so humble, so generous, so helpful, so knowledgeable, and lots of others so’s and these guys seemed to be full of it…I was speechless and so happy to be with them.
The tea was accompanied by discussions on pronunciation on typical words and burning copies of the CD of ‘Panj Kahaniyan’ - A film entirely directed, enacted edited by them for the Sikh Youth Film Festival hosted at Sikhnet.com. I have watched the movie now and it is awesome. A must watch! I couldn't remember the names of everybody I met, but I was already a fan of almost everybody I had met.
I wanted to stay there little more but had to come back as they all needed to move on with their weekend tasks. Before leaving I expressed my gratitude and promised them I would be there from then on for all the Saturday meets and also the next day when we were supposed to meet in the Gurudwara. Overall for me the meeting with all of them had given me lot more than I had expected – A new group to link me to Sikhism, A new reason to continue staying in Hyderabad and A new ‘Soch’ to inspire my inner self.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
U-turn? : enlightened by 'Soch'
Not in a mood to sit in office for long today, I decided to leave early. 'Lets catch the 6:45 bus!' For a person who normally leaves by 9:30PM or 10:40 PM from office, leaving the office while sky is still orange in no less than winning a lottery! Finally found a seat in one of the buses in the long queue that would be going to Mayfair.
While I was eagerly waiting for the bus to start and move, I heard a soft female voice reciting Path. The voice was very clear, melodious and coming from a source which was very close. Removing my headphones I figured the source, a girl sitting in front seat was reciting 'Rehras Sahib' (An evening path done in Sikhism religion). I was surprised, impressed, startled, happy - all at same time. Had hardly met someone from my religion who was religious in last 4 years. But why is she reciting at an audible volume level and that too in the bus? For a second I thought what is this show off for? But the pace was slow which could mean she was trying to understand the meaning (not reading hurriedly like me with the motive to just complete the path), or was she trying to make the person sitting with her familiar with the pronunciation? My mind had generated lots of questions in the last minute....The girl sitting next to her seemed to be sleeping, but path was being done for someone...and I noticed she was wearing a headphone and was on a call!! The mystery was becoming even more interesting for me now! But I had to wait till the path was over!
I passed my time talking to Shashank, while checking at regular intervals about the path. Almost at the end of the Anand Sahib, the path would soon be over and I will get answers to my questions...Good! The wait times are always paining for me! She was neatly wrapping the Gutka (The holy book from which path is done) in the cloth (Rumala) when I interrupted her. She turned back with a surprise, but I think she knew this was coming. It is not easy to ignore a turban...specially if you are from the same religion. Hey...we had seen each other before. I remember seeing her in cafeteria, we almost making out that we were Punjabis but we had never talked to each other.
I started with an apology for interruption and explained my eagerness for the query which had soared its heights of impatience till now. I was told that she was doing path with her friend on phone. Now that still sounded bit hard for me to digest. Finally I got to know the complete story...about her, about them - the group called 'Soch' and their activities....
Abt me...I think I have changed, and I feel like I am standing at a position where I am very different from what I was when I was a kid. Basically brought up in a Sikhism school 'Guru Nanak Public School, Ludhiana' I learned how to do path and kirtan while I was in school. Being in touch with all that then and now being so away from everything makes me feel sad sometimes. I often get to hear from my Mom "If you had learned all that when you were you a kid, you should not forget it now." Of course she would be feeling bad about it, she taught me all that while I was too small to understand it but I still followed it, and now when I am grown up I have forgotten to walk on the same path when I can understand the significance of it...
There has been a kind of inner awakening in the past few months, when I have been feeling I should get back to what I was earlier. I somehow feel more at peace, composed, confident when I am connected to God. I had started understanding Bani and was downloading and understanding Kirtan form various websites like sikhsangeet.com and srigranth.org. Thanks to the online web which had made this so easy for me and thanks to couple of members in Sikhism community in orkut who had introduced me to these websites.
Just when I was feeling a need to get another ray of light to guide me walking on the same path, I had heard this stranger reciting Rehras Sahib in the bus...But believe me, it is not easy to strike a conversation with a stranger. But I could not have avoided it as well, thanks to the her laggan, pace, melody with which she was doing her path which had inspired to strike a conversation, and as we talked I concluded striking this conversation was not a bad idea! She was quite enthusiastic about the group and its workings and I was too eager to know about such a group which had been existing in Hyderabad all this while. I felt like asking "Where were you all this while?" but I knew the question had to be actually framed like "Where was I all this while when she and her group were so active in this!" :-)
We discussed about the group, its regular meetings in the weekends in a house which the group had named 'Khalsa House' for there were couple of Sikhs in the house and there used to be meetings in the house on early Saturdays. Reciting Banis and practicing Kirtan were the activities that were done along with the preparation of Langar, discussions about meanings of the Bani and clarification of the doubts. The Sundays meets were at Secunderabad Gurudwara where the group recites Kirtan. And this group had its members from all IT corporates - Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, Oracle...I felt like everybody was there except me! :(
I got to see a lot of snaps of the group for the various activities - Turban tying competition which included Keski worn by lot of girls, the ones clicked when they were finalizing the video which was submitted to Sikhnet Youth Film Festival, the others of the times when their group had gone to Maharashtra to teach the kids about Sikhism and to strengthen their faith and lots of other pics as well. We were talking non stop, me sharing my experiences but I was still falling short of what I could narrate as compared to her who almost had a world to reproduce in her own words. I like these moments when I feel I am not that talkative...there are people who can give me competition! :)
I was quite sure since the start of the conversation that I had to be part of this group, but the ending had almost sealed my decision and while closing the conversation I had to change her count of group members from 15 to 16...there was a new one joining them from this weekend. I am looking forward for the coming weekend when I would be meeting all of them and am hoping to learn a lot from them. Not really sure if the journey from here is a New start for me or A U-turn to a state of life which was left behind few years back...
While I was eagerly waiting for the bus to start and move, I heard a soft female voice reciting Path. The voice was very clear, melodious and coming from a source which was very close. Removing my headphones I figured the source, a girl sitting in front seat was reciting 'Rehras Sahib' (An evening path done in Sikhism religion). I was surprised, impressed, startled, happy - all at same time. Had hardly met someone from my religion who was religious in last 4 years. But why is she reciting at an audible volume level and that too in the bus? For a second I thought what is this show off for? But the pace was slow which could mean she was trying to understand the meaning (not reading hurriedly like me with the motive to just complete the path), or was she trying to make the person sitting with her familiar with the pronunciation? My mind had generated lots of questions in the last minute....The girl sitting next to her seemed to be sleeping, but path was being done for someone...and I noticed she was wearing a headphone and was on a call!! The mystery was becoming even more interesting for me now! But I had to wait till the path was over!
I passed my time talking to Shashank, while checking at regular intervals about the path. Almost at the end of the Anand Sahib, the path would soon be over and I will get answers to my questions...Good! The wait times are always paining for me! She was neatly wrapping the Gutka (The holy book from which path is done) in the cloth (Rumala) when I interrupted her. She turned back with a surprise, but I think she knew this was coming. It is not easy to ignore a turban...specially if you are from the same religion. Hey...we had seen each other before. I remember seeing her in cafeteria, we almost making out that we were Punjabis but we had never talked to each other.
I started with an apology for interruption and explained my eagerness for the query which had soared its heights of impatience till now. I was told that she was doing path with her friend on phone. Now that still sounded bit hard for me to digest. Finally I got to know the complete story...about her, about them - the group called 'Soch' and their activities....
Abt me...I think I have changed, and I feel like I am standing at a position where I am very different from what I was when I was a kid. Basically brought up in a Sikhism school 'Guru Nanak Public School, Ludhiana' I learned how to do path and kirtan while I was in school. Being in touch with all that then and now being so away from everything makes me feel sad sometimes. I often get to hear from my Mom "If you had learned all that when you were you a kid, you should not forget it now." Of course she would be feeling bad about it, she taught me all that while I was too small to understand it but I still followed it, and now when I am grown up I have forgotten to walk on the same path when I can understand the significance of it...
There has been a kind of inner awakening in the past few months, when I have been feeling I should get back to what I was earlier. I somehow feel more at peace, composed, confident when I am connected to God. I had started understanding Bani and was downloading and understanding Kirtan form various websites like sikhsangeet.com and srigranth.org. Thanks to the online web which had made this so easy for me and thanks to couple of members in Sikhism community in orkut who had introduced me to these websites.
Just when I was feeling a need to get another ray of light to guide me walking on the same path, I had heard this stranger reciting Rehras Sahib in the bus...But believe me, it is not easy to strike a conversation with a stranger. But I could not have avoided it as well, thanks to the her laggan, pace, melody with which she was doing her path which had inspired to strike a conversation, and as we talked I concluded striking this conversation was not a bad idea! She was quite enthusiastic about the group and its workings and I was too eager to know about such a group which had been existing in Hyderabad all this while. I felt like asking "Where were you all this while?" but I knew the question had to be actually framed like "Where was I all this while when she and her group were so active in this!" :-)
We discussed about the group, its regular meetings in the weekends in a house which the group had named 'Khalsa House' for there were couple of Sikhs in the house and there used to be meetings in the house on early Saturdays. Reciting Banis and practicing Kirtan were the activities that were done along with the preparation of Langar, discussions about meanings of the Bani and clarification of the doubts. The Sundays meets were at Secunderabad Gurudwara where the group recites Kirtan. And this group had its members from all IT corporates - Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, Oracle...I felt like everybody was there except me! :(
I got to see a lot of snaps of the group for the various activities - Turban tying competition which included Keski worn by lot of girls, the ones clicked when they were finalizing the video which was submitted to Sikhnet Youth Film Festival, the others of the times when their group had gone to Maharashtra to teach the kids about Sikhism and to strengthen their faith and lots of other pics as well. We were talking non stop, me sharing my experiences but I was still falling short of what I could narrate as compared to her who almost had a world to reproduce in her own words. I like these moments when I feel I am not that talkative...there are people who can give me competition! :)
I was quite sure since the start of the conversation that I had to be part of this group, but the ending had almost sealed my decision and while closing the conversation I had to change her count of group members from 15 to 16...there was a new one joining them from this weekend. I am looking forward for the coming weekend when I would be meeting all of them and am hoping to learn a lot from them. Not really sure if the journey from here is a New start for me or A U-turn to a state of life which was left behind few years back...
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Sat Sri Akal ji _/\_
It was raining very heavily since evening and I was standing at a local bus stop where my office bus had just dropped me. I was waiting for a local bus/auto that could take me home. A small private bus came and I signaled conductor to wait as I rushed towards the bus. "Aa jao Paaji" conductor replied back with a smile. As I climbed into the bus I saw a Sardar with flowing beard sitting at third seat, and we smiled at each other and greeted each other with Sat Sri Akal ji. Before you ask me...No, I didn't know this person and it was first time I had seen him. I was about to sit somewhere when I noticed him adjusting the arm rest and moving to the corner seat inviting me to the seat adjacent to him.
I wasn't like this before, I mean I never used to greet strangers. It has been almost four years in Hyderabad, a place where I cannot see many Sardars as I could see and meet in Punjab. Spotting someone with Turban/Keski (smaller turban) definitely catches my attention today. But all this changed gradually. I remember first time it was an old aged man greeting me with Sat Sri Akal in a local Gurudwara here, and I responded back with same. The first thought was he might have mistaken me for somebody else...but then I noticed every Sardar greeting each other like this every time they crossed each other. But I was still hesitant to wish somebody..what would it look like wishing a stranger in middle of the road!
But things started getting into my head when I moved to US. Spotting a Sardar in US specially in some cities was a very rare event. And I myself used to feel so happy when I used to meet one! Conversations started from a simple wish, to whereabouts, native place, current occupation and so on...Sat Sri Akal just used to be a starter to a whole meal! I remember going to Indian restraunts in Cincinnati and Atlanta where most of the chefs and serving boys used to be from villages from Punjab. And my glass of water used to served with a firm handshake and 'Sat Sri Akal Paaji' in a deep Punjabi accent. And I too used to respond back with same affection! I was startled when all this happened first time, but then I got used to this extra hospitality! :-) Of course I used to be pushed forward by my friends at billing time for extra discounts! :-D and the main chef used to walk out from Kitchen wishing me Sat Sri Akal, with turban on his head and his white beard complimenting his apron, specially to meet me - someone who was from their land, their home country, someone who could remind them of their life left back at their homes....
After developing this habit in US, I was still not sure if I would continue it in India, but I got my answer soon. It had been just few days me being back and I saw a Sikh boy, dude types....walking with his girlfriend coming from opposite direction on my side of road. I tossed the coin in my mind and chose 'No', he might not like to be disturbed. And this could be what I would continue with as well. But as they approached me, the guy folded his hands, bowed his head and wished "Sat Sri Akal Veerji" as if he had just read my mind and wanted me to continue with this practice. I smiled broadly (actually laughed at myself) and wished him back...and that gave me a hint of what I have to continue with!
If you have been in touch with Sikh families, you would know that since childhood the kids are taught to wish Sat Sri Akal to all those who they meet. And kids so sweetly fold there hands and mumble in their unclear words. But the practice just seems to get lost as they grow up.
The actual meaning of Sat Sri Akal, which is actually half of the complete greeting.
Sat = Sadeevi , Hamesha rehan wala (Always existant)
Sri = Respectful term.
Akaal = Beyond time, God is always associated with present (He is there), never God was or God will be.
So now if you fuse all 3 words into one sentence you get:
Jo bole so nihal, Sat Sri Akal = Blessed are thee who say, The Immortal God is truth from before time, till after.
So now it has become a habit for me to greet everyone like this. Of course I get startled expressions from some, but mostly it is gesture of bowing head, gentle wish and a smile.
My request to chat lovers, lets not abbreviate it! Stop using abbreviation 'SSA' in chats, we have already taken a lot of short cuts in our lives. We can chat for hours and sound crap in all those long sentences that we type, but lets not try to conserve our energies while typing these 3 words.
The bus had reached the bus stop close to my home, and the small journey had passed with a series of questions of my whereabouts, native place, work place .... and before I got down we wished each other Sat Sri Akal!
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