My first meet with 'Soch'

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.