DLR – From Bank to Cyprus III

This my third report on a trip from Bank to Cyprus
To  see all my DLR pictures go to :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157611244941713/

From Limehouse to Westferry
Inside a DLR train

Westferry Station
Woolwich Arsenal train. The station is being made ready for three car trains

Westferry
Eastbound train

Westferry
Trains in both directions

More to follow

Southall Guru Nanak Nagar Kirtan 2009 V

The fifth part of my pictorial report on the Southall Nagar Kirtan
All pictures will be gradually uploaded to my flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/

Leaving the Green, across the bridge over the railway line

Coming down from the bridge, South Road with on the right the Glassy Junction and on the left the Royal Mail and the Methodist Church

Park Avenue Singh Sabha

More food stalls on the right, heaps of sangat

One more to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

BBC News – Family rape case woman speaks out

Friday, 16 October 2009

A woman, who was raped by three members of her own family, says her partner gave her the strength to report the abuse to police.

Three men – her step-uncle, stepfather and brother-in-law – have been given long jail terms for raping her.

The judge at Cardiff Crown Court told them they had treated their victim like an “unpaid and unwilling prostitute.”

The woman said in an interview with BBC Wales that the truth may never have emerged without her partner’s support.

None of the convicted men can be publicly named to protect the victim’s identity.

The step-uncle, 55, was convicted of seven counts of rape, three of indecency with a child, and one of indecent assault.

The stepfather and the brother-in-law, 27, were each convicted of three rapes.

The court was told the woman was repeatedly abused as a child by the step-uncle and later in life also by her stepfather and brother-in-law.

The woman said her partner had given her the courage to report the abuse to police.

“He gave me the strength to do that otherwise it would’ve been kept under the carpet or whatever, but he helped me to come forward,” she said.

She said she had felt so low at one point that she had tried to take her own life.

“I felt like there’s nothing for me now. Even after my ex-husband left me, I thought I’ve got no-one now, I won’t be able to get married or nothing in this life now,” she said.

“That’s all I thought. When he took my kids, I thought that’s it, my life has ended.

“I even tried to commit suicide but my partner helped me. He just told me not to do anything.”

When asked whether she had been ostracised by her community, she said she had been called names and it was difficult for her to leave the house.

“I was being given wrong names like I’m a prostitute, I stand on the streets, I do bad things but I’ve never been like that,” she said.

“It was so hard for me to go out as well. Even nowadays I can’t even go out of the house properly because I feel like people are going to talk about me.”

She had told the jury her mother beat her when it was discovered she was seven months pregnant.

She said her mother had not believed her when she had tried to tell her that she was pregnant by a member of her own family.

‘Extremely courageous’

“When she went to the doctors, checked me out, she realised I was seven months pregnant, she still didn’t believe me,” she said.

“She hit me with a rod and stuff like that so she never believed me.

“She always said to me ‘they can’t do that to you, they’re your family, they can’t do it’ but unfortunately they did.”

During the trial, the court was told that when the woman became pregnant at 14 she was hidden away, sometimes in a wardrobe.

The step-uncle agreed in court he was the father of her child, but told the jury he had not found out until much later once DNA tests were carried out.

In court, Judge Patrick Curran told her step-uncle: “Not content with your own sexual abuse on her, you encouraged the others to treat her like an unpaid and unwilling prostitute.

“You all then involved yourselves in a group rape on her.”

Prosecutor Marion Lewis said the woman went to police last year and told officers she had been repeatedly abused from the age of five.

The three men, all from Cardiff, had denied the charges but were found guilty of rape and indecency after a trial.

The step-uncle, 55, and stepfather were jailed indeterminately, with terms recommended of 20 and 15 years respectively, while her brother-in-law, 27, was jailed for 12 years.

The court was told that both the step-uncle and stepfather are illegal immigrants, who will be deported after they have served their sentences.

After they were sentenced, Det Insp Chris Mullane, of South Wales Police, said the victim had been “extremely courageous” in coming forward and he urged anyone who had been raped in the past to come forward and the case would be investigated “robustly”.

District Line – Gloucester Road to Tower Hill

I was on my way to the University of East London Campus opposite the London City Airport and decided to travel via Tower Hill and Tower Gateway

Travelling from Southall to Paddington, and changing for the Circle Line I got to Gloucester Road, which is a beautifully restored

A refurbished District Line train, with green as its theme colour

Tower Hill Station, served by Circle and District Line
Some District Line trains terminate here

 Outside Tower Hill station, on the way to Tower Gateway this magnificent view of the Tower of London with a an Underground roundel in the foreground

The next posting will be about my trip from Tower Gateway to Cyprus (UEL)

 

Sikh Perspectives for US North West Citizen

This article was a result of an exchange between Tarlochan Singh, a Sikh from San Jose, CA, and Kamalla Rose Kaur, a Sikh living in Bellingham in the state of Washington in the North West of the USA.

 

(To NW Citizens),  

 

It takes a certain amount of courage to admit the wrongs done. The perpetrator of wrongs might forget those atrocities and simply shrug his shoulders, but the victim does not forget what happened to him or her. Those ugly events get etched into one’s memory and stay there forever.

 

So I applaud the residents of the Bellingham area for showing the courage and providing the much needed healing touch. I have driven by the town many times when driving to Surrey from Seattle to see my family. I have also visited that town briefly. That area offers a breathtaking view. The mountains, the greenery and lakes are simply great. The scenic  drive of about 125 miles between Seattle and Surrey on HWY 5 is the main reason that I always have the urge to get off the airplane at Seattle and drive to Surrey.

 

The sad part is that the Sikh community did not want to settle there for decades after a bitter experience when they were simply chased and driven out of the town! They suffered utmost humiliation. The times have changed. I am glad that some Sikhs have settled again in that area. I am also happy that fellow Americans have a better understanding of the Sikh community than their forefathers.

 

The East Indians (as they were called) were barred from owning property in California. My granduncle Mihan Singh was one of the Babas (Papas) who lived in California for about 50 years and died in Stockton, California in 1963. The last known address of my grand-uncle is the Stockton Gurdwara (Sikh temple). He lived there for many years. All those Babas helped in building the original and the later buildings of that Gurdwara. Both of them still stand and are in good shape. The old building has been almost totally renovated. In fact, that Gurdwara is one of the Historical Landmarks in California with formal directional signs to that place of worship. It is a beautiful and sturdy building made of bricks.

 

My granduncle bought a piece of land in Yuba City sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, but never got the title to the land! As a result he suffered immense loss and died a poor man. He lived off his meagre social security.

 

There were 202 East Indians in California in 1890. Their population slowly rose to 1873 in 1930. It dwindled to only 815 by 1950 due to discriminatory policies of the US government. On the other hand, the Chinese population rose from 39,556 in 1940 to 58,324 in 1950 after peaking at 75,132 in 1880. The Japanese population in California was 84,956 in 1950. All Asian communities had a population setback, but the East Indians/Sikhs suffered the most. (Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the Unites States,: Population 1950.)

 

Out of the 815 total East Indian population left in California, the Sikh population was probably no more than 500 or 600 in 1950. Most of them were growing old and dying. They almost reached a point of extinction. Their population declined more rapidly than other minority communities such as the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Filipinos. The US government did not allow them to bring women or relatives from India. Many Punjabis/Sikhs bought land by marrying Hispanic, Anglo, Blacks and American Indian women who were US citizens. Like my grand-uncle, many never married. When they died, their properties revered to the state if they had no relatives or children!

Thanks to President Harry Truman (1945-1953) who changed the immigration policy that was discriminatory to the East Indians. As a result the Punjabis/Indian were allowed to invite relatives from India.

 

The British held sway over the US policy towards India until 1947 when India was finally free from the British yoke. The rapidly declining Sikh population started to grow again in the US in the late 1950s, and more significantly in the 1960 and 1970s. In 2009, according to unofficial counts, the Sikh population stands at roughly 500,000 in the US and growing. There are almost 70 places of Sikh worship in California today as compared to only 2 in the 1950s (in Stockton and El Centro). The Sikhs and Punjabis are known for their hard work, business skills, and persistence. Their per capita income in the US is among the highest among the minority communities.

 

The younger Sikh generation is well-educated and doing really well. A large number of them have degrees in engineering, medicine, business, and other fields of learning. All one has to do is just visit the Silicon Valley or any local hospital all over the US and see how many East Indians/Sikh engineers and doctors are there who are not only treating the patients and cranking out new products, but also contributing to the US economy and scientific knowledge. Or one can visit the Central Valley of California to see how thousands of Sikh farmers are producing the much needed food while generating a large number of jobs. About half the farms in Yuba City in California are owned by the Sikh farmers. They are among the major producers of peaches, raisins, and almonds in California.

 

The Punjabis and East Indians had to make ethnic choices in order to continue their biological lines and to buy and hold properties with their hard earned money. They married non-Indian women (mostly Mexican, Anglo, and Black).  For example, out of 304 marriages of Asian Indians that took place in California from 1913-1949, 80% of the spouses were Hispanic, 12.7% Anglo, 4% Black, 2.4% East Indian, and .5% American Indian. (Source: Making Ethnic Choices – California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans, by Karen Isaksen Leonard, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992, p. 67.)

 

Their offsprings and their children are living in California in Yuba City, Fresno, Imperial Valley, Los Angeles, and San Diego areas. They are enjoying the fruits of labor of their Sikh ancestors, especially those who have held on the properties bought by their Sikh forefathers.

 

I have an old Mexican-Sikh friend (Mohan Singh) who owns a farm next door to my small farm in the Fresno area. He also helps in managing my farm. He is a product of Mexican woman and a Sikh father. All his family members (children and grandchildren) use Singh as their last name! He has other siblings as well who just love the Sikh community. They all have families. Even though they are practically Christians, they have strong ties with the Sikh community. Mohan Singh still donates to the local Sikh place of worship and helps in arranging Nagar Kirtan (Sikh Parade) using his influence with the city officials. When he built his house on his farm in Selma, his family held an Akhand Path ceremony (continuous reading of the Sikh scripture, Sri Guru Granth Sahib) to seek Guru’s blessings.

 

Mohan Singh’s Sikh father Moola Singh bought a piece of farm land in Selma in the Fresno County which is worth millions of dollars today. He himself served the US Army in Korea. His grandson is serving in the US Army. He speaks perfect Punjabi along with Spanish and English. I talk to him almost every week. He is a happy old man with a good sense of humor. 

 

Dr. Tarlochan Singh

San Jose, California
tnahal99@yahoo.com

First Day of operation of Dockland Light Railway (DLR) to Woolwich Arsenal

Entry hall of the DLR station from Platform 2 of Woolwich Arsenal

Although the opening of the Woolwich to King George V tunnel was not widely published I did notice an announcement of a new timetable for the Dockland Light Railway which mentioned trains to/from Woolwhich Arsenal from Saturday 1o January.

So off I went to Woolwich Arsenal, using the local First Great Western train from Southall to Paddington, the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross and a South Eastern train from there to London Bridge and a Plumstead South Eastern one to Woolwich. I took some pictures on the way, which will soon be published on my Flickr account (for link see below).

I liked the entry hall to the DLR from platform 2 as seen on the above picture. The DLR station has an island platform (see my Flickr account), there were not many travellers waiting for the train, most of the people on the platform were rail enthusiasts like me.

The train for Bank took us swiftly through the new tunnel to King George V, at a reasonable speed from there to Canning Town, very slowly around the Bow Creek with full view on the Dome, and from there on to Poplar.

At Canning Town the Woolwich branch joins with the Beckton one, just before Poplar the Stratford line joins for a short stretch as most trains from Stratford turn south after Poplar for Canary Wharf. Both the Woolwich and the Lewisham trains run to Bank, which results in a every 5 minutes frequency from Westferry to Bank. From Canary Wharf to Lewisham, from Canary Wharf to Stratford, from Canning Town to Beckton and from Canning Town to Woolwich Arsenal trains run every 10 minutes.

You might remember that the Silverlink North London line used to operate from Richmond to North Woolwich. When it became the London Overground under Mayor Ken it was shortened to Stratford.

A new DLR service is going to run on new tracks from Stratford International to Stratford where it will join the old North London Line tracks from there to Canning Town. The tracks from Canning Town to North Woolwich are meant to be used by the south eastern branch of Crossrail which after North Woolwich will cross the Thames to join the South Eastern tracks to Abbey Wood.     

After Poplar I took a Lewisham train where I took the 436 bus to Marble Arch, from there the Central Line to White City, and from White City the 607 to just past Iron Bridge. I planned to go all the way from Lewisham to Southall by bus, but the service from Marble Arch were diverted due to the pro Gaza / anti Israeli demos, and we were thrown out of the 607 at the first stop after Iron Bridge because of road closure in Southall (no reason given).

I walked from there along the Uxbridge Road untill I got to Park Avenue which I walked its full lenght to the Park Avenue Gurdwara.

For more public transport pictures go to my flickr.com photostream via the underneath link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157611244941713/

Sunday 21 December Kirtan with Katha in English, Hounslow Singh Sabha

Last Sunday was the second Youth Kirtan Darbar with English Katha in the Hounslow Singh Sabha, those taking part enjoyed themselves, the group actively involved is growing, but we did suffer from a diminishing audience as the programme went on.

Both Harjinder Singh and Jaswinder Kaur supplied the English spoken explanations, the young kirtanis and also some older ones did the kirtan, we had projection of the texts of the sabads sung, and simran with explanations of the words (the descriptions of God) meditated on.

We have three more events in the remaining days of 2008. On Saturday 27 there is a programme from 4 pm till 8 pm, starting with Gurpreet Singh, who recently from a ‘mona’ became a Sikh in Guru’s Rúp and Harjinder Singh a Dutchman who in 1996 became an Amritdhari Sikh from being a person of Dutch Reformed Church background, talking about their experiences. This will be followed by questions and answers, kirtan (including playing of dilruba), rahiras sahib and kirtan again.

On Sunday December 28 there will be a Youth Sikhi Camp, please bring your children at the latest at 9 am ! The programme will end at between 3.30 and 4 pm.

For Tuesday December 30 we are putting together a small seminar, which we plan to start end of the afternoon. More details will follow.

The first event in 2009 will be a Youth Kirtan Darbar without katha on Sunday 18 January, and a Youth Kirtan Darbar with katha in English on Sunday 25 January 2009. 

Harjinder Singh, the Man in Blue, on behalf of fellow organisers Bilo Singh, Gurkamal Singh, Gurmit Kaur, Gurpreet Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Jaswinder Kaur and Mandeep Kaur

The Baaz is dead, long live the Sher !

I had heard yesterday that the Sher party had won the elections at Southall Singh Sabha and today I went to the Gurdwara and saw on a list (with very small print) on the notice board that all 21 Sher candidates have been returned, and of course that means that no members of the Baaz and the Tir group have been elected.

It is clear that not many persons use the opportunity to vote for people instead of a group !

Anyway, let us hope and pray that Sher will stick to its promises, and let us all support their efforts. They are lucky that under the Baaz group most of the bank loan has been re-payed, but of course they face further expenses for the new school.

A Gurdwara should be run in accordance with Gurmat and the Rehat Maryada, but it should also be run in a business like manner, not for profit but to avoid squandering the sangat’s money on huge halls that are very rarely used to capacity, and on marble and gold that serves very little purpose.

And the paint is peeling from the inside of the dome over the main divan ! 

I hope that the prabandhak committee will join our efforts to safeguard the rights of the Sikhs to wear the 5 Ks here in in other European countries, and in general will behave like a panthik, rather than a Panjabi body.

Harjinder Singh