In the UK 18 November 2011

Welcome to Hayes & Harlington Station
New entrance, north side

This morning I left the house at about 8 am, took a bus to the station (see above) and a train to Paddington (that was running 10 minutes late). From Paddington the Bakerloo line to Baker Street and change on the Jubilee line for London Bridge.

Left London Bridge via the Borough High Street west side exit, walked down the High Street for about 5 minutes and then turned right into Union Street, where I joined a meeting of Faiths & Beliefs in Further Education (fbfe), the organisation I worked with before leaving for Belgium.

I met some old friends and new ones, and some interesting issues were discussed, so I was happy that I had come. Those that knew me from before would all be happy to have me back, the only problem is to find some funds to pay me a bit of money with …..

Whatever happens with fbfe, even if it and for instance the Slough Equality Council have to close shop altogether due to lack of funds, I think there would still be a much better chance for me to earn some money to top up my Dutch pension in the UK than in Belgium.

After the meeting we had lunch together (special no eggs, no meat, no poultry no fish rolls reserved for me) and I went back on the Jubilee Line. Changed at Green Park for the Piccadilly line and at Hammersmith for the District Line to Ealing Broadway. The First Great Western train from there to Hayes was on time and I joined my UK family.

In the evening to the Park Avenue Gurdwara for rahras and kirtan by the excellent jatah of Bhai Lehna Singh, then back to Hayes and I ‘retired’ to ‘my’ room at about 9.30 pm.

In the UK, 15 November 2011

Sikh Channel is doing a show this Thursday at 23.00 hours CET with Harjinder Singh from the Netherlands. They will do the first part of the programme in English and the second part will be Dutch. Please share this info with everyone in the Netherlands & Belgium and post it to your FB wall.

Sikh Channel doet een show deze donderdag om 23.00 uur CET met Harjinder Singh uit Nederland. 
Het eerste deel van het programma is in het Engels, het tweede deel is in het Nederlands. Gelieve deze informatie met iedereen in Nederland & België te delen en zet het op uw Facebook wall.

I went to the UK for three reasons. The first one is that I am starting to prepare myself for my return to the UK in the summer of next year, after the Olympics are over and done with. On Friday I will attend a London Region meeting of the fbfe (for more info http://www.fbfe.org.uk/ ) with whom I have worked before I went to Belgium. Today I visited the Slough Equalities Council and the STAIS translation and interpretation service. I have both been employed and worked as freelancer for these organisations.

The second reason is to meet some of my good London friends, especially my brother Amrik Singh (Airport) and his family.

The third, equally important reason is to go to either of the Southall Singh Sabha Gurdwaras and listen to the beautiful kirtan !

And of course you must all watch and listen to Sikh Channel at 10.00 pm BST on Thursday 17 November.

Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Park Avenue, Southall 

392.Man in Blue – First Hounslow Youth Kirtan Darbar (YKD) Evening Programme

Friday October 30 was the first time that the YKD team was in charge of the early evening programme of Rahiras, Ardas, Kirtan & Katha. This will take place from 18.00 till 20.00 every last Friday of the month for the coming year. On every first Sunday of the month from 11.00 till 12.00 there is a further katha in English and kirtan programme.

This first time the Rahiras was read by Jaswinder Kaur and me, the ardás by me and the Vák by Jaswinder Kaur. This was followed by about 30 minutes of kirtan by the young kirtanis studying with Santokh Kaur Bhain-Ji and after that I did half an hour of simran and katha in English.

I did simran on Vahiguru, on the ‘Mul Mantr’ and on Gobinde, Mukande from Jáp Sahib. In my katha in English the main theme was the definition of a Sikh as found in the Rehat Maryada, followed by the leadership of the Sikhs by the Guru Granth Sahib.

Pritpal Singh looked after the projection of the shabads and Ardas on the screen, and Gurkamal Singh was in attendance of the Guru Granth Sahib.

We demonstrated that we are able to deliver the programme. Our challenge is to involve more and more young members of the sangat. We do have sufficient kirtan contacts, with the students of the kirtan class and older kirtanis who do kirtan in rág.

It should be easy to involve youngsters in the reciting of Rahiras, first sitting with us and later taking the lead. We are not worried about mistakes, but I do not want the sort of superfast recitation that you hear too often. Same goes for the ardás. There is no need to know the ardás by heart, we can read from my prepared sheets or from multi-lingual or Panjabi gutké.

For the vák we use the shabad that came up first thing in the morning, which makes it possible to become familiar with the text to be recited.

Finding people who are confident to do katha in English will be more difficult. I had a chance to ‘practice’ in the smaller Gurdwaré in Belgium and the Netherlands. I am gaining confidence in doing this, but it takes a lot of preparation to come to full understanding of any shabad.

In all this we try to stick to letter and spirit of the Rehat Maryada, which means that Rahiras starts with So Dar, as it does in the Guru Granth Sahib, and ends with Mundavani and the final slok.

This is a good chance for young Singhs and Kaurs to learn Sikh skills. We should be less dependent on granthis, ragis and kathakars, I think the Gurdwara should be run by the sangat under the guidance of the granthi.

Chardi Kala Jatha – Merciful, the Master is Merciful

I loved the kirtan by these young Americans, born into Sikh families and living in the Miri Piri Academy in Amritsar District. See the also the picture below (or in ‘pictures’) and in my web diary ‘Chardi Kala’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQwV6Ss2vvE&feature=related