The new Slough bus station
On the 16th of November I went to Slough to meet with Zafar Ali and his team of the Slough Equality Council (SEC) and STAIS, the translation and interpretation service. I have worked for both outfits, mostly as a freelancer, but also for a while as a part-time employee.
I went to see my friends and colleagues, but also to see if there might be some work for me to do when I go back to the UK in 2012. The message was clear : if we get government funding there will be work, if there is no funding there might not even be SEC and STAIS. This is the result of the present penny-pinching outfit. Even more than previous governments they want cohesion, integration and all that, but it should not cost any money !
In the afternoon I went to Southall, walked around, took some pictures and then attended Gurdwara for rahras and kirtan. The jatha of Lehna Singh again did a great job !
17 November I went to Ealing and did some shopping, and continued to Stratford to travel on and take pictures of the new Dockland Light Rail route from Stratford International via Stratford to Canning Town. I skipped Stratford International as a train to Canning Town was ready for departure when I came to the station. I got off and took pictures off Stratford High Street, Abbey Road, Star Lane and Canning Town stations.
In the afternoon I first met with Vikram Singh (Sikhs in Holland) with whom I had a wonderful conversation, then listened to more from Bhai Lehna Singh, and while having my langar talked to a naujawan who asked me some very good challenging questions.
The fashion of 1699, the machine of the 21st century
After Gurdwara I went to Pritpal Singh’s house and from there we went to the Sikh Channel studios to do an interview with that fellow also known as ‘the man in blue’. It was broadcast from about 22.15 till 23.00 and I think that it went quite well.
Pritpal Singh with the Harjinder Singh Amritsar Wala
