Saturday, November 10, 2007

Sikh Stubborness

There used to be a time when indians , hindustanis , bharatwases were refered as a collection of Hindu Muslim Sikh Esahi, the interfaith community posters would should a typical sikh, hindu muslim and christian child standing hand in hand.

Offlate i have observed the sikh character, the symbol of sikhs missing in media, esp movies, bollywood movies..in the latest movie 'Om Shanti Om' Shahrukh khan is show wearing a pendant which has the cross, the om and moon and star representing interfaith between hindus , christians and muslims...what about the sikhs damit??????

i know a lot of my western sikh brothers would claim this is another form of assimiliation by the indian society...actually in all honestly this is a doing of sikh stubborn ness, sikhs hv tried to forcefully direct potrayal of sikhs in a particular way, 1) Violence around 'Jo Bole So Nihal Movie'...dont know what that was about, Asking mandira bedi to apologise for having ek om kar tatoo on her back( so many pendus hv it on their right hand...the same hand they use to ....u know what), asking harbhajan singh to apolgise for appearing in a whiskey add, god knows if sikhs stop drinking in india the liquor industry would go bust...

The crux of the matter is that you cant force or confine creativity, if you want bollywood to include sikh characters and symbols you should be ready to accept some ridiculous characters and some negative potrayal as well.

What sikhs need to understand is that... instead of using your energy on bollywood, use your energy to educate the world and ppl that its a 'bollywood movie' its as far from reality as your from getting laid by Marlin Monroe that too in this life time.

Let those designers design a pair of clothing with sikh symbol without fear of backlast, let that director potray a sikh character , positive negative, true false without the possibility of getting their movie theatre bombed, just give ppl the freedom that sikhi was to ensure....

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Anchor - Short series

The sun was unusually bright today, and my head as usual slow, as i walked out of the complex the glare from the cars parked on the other side of the street became increasingly unberable. i slipped on my glares and kept walking towards my car. The street is busy, Ron as usual is selling hot dogs on his cart, It must hv been around 2 years that i moved to this neighbourhood nothing seems to ever change, Ron is here from 11 in the mrg till 8 every evening, never seen him miss a day. He been here for 18 years now, 18 years of his life he has been making and selling hot dogs every day, Ron has got a wife and 3 kids. 2 girls and 1 son.





Howdy ! says Albert...aaah Rons most trusted customer, munching away his 4th hot dog of the day. Albert is in his late 40's, never been married, infact i dont think he has ever dated anyone. rumour has it that Albert might get his break with the ladies with Carina, its infact carina is the who has been doing a lot of work, Carina is a single parent with a kid, works as a nutrishinoist in the gym in our complex.





Looking at them makes me wonder, what is it that attracts people to each other, Carina & Alber are poles apart, she is reponsible , caring women who has seen a lot in life Albert on the other hand is one of those unfortunates who didnt really get to see anything life. I purposely chose not to use the phrase learning from life here, we dont learn anything from life, we just accept reality that shit happens, thats our learning, the acceptance.



A couple of days ago during an interview, the journalist asked me 'whats the most difficult thing for you to do', the first thing that popped on to my head was 'forgive and forget', offcourse she wanted a professional perspective, however that thought had me thinking and sent me in a journey of self discovery, am i spiteful person ? am i that controlling ? what's so difficult in forgiving someone? , especially if its someone you care, i recon that is infact what makes it more difficult.



This is a story of few very common ppl , who do very typical and at times mundane jobs, its not about cops, doctors or ppl who save life, its about ppl who live their life with acceptance that they prolly havent changed or affected anyones life.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Justice...Are we ready to get it

Almost like every other sikh, this time of year is a rememberance of the sikh genocide, a few days where sikhs were identified and killed in an organised manner, The same community was labelled as traitors who have gaven up the most amount of blood for india...No community as ever sacrificed for india as much as the sikhs have, the contribution is mamoth considering they are just small 2.5 % of indias population, the populations of christians in india are more then that of sikhs...


Anyway this is not about moaning and groaning about not getting justice...i am sort of tired of hearing about that...Not that i dont think there wasn't much to do justice in the first place or that i undermine the suffering of people...what i am tired is of some sikhs (particularly the ones settled in west) i am tired of their moaning and cribbing esp when none of those sikhs are ready to sacrifice, live in india and fight for justice...

I ask each one of those guys where were u when Anwar Kaur was the lone women ready to testify against the politicians, Were you besides this lone women trying to support her , make sure she faces no harm or pressure to change her testimony, were you with her trying to ensure that justice is served? or were u in your cosy homes in front of the TV and computer typing up stuff ?.

Over the years some sikhs hv gotten so used to cribbing that they dont wait for a second to see if they hv ever played any role in ensuring that justice is served. Maybe some sikhs dont want
justice, coz then they wont hv any thing to crib about or anything to feed the hate...I mean why else woudnt you go and assist in getting justice and ensure that you get justice....

With whom its happened they probably want to move on, however with whom it hasnt happen they want to sit besides their computer and crib...atleast that way there is something to crib about...