NANKANA SAHIB City News : 2,600 Sikhs arrive in Nankana

NANKANA SAHIB: As many as 2,600 Indian Sikh Yatrees Wednesday reached Gurdawara Janamasthan by two special trains to participate in the 542nd birthday anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak. 

The railway station echoed with traditional slogans “Jo Bolay So Nehal”, “Wahay Guru Gee Ka Khalas Wahay Guru Gee Ki Fateh”. Nankana DPO Dr Haider Ashraf, Nankana ETPB deputy administration Malik Anwaar and other district officers received them. The health department established a dispensary for the Yatrees. Strict security measures were adopted. The pilgrims started their religious rituals including Matha Taki, Ashan and Akhand Part. Meanwhile, talking to journalists at Gurdawara Janamasthan, Indian Sikh Yatrees group leader and executive member of Sharumani Gurdawara Parbandhak Committee Amritsar Sardar Ram Paal Singh Bhaniwal, deputy leader Sardar Ram Singh and Sangta Singh praised steps taken by the administration to facilitate Yatrees. 


with thanks : link above.

Happy Gurupurab !

With best regards


B S Vohra   


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Full shabad.. sadho rachna ram banai...

FAKE Passports ?

with thanks : Hindustan Times : link above.

Sierra College students photograph Yuba City Sikh Parade

With thanks : Link above for total 33 pics. Must view.

In spite of Sikh PM, no justice for '84 riot victims: Ramdev

KAPURTHALA: Yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday said it was unfortunate that despite being a Sikh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not been able to provide justice to the victims of 1984 riots and, asked the people to teach a lesson to the Congress in next year's Punjab assembly polls.

"It was very unfortunate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being a Sikh has failed to provide justice to the victims of 1984 riots," Ramdev said addressing a rally. He appealed to people to teach Congress a "lesson" in the forthcoming assembly elections for its alleged failure to check the menace of corruption, unemployment and inflation.

with thanks : Times of India : link above.

Sikh parade attracts 20,000 worshippers

More than 20,000 worshippers took part in a religious procession to celebrate the birthday of the Sikh founding father Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

Bright sunshine and dry weather helped to swell the crowds at the annual walk from West Bromwich to Smethwick held yesterday. The parade, which is one of the biggest to take place in the West, is called a Nagar Kirtan.

Among the participants was Kulbant Singh, aged 54, of Oak Road, West Bromwich, and his family.

“It brings everybody together, Sikhs and non-Sikhs,” he said.

“It is about everybody praying and thinking about God. It’s also good to see people taking part and keeping up the traditions.

“There is free food and fruit and cups of tea being served.

“Sikhism is all about peace, love and respect for others. We also believe there is only one God,” the Sandwell college lecturer added.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji was the first of the ten gurus and was born in 1469.

The parade followed a route from the Guru Har Rai Gurdwara, in High Street, West Bromwich, to the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in High Street, Smethwick. It lasted more than three hours.

With thanks : Expressandstar : link above for detailed news.




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Guru Nanak Jayanti : Commemorating Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism

Guru Nanak Jayanti - celebrating the birth of Guru Nanak Dev

Guru Nanak Jayanti - extensively celebrated as Gurpurab across India and the world - is one of the several auspicious religious festivals in Sikhism observed to commemorate and remember the birth and philosophy of Guru Nanak, first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikhism. Sikhs and ardent followers of Guru Nanak remember him by celebrating Guru Nanak Jayanti with great enthusiasm that usually falls on Kartik Poornima. Admirers will observe Guru Nanak Jayanti 2011 on the month of November, which is also declared as a gazetted holiday in India.

Guru Nanak (1469AD - 1539AD) was born in a village named Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, presently popular as Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, Pakistan. Biographical sources depict that from childhood he showed deep interest in matters pertaining to divinity and spirituality. Towards his later age, he completely engrossed himself in preaching the importance and power of spirituality in one's life that ultimately gave birth to Sikhism. Guru Nanak Jayanti is also about reliving his preaching and teachings that are quoted in the sacred Sikh scripture Guru Grant Sahib, the holy book in which hymns of Sikh Gurus are quoted.

Gurpurab actually refers to the anniversary festivities that revolve around the lives of 10 Sikh Gurus to mark the significant contributions towards Sikhism. Because of such reasons, celebration of Guru Nanak Jayanti is much similar to other Gurpurabs with the exception of the hymns.

Festivity of Guru Nanak Birthday gear up a couple of days ahead of the specified date by decorating Gurdwaras in attractive ways and organising Akhand Path (reading of the Guru Granth Sahib incessantly for 48 hours). A day earlier of Guru Nanak Jayanti, devotees carry out processions holding Nishan Sahib (the Sikh flag) and singing hymns. The Palki (boxlike litter with poles) for Guru Granth Sahib, Panj Pyaras (five beloved ones) and 'Gatka' team displaying their sword skills and martial arts are some of the integral and major attraction of the event.

On the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, devotees sing hymns in the early morning from Sikh scriptures including Asa-di-Var followed by poems and sermons to relive the significant accounts and activities from Guru's life symbolically in his praise. Gurdwaras on the grand celebration of Guru Nanak Jayanti serve Langar or a community meal to all for free.

Apart from the traditional celebration ideas, people to share the essence and joy of this festival send inspirational and lovely Guru Nanak Jayanti SMS or messages to their dear ones. This year, Sikh community and followers of Guru Nanak will observe Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 10.

with thanks : Times of India : link above.

Children in charge of Holland Park Sikh temple

A Sikh temple in London is handing control over to children for one day a month. Catrin Nye reports.

A Sikh Gurdwara in west London has put children at the heart of its running for one day a month.

The idea came from parents who wanted their children to have a bigger role in their place of worship.

The Gurdwara Khalsa Jatha in Holland Park was established in 1908 making it the oldest Sikh place of worship in the UK.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We learn in a different way now and we don't sit down and do as we're told any more”

Navleen KaurEvent organiser

Organisers of the event told BBC Asian Network they wanted their children to sustain the temple that their elders had worked so hard to create.

with thanks : BBC News : link above for detailed story.

Sikhs Keep the Cheese Coming in Italian Heartland !!

PESSINA CREMONESE,ITALY — Alongside common local last names like Ferrari and Galli,the telephone directories for the province of Cremona have been registering an increasingly present surname: Singh.

For the past 20 years, Indian immigrants many of whom are Sikhs from Punjab have been settling in Italy’s agricultural heartland to work primarily on farms,often as bergamini,as dairy workers are known in the native dialect.

It has been said that if the Indian workers went on strike, production of Grana Padano, the hard,grainy,spaghetti-topper that this tract of the Po Valley is known for;would shut down. Simone Solfanelli,the president of the Cremona chapter of Coldiretti,Italy’s largest Agricultural Organization said “Well,I don’t know if production would stop, but it would certainly create many difficulties,”.I can tell you that Sikhs are indispensable for farming and for the milk produced in the province — at one million tons per year, about a tenth of all milk produced in Italy".

“Sikhs saved an economy that would have gone to the dogs because young people didn’t want to work with cows,” Mayor Dalido Malaggi of Pessina Cremonese said. He explained "Though the dairy industry is mostly mechanized today, human labor is still necessary 365 days a year.The work is split in two four-hour shifts per day, about 12 hours apart.Young Italians don’t want to work those kinds of hours.They’d prefer to work in factories and want to have evenings and weekends free".Thus,with no substitutes in sight,it was a fortunate match, because many of the Sikh immigrants already knew what it took to keep a farm running.

There are no official statistics of how many Sikhs work in dairy barns here,but Mr. Solfanelli said that out of the 3,000 agricultural laborers in the province, about a one third are Indians

With thanks:The New York Times,Europe.

Dilbag Singh and his wife Sukhwinder Kaur who have been living and working as a bergamino in Cremona,Italy for the last 16 years say that "This is dairy land,and many of us have cows in Punjab..so we are used to the work that we do here.”

Mr.Dilbag Singh during his work shift in the milking room of farm in Cremona, Italy.











Dr.Gurdeep Kaur
University of Milan
ITALY

Associate Professor
SGND Khalsa Collage,
University of Delhi
INDIA

Europe's Biggest Gurdwara in Cremona ,Italy !

"Gurdwara Shri Guru Kalgidhar Sahib"

Gurduwara Sri Guru Kalgidhar Sahib is a largest Sikh temple in Continental Europe.It was inaugurated on Aug. 2111.It has been built in an industrial area that includes a factory of vacuum pump compressors and a cold-cut production plant.Its designer;Giorgio Mantovani said that the temple was inspired by Sikh models in India & it is both a monument and a center for the community.

It took years to construct this Gurdwra.Municipal permits were given and withdrawn in a nearby town when the temple became a politically thorny issue, so another site was found. A decade’s worth of bureaucratic hurdles also had to be overcome, money had to be raised by the Sikh community,and loans found to make up the rest of the price tag of €2 million, or nearly $3 million.
















Dr.Gurdeep Kaur
University of Milan
ITALY

Associate Professor
SGND Khalsa College
University of Delhi
INDIA