"Hello friends!! Well, jayant , my friend, told me the following incident which I wish to share with you. It has had a deep impact on my thinking.
In the diwali vacation, Jayant and his couple of friends had gone to Delhi .
They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old Sardar, and boys being boys, Jayant and his pals began cracking Sardarji jokes, just to insinuate the old man.
But to their surprise, the fellow remained unperturbed.
At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid up the hire-charges. The Sardar returned the change.
Moreover, he gave each one of them one rupee extra and said, (in Hindi, of course),
''Son, since morning you have been telling Sardarji jokes. I listened to them all and let me tell you, some of them were in a very bad taste. Still, I don’t mind coz I know that you are young blood and are yet to see the world. But I have just one request. Here I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the first Sardar beggar that you come across in this city."
Jayant continued," That one rupee coin is still with me. I couldn’t find a single Sardar begging on the streets of Delhi ."
Friends, we all love sardar jokes. But the fact of matter is that Sikhs are one of the most prosperous and diversified communities in the world. The secret behind their universal success, according to me, is their willingness to do any job with utmost dedication. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a roadside garage or a dhaba, but he will never beg on the streets
I HAVE!!!!! uh...come across a begging sardar that is. And in Dubai no less! Although if he was asking for charity for himself or for some foundation, i dont know cause I didnt hear him right, but he took a few dirhams from me n all my friends.
i visited amritsar last year... i did see beggars outside the Golden Temple, and mostly they harrass western tourists. but no one ever goes hungry in Amritsar, because the Golden Temple serves meals 24 hrs around the clock. The food is prepared by volunteers, there was a group peeling and chopping vegetables, another group cooking in huge degchis, another group serving the meals to thousands of people in the big hall, another group cleaning the hall as persons left.. i saw beggars sitting right next to the affluent, no discrimination... all of them receiving and partaking of the simple yet delicious meal. most gurudwaras have the daily "guru ka langar" meal facility.
sikhs are incredibly hospitable and generous people in my experience.
and finally i remember an old sikh man standing at the entrance to the highway in Brooklyn... rain, wind, snow or shine, he's there everyday selling rose bouquets... i have often wondered how his family could permit him to stand in the bitter cold for hours... who knows what his circumstances are.. but yeah, my general impression is they are hard workers for the most part, not beggars.
We have a Sikh temple in between two cities and travellers are welcome 24 hours a day to have a meal or even stay the night if any rooms available without any charge. Most people do donate whatever they can to the temple but there is no requirement. You can even go there for a retreat for a night or two and it is so peaceful. Amazing thing is all religions and all races are welcome and you see various types of people there.
I know one thing that all sikhs are obligated to donate 10% of their income to Gurdwaras. That is why Gurdwaras are able to support under_privilaged people like the way they do.
i just remembered another incident.. i came across a sikh woman in southern india.. she had her head covered, it looked like a hijab.. she was wearing her kada, carring a comb and on her waist dangled a wicked looking kirpan (knife). i was really curious at that, and engaged her in conversation. i said, i’ve just returned from amritsar, i didn’t see any woman there dressed the way you are.. why do you dress this way? she said that she’d completed a sikh religious course and the head covering was an indication of it. then i asked her how come she carried a knife.. and she said that 1) religious reasons 3) protection. so i said, protection from what/whom? maybe the early sikhs needed to always carry a dagger to protect themselves from ambush by enemies of the faith, what reason could you possibly have? she retorted, why, aren’t women assaulted even today? do you think anyone would mess with me after seeing my knife?
i’ve no doubt she’d use it without any hesitation or qualms if the situation called for it.
i’ve no doubt she’d use it without any hesitation or qualms if the situation called for it.