Check out Scoop Jackson’s take on the Antonio Davis incident.

Kicking Davis out of the game was good enough, suspending him is a bit harsh and is only the result of last years brawl at the palace.

The way 9-11 made everyone in the states paranoid about anyone of Eastern decent or values, the brawl at the palace last year had a similar effect about players entering the stands.

Check out this link to a video. Only a desi would pull something like this.

A final look back at the holidays, as I was clearing out the images,

So as most people know by now, Baba Mann Singh (Pehova Wale), is starting 1313 Akhand Paht Sahibs in the next week or so, and on SikhSangat there’s been much discussion on the topic.

Now some people are vexed about the number of pahts being done saying its pointless and useless, but since when has reading Bani ever been useless? The more bani we read the better. I remember back in the old Malton day’s we would pick a Gurpurbh, and collectively as a Friday class, everyone would do a determined amount of Mool Mantar Pahts. (It was usually something like 10, 000 each) and everyone got a counter to keep track. Come time of the Gurpurbh, an ardass was done for the collective amount of Mool Mantar bani that was completed. Now I fail to see how that is anti gurmat. The more bani you read the better. Same argument goes for when people question why Jap Ji Sahib or Jaap Sahib are done continuously alongside Akhand Pahts, claiming its pointless and anti gurmat. The more bani you read the better period. (Also check out these images, it is an amazing site, no matter where your eye turns, you get Darshan of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji)

The discussion later took an expected turn, when Mann Singhs not so distant past showed up into the discussion. The main argument by those who support Mann Singh to this day, is that those who made the accusations, Kulbir Singh and their families have since left Sikhi and can not be taken as credible sources. That entire argument is flawed and instead proves why Kulbir Singh and family can be taken seriously.

I personally knew Kulbir Singh for the longest time growing up, after all they where the ones who came up with the idea of starting a Friday class at Malton. They would teach and inspire those who had yet to take Amrit, to take it, and would always try to share whatever insight they had on Sikhi with us. When the classes started our core guys where in grades 7 and 8, and the classes continued well into our high school years, when in turn the seniors of the class started to take a more active role in preaching to the young’ins, as Kulbir Singh was tight on time after having his own new born at home. In hind-sight a lot of what was taught, sakhi’s etc. was from the Diwaans of Mann Singh, who Kulbir Singh was really loyal and close with. I can honestly say at that time Kulbir Singh was ready to take bullets for Mann Singh if the occasion ever came up.

Its because of that loyalty and shardaa that Kulbir Singh had towards Mann Singh that the whole argument breaks up. For someone who followed Mann Singh so closely to then realize the truth behind them, shattered their world, and in turn made everything Mann Singh spoke a lie. This went as far and as deep as to effect their Sikhi, after all, it was Mann Singh who preached to them daily about the importance and greatness of Sikhi to begin with. It was because of Mann Singhs betrayal that, things resulted the way they did.

This isn’t the first time it has happened, nor will it be the last. Many people who have had the misfortune of attaching themselves to fake Sadhs, have later had their hearts ripped out when they realize it was all a scheme. It is for this reason that true Mahpurkh, such as Sant Harnaam Singh, would take people who had attached themselves to their feet and instead attach them to the feet of the immortal Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee.

As for going to the Akal Takht, Singhs approached Jatehdar Vedanti, a few years back in Toronto, about having Baba Mann Singh ex-communicated from the Panth. Jatehdar Vedanti made note, that cases like this are not new and there have been many accusations in the past about other precharaks. They told the sakhi of how Akal Takhat had excommunicated a Precharak in the past on the claims of a Bibi for having raped her, but then later came to learn that the Bibi was in fact part of the RSS and was part of a larger scheme to destroy this individuals image, so unless video proof or something more concrete other then the word of an individual came to light, they couldn’t do anything about it. Even, Mann Singhs closest gurvai left them, after apparently witnessing and learning the truth about Mann Singh.

To me this is reminiscent of The Nation of Islam, and Elijah Mohammad. Malcom X used to be down to die for Mohammad, and even when people where making accusations all along, he would deny and denounce them. However after time he came to see the truth himself, and he himself felt like he was betrayed by the one thing, and person who gave him life. However, after going to Mecca and seeing a whole different view of Islam, Malcolm realized that the work he was doing wasn’t in vain, just a bit of course, and continued to do the work he was doing. In the same way, one can only hope that those who where ill effected by such precharaks will one day, see that Sikhi really is all that it is made out to be and again continue on serving the Panth.

A few images from Baba Ji’s Barsi program @ Jot Parkash…A lot of the images didn’t come out, so I tried to save the few that did. Check out GursikhiJeevan.com for the rest whenever they get added.

Singh Sahib Jaswant Singh Doing Katha

Making Jalaibee

Pangat

In the last few years we’ve see a lot of protests, vigil’s and petitions, some better then others. Today there will be an international set of protests happening across the UK, India, USA, and even in Canada, which on paper sounds amazing, but the concept itself a little sketchy.

(I’ll deal more with the ones happening across Canada, since those are the ones I am most familiar with.)

Firstly I’m not sure whether the actual event is a protest or a vigil. After all it has been dubbed both. The vigil aspect of it is good, something is being done, something of little use, but something all the same.

The protest? Firstly who are they protesting to? The public? A protest is usually when you try to send a message to somebody directly. Union workers picket outside their place of work, in a manner that interferes with the daily operation or at least in a manor that gets their message through to upper management. So in this case rallying people up and picketing outside in a Park or City Hall seems frivolous. I think that picketing outside the Indian embassy would be a more reasonable place to picket, considering it’s them who we want to send a message to.

Now the vigil aspect. I think the biggest problem with the vigil’s and something you can’t blame the organizers for, is the fact that only those who are aware of the problem tend to come out and support it. A lot of the vigil’s around Toronto, you usually see the same faces at everyone, and not much “normal” sangat comes out, and with that being the case I really don’t think that vigil’s succeed in trying to create awareness amongst the community, but rather become an outlet for people to reflect.

Lastly, petitions. Why do we sign them? Who ends up getting them? We’ve seen countless petitions over the years, but what good are they? If someone came to me with a list saying these million people are not happy with you, I’d just nod my head, accept the petition then pass it off to someone next to me to shred it or toss it somewhere. However if someone came to me with a petition that said these million people will stop buying my product if I don’t stop something, I may take notice. Point being, what is being done with the thousands of names on these petitions? Is the media getting them? Do these petitions have a cause for action? Again, it just seems more like a formality then anything else.

Now don’t take this as an insult, or a diss towards these events. I do support them in the sense that they do have potential to create awareness, however as a community I think we have yet to harness the energy and power that can come from such acts. At the same time it could all be a learning experience, stepping stones to bigger events later on, just seems like we’re moving to slow, because we keep loosing aim at the bigger picture. Just like when your learning to drive, they teach you to keep your head up and look ahead rather then focus directly in front of you, I think we need to do the same.

VS

For one reason or another I’ve never been a big fan of Dr. Ruby Dhalla. Never really, known her, heard her, let alone seen her, so me not being a fan of her is pretty shallow and really judgmental.

Firstly she didn’t complete no PHD, or Med school, she’s a chiropractor, so I personally don’t think that the “Dr.” prefix is warranted. She’s also been plagued throughout her campaign with scandals, if it hasn’t been for being a bollywood actress, its for being a phone sex operator, to what ever else you can imagine. Whether or not these rumors have any truth to them, I guess we (the public) will never truly know.

To her credit though Miss Dhalla probably has some of the best potential to rise up in ranks with the party, since she is young and well versed in English and from what last I heard was learning her French. However this campaign she faces off against Sam Hundal, a pretty well known personality within the community, so the desi vote will automatically be split. On top of that Ruby voted for Same Sex Marriage, and as a result is a victim of not being able to speak at certain Gurdwara’s and will have certain Sangat members voting against her, tipping what I would call the desi vote into Sam’s favour.

On top of all that that the Liberals are down in the polls by 10 points, meaning that the general census and public is leaning more towards the Conservatives, another factor working against Miss Dhalla.

So with all that working against her, Miss Dhalla has the odds stacked up against her. I personally don’t see her making it through this campaign on top, and so my favourite for this riding would have to be Mr. Sam Hundal.

Ruby Dhalla Links
Home Page
Liberal candidate running on party’s performance

Sam Hundal Links
Candidate believes voters are looking for a change