MisterrSingh

Good thing the ruling can be enforced at the discretion of the employer. A sensible boss will value good workers who wear the dastaar. I work in a blue collar place with all sorts, and i genuinely can't see my boss ridding the place of more than half his workers, lol, i hope! I need to eat! It is strange to see the hardcore pro-EU Sikhs fall silent at this ruling. The cognitive dissonance this issue has caused is perhaps proving to be too much at the moment. The career politicians in Brussels are no more egalitarian and enlightened than the ones in Westminster. Ultimately it's all self interest and - here comes the word - populism.

So much hate for one-eyed Singhs. Harsh.

There's got to be at least a few, lol...

Not disputing it (even though it may seem like i am, lol). There's a wider point my mind is trying to grasp, but I'm making a pig's ear of trying to explain myself. I'll make a better fist of it in a while. Trying to type one-handed on a touchscreen is a real pain. Btw, i agree with everything you've said you regarding the video and the message contained therein, bro. I'm just trying to add my tuppence worth regarding a few connected thoughts that have sprung from watching it.

So why do the offspring of white upper-middle class doctors, teachers, scientists, etc, suffer from mental illness? Does Grandmother Joan lament the influence of witchcraft when young Hannah is cutting herself?

All true. Whenever i, even as a child, inadvertently raised my voice above the ambient noise of a room i was immediately shot down with, "Talk like a human, not an animal" lol. This was all coming from Gursikh Punjabi parents, so it wasn't as if we were coconuts or middle class or anything like that. I suppose it's just personal family habits. I can imagine the sense of hopelessness and despair felt by someone who is struggling with their emotions and mental health, and all they hear is such coarse and raw ways of expression. It makes a terrible situation even tougher to cope with. Still, as i said earlier, best not to make this about, "The culture and methods of expression are coarse, hence these problems are happening" situation, because we know that isn't true. There is an element of that in the video in my opinion. It's why i struggle to identify with the message of the film no matter how noble the intentions. I'm sure there's many people like me out there who feel the same way. The creator of the piece would've been better served to highlight the issue at hand instead of reinforcing stereotypes. As it is, the video is less about the girl's mental health, and more about castigating the family for their pendupuna.

Honestly bro, I'm merely asking for my benefit. That type of behaviour for me is as alien as it would be for a non-Punjabi. Like i said I've been on the periphery of the community most of my life, and even when i wasn't, things weren't like this for me, so that's probably why i really don't have much experience of these type of people. I don't doubt the integrity of the message.

Serious question: Is this how Punjabis behave behind closed doors? I'm not suggesting everyone's the same but is it accurate enough to develop certain community stereotypes and tropes? Or do videos like these over-dramatise certain aspects of our culture in order to get a point across? I ask because although I'm Punjabi and Sikh, i never had an atypical upbringing. Discipline, traditionalism, and religion were constants, but equally there was also a lot of serenity. It was very chilled and serene. No emotional distance but equally there was a sense of quiet reserve. Just watching the actors in that video quickens the pulse, lol. I can't imagine tolerating even 5 minutes of such annoying behaviour in real life. Anyway, as for the subject of the video it's an important issue that needs to be highlighted. Unfortunately, it does so by pandering to any watching white people by reinforcing the idea that the problem lies not within the individual, but is a symptom of the apparently overwhelming regressive and unsophisticated Punjabi culture this girl belongs to. That would be true if youngsters from homes of white, upper middle class intellectuals didn't suffer from mental illness. Which culture can they blame for their ills? I applaud the efforts of people from our community who are highlighting these important issues, but there must be a way of doing so without giving the impression that we're backwards idiots. Unless we are mostly pendus, and in that case i take it all back, lol.

Dunno. Internet and stuff, man. Leaflets and tings. Just kidding, lol.

So better to opt for inaccuracy than work hard to arrive at specificity? You can't use a placeholder definition for brevity's sake whilst working on the true definition for later digestion. That's madness. Worldly means nothing. If it's a specific religious term that's fundamental to Sikh doctrine, it should have one definite meaning based on Sikh philosophy and teachings. An "it'll do" approach is the reason Sikhi in the West is being reshaped into a form that is at worrying odds with what's always been contained in scripture. In the next 20 or so years there'll be cries that the Sikh faith needs a reformation in order to bring it into the modern era, by people who can't even read Gurmukhi. What then?

Well, i hear our some of our lot use it in a way that suggests there is absolutely NO difference between Sikhs regardless of sex. When you reduce the question to its most obvious and basic of terms such as, "Can Sikh men bear children?" the reply is, "Well obviously not..." But the earlier assertion was that to even question such a thing is blasphemy. So blanket statements should be avoided. Gurmat terms being conveniently and inaccurately translated to their nearest English equivalent is lazy and misleading. We do that by keeping our language at the forefront of our existence as people.

I reckon we (as in Sikhs) should clearly establish what we mean by equality from a Gurmat perspective, because it's a word that's thrown about too often with a meaning that's derived almost exclusively from the modern western use of the word, and I'm not certain that was its intended use.

First one would need to get a firm grip on what drives and appeals to those people. There's no point in being abstract with them because they've been conditioned to respond to the immediate and the material. Compare that to indigenous westerners who can still, arguably, be won over with appeals to the heart and the soul; promises of a brighter day; a fairer society; opportunities for all, etc, all rather vague yet virtuous sentiments that appeal to the kind of people who consider themselves high-minded, even though they might not be but like to think they are. There's no such danger of anything like that back home, lol. Tell them what they'll get, and then deliver. In order to achieve that, politics there would need to be overhauled so that if promises are made to the Punjabi electorate, those would need to be fulfilled in order to convince people there's a future in Punjab, and that someone is listening to them. To do that would require us to extricate ourselves from the death grip of India who is determined to... what ARE they determined to do? They've cooled off on the overt killing of Sikhs, and they instead seem to be killing us softly through many subtle methods that makes it appear to the naked eye that we are the architects of our downfall. (I believe the Indians are taking their cues from the Russian playbook of ideological subversion; a long game that takes decades and generations to come to fruition.) Whilst i don't deny we are our own best enemies at times, the social landscape has been manipulated to such an extent that we've been pushed inbetween a rock and a hard place. I don't blame the people but they must wake up soon and realise what's at stake.

The key to a few of the policies above this post require one fundamental requirement: Punjabis need to be convinced their future lies in the fertile lands of home and not halfway across the world. Expect some heavy duty resistance on that front, lol. "Why don't you return to Punjab and lead by example?" and other sentiments of a similar nature will be expressed to anyone that dares suggest such an idea, haha. I'm afraid the hypnotic lure of the west has overwhelmed them. Can't really say I blame them considering how the likes of us ended up here.

7. Temper the religious rabble rousing with a certain philosophical and contemporary political realism. Unfortunately Punjab is situated on planet Earth in a primarily third world country (albeit one with pockets of prosperity and modernity), not in Sachkhand, so adjust to what the uncomfortable, occasionally unkempt situation is on the ground, instead of striving for immediate utopian dreams of perfection.

Hardly anybody mentions the above. I'll be honest, i never knew that at all, but if you think about it, it makes sense. So why do religious preachers seem to emphasise the fact that Punjabi drug culture is a relatively recent phenomenon that's a covert method adopted by the government of killing off Sikhs? So are we naturally predisposed, culturally speaking, drawn to the recreational use of intoxicants, lol?

Clowns. Is this what we've become? Embarrassing.

I'm genuinely stumped. Never mind, I'm sure someone or another will get upset if names are mentioned.

Oh lord. Who was it?

"Oranges from Sachkhand." Bro, you nearly made tea come out of my nose.

Let me get my Joogle Translate app working: If a Sikh conducts a havan ritual, should they call themselves a Sikh? Firstly, what's a havan, lol? I'm guessing it's a Hindu ritual or something?

Not sure the flippant tone of the topic and certain posts are tasteful. An old man took a hammer to a woman and ended her. Regardless of whether she had it coming or not, i don't see the humour in any of it.

Bhenji, these particular women are the types that say to mom and dad, "Sikh boys aren't smart or educated enough, so I'm not going to get married." Then she posts a picture of herself on Instagram in Marbella with her black boyfriend who barely has a handful of GCSEs to his name, lmao. Definitely. Corporations target women specifically knowing they are, at this moment in history, the one demographic more than any other that drive the world economy.

They'd argue it's their money and nobodies business, but it's another one to add to the ever expanding list of problems that may seem superficial to some, but points towards a disturbing decay in our priorities, our ethics, and our attitudes, that can be found at the heart of our people.

I get the impression some people struggle with or flat out refuse to believe the 'jagdi jyot' concept. They consider the guruship akin to the inheritance of a title and a physical throne, and nothing more. The spiritual and metaphysical aspects of it are ignored. I also feel some people of a particular ideological bent inwardly begrudge the militarisation of the Sikh faith that began with 6th Paatshah. I think they believe it goes against the non-confrontational / solely meditative - as they see it - ethos of the earlier Guru Sahibs. Eventually I believe this will cause a schism in the Sikh religion that will make the Dasam Granth issue look like child's play. In summary, I think Guru Nanak Dev Ji's message is apparently exclusively preferred and championed by some, because it's considered to be an apparently less taxing, more tolerant, and a considerably less stringent committment to following the religion compared to the all or nothing command of Gursikhi.