SikhRoots

Photos are online here: http://www.sikhroots.com/component/content/article/8-featured/1341-akj-rehansbhai Audio is coming up soon.

Hitchin live audio here: http://www.sikhroots.com/zina/Keertani%20-%20International/Bhai%20Harjinder%20Singh%20%28Sri%20Nagar%2C%20India%29/2010%20LIVE%20|%20HITCHIN%20%28UK%29

Gurfateh The problem has been fixed and the full recording is up. Sorry for inconvenience caused. SR. info@sikhroots.com

There are a couple of ways achieving this. The easy way is the more costly yet time-saving solution. The hard way is cheap but will require more time. 1. You can buy a live video mixer. There are some models which have two screens built in to preview the cameras so you can switch between them. Other models are just the mixer and you will need to buy a mini screen (or two) in addition to mix between the two. Example of a mixer : http://www.zzounds.com/item--KORKF4 Oh I should also mention, you will need a capture destination source as well ie. to record the program from the mixer, you will need either a HDD recorder, DVD recorder, etc etc as well. Depending on what quality you want, these vary in price. OR 2. you can record the divaans on two camcorders, get the footage back to your PC, use an editing suite like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro and mix the video in. This is easy to do if you know what you are doing. However, NOT suitable if you are going to use both cameras on the keertani. What I mean is if you want to cut between a zoomed out shot of the stage and then cut in using the other camera footage on the keertani, it gets very tricky as it will require extremely careful synching with the sound and video - very time consuming and quite tedious. If you need any more info, please don't hesitate to contact one of our sevadars info@sikhroots.com We are always happy to help where possible.

Audio here: http://www.sikhroots.com/zina/Keertani%20-%20International/Bhai%20Harjinder%20Singh%20%28Sri%20Nagar%2C%20India%29/2010%20LIVE%20|%20GOODMAYES%20ILFORD%20%28UK%29

Photos from Friday and Saturday are online now. Sunday to uploaded shortly. Audio Recordings from Friday night are also online now. http://www.sikhroots.com

VJKK VJKF You can download the CD from the link below. If you still want to purchase a CD, please contact info@sikhroots.com http://www.sikhroots.com/zina/Keertani%20-%20United%20Kingdom/Bibi%20Amrit%20Kaur%20%28Slough%29/Calmness%20In%20The%20Rush You can also e-mail us for contact details or PM us.

www.sunderarts.com

Very disappointing comment. You say you won't bother going and its "downhill" and not "interesting"... but I have been to keertan divaans in my life where there havent been the "famous" keertani or kathakaars that you list, yet thanks to the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and Saadh Sangat, the events have been brilliant and so spiritually atmospheric. Np one is forcing you to go the programme. If you have comments or criticism, email or call up the sevadars Bhai. You can get presence of Guru Maharaj and sangat at your local Gurdwara, so go there. You have a choice!! Last year was just amazing, but last year was also different. Laws etc in the UK have changed quite a bit and its harder to bring over parchaaraks from India and even harder for them to actually get Visas. Even Sant Anoop Singh had to do without his full jatha because of visas. You should be thankful that we have a Parkash programme at all rather whinging about it. Ask those in the rest of Europe, the Americas, Australia how often they have such programmes. UK sangat are spoilt with such great sevadars and organisations organising programmes but so damn ungrateful... it's unbelievable.

bump, 2 weeks left.

Respect to Sikh Federation for highlighting this issue and actually doing something about it. I think UK Sikhs in particular should be very thankful for the work you guys have been doing for so many years. Many thanks from me anyway because personally, I travel a lot and it would have been a problem for me to allow them to search my dastaar using their hands. Very grateful.

Videos of Bhai Apardeep Singh live at Manchester Smagam 2009: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3

Jaspaul paaji, you are being very brave! The UK Commitees will be hunting you down, thats for sure! If we done that at many Guru ghars in UK, they would tell us to get lost! Unless its youth run like Hitchin.

One of the latest keertan albums by Bhai Manpreet Singh Kanpur Wale, who is extremely popular amongst UK sangat, has been added to Sikh roots audio section. This 2-CD set comprises of 11 new compositions of shabads taken from Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Bhai Sahib has been to the United Kingdom numerous time and rose to popularity just over five years ago and has remained a favourite keertani amongst sangat not only in the UK but also abroad. He has a unique style of singing and performing keertan and continues to pull in large sangat wherever he goes. Bhai Manpreet Singh is due to attend this years Parkash 2010 smagam in Hayes, UK alongside keertani such as Bhai Harjinder Singh and Bhai Davinder Singh Sodhi. Listen & Download Now

Video slideshow of photos :

http://www.sikhroots.com/component/content/article/8-featured/1316-1984-rally This month, we have commemorated the 26th year anniversary since the Indian government attacked Sri Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar. There weren't high expectations of a great turnout following last years special 25th anniversary commemorations but sceptics were proved wrong with an even greater gathering and trouble-free, peaceful protests. There were a record number of people gathered at Hyde Park, London and within a space of an hour, all coaches had arrived from many Gurdwaras around the United Kingdom. From Smethwick Gurdwara alone, there were 9 coaches and 7 coaches from Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Wolverhampton - even more than last year. In previous years, there have been groups of youths with their faces covered by balaklavas so they remain unrecognisable to the government. This year, there was no nonsense with the youth and elders alike willing to show that they were proud to be Sikhs and openly and freely support the notion for Khalistan - that, and the fact that support for Khalistan is growing rapidly, is sending shivers down the spines of the Indian government with the message that Sikhs will never give up on bringing those guilty of the crimes in 1984 to justice and fight to ensure the foundations of a seperate Sikh homeland. Full pics :

Veer jee, you sent me an email. Check your inbox in the next few minutes.

Well the question you have to ask is it is such a sense of duty, would they continue to do the job they are doing if that pay was taken away from them?? I dont think majority of them would - and I am not saying that I would blame them, as its not an easy job at all. And in terms of kids asking "Why?" - kids are too young to understand these issues. Kids should be enjoying their childhood and learning the basics of Sikhi from the time of Guru Nanak Dev Jee - not be taught that Sikhs are always internally bickering about whether we can eat meat or not or which meats we can eat according to SGPC and so forth. The punjabi school there is not a "forum" environment where questions and discussions take place actively between children and teachers. Its a school. Kids are taught. They absorb everything they are taught by their teacher. If it was a community forum, then that would be different because in a forum you would understand that you are listening to peoples opinions rather than definitive facts. If i was a parent and one of my kids were in that class, I would have certainly took action against the teacher. That's not because it's against my opinion, but eating meat is morally and spiritually wrong and being told you can eat meat on Gurdwara premises is almost blasphemous. Thats not a militant view not all either. Many "moneh" who don't practice Sikhi even support that viewpoint. I also attended the Sikh school at GNG when i was younger and it was a great experience. I know the facts about meat, i know of stories of Baba Deep Singh ji and the controversy behind it and I have my own opinions about it too. But i wasnt, and didnt need to be taught it, by my Punjabi school teacher. I learnt from sangat, katha, literature and so forth. We have half a dozen Granthis at GNG who are a lot more learned than Mr Dhillon and the other school teachers there. Any children asking such questions should be referred to Gurdwara granthis for this kind of stuff. They arent there just to do ardas. Thanks for the support. But yeah, don't worry about the threats. They didnt have the guts to reveal who they were but I found out who the kids were. This also supports the fact that kids are not mature enough to handle adult discussions and debates.

Just to correct you on a few points... "if wasn't for him and a few others giving up their spare time" Teachers etc at GNG Sedgley Street are paid employees. It's a tough job so its fair that they do get funding. I applauded him for encouraging such debate I think you should be ashamed of yourself. Encouraging such controversial and heated discussion / debates amongst young kids at such an age is ridiculous. There is no question of Baba Deep Singh Jee continuing to fight headless in the battlefield. And scientifically, the diet of a good vegetarian is MUCH better than that of any meat diet - both physically and spiritually. accusations levelled against him regarding him being as 'anti Sikh' Well, yeah I wouldn't say he is anti-sikh either, he just shares the mentality like that of many other Punjabi folks who keep the most basic and loose rehat they can and their studies into the Sikh faith don't go deep enough. Theres a lot of scholars out there who study the religion for knowledge rather than for its spritiuality. Being a master of education to young children who will be our next generation of Khalsa is a VERY tough role to fulfill and one that comes with great responsibility. Mr Dhillon has done a good job of running that Punjabi school and probably done more for that school than any predocessor. But you can't hide these issues under the carpet either. And people come on SikhSangat for support, that right. Because the forum has a good network and there are a lot of people who are very proactive in issues like this that would help do something about it.

Ofcom has now confirmed the license approval of the up and coming Sikh TV channel on their website. This endorses claims of a new Sikh television channel to be launched on the Sky Digital platform TLCS Sikh Media Limited Sikh TV http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/tvlicensing/tvupdates/monthly/052010

The keertan is on www.sikhroots.com

HarminderSingh, What are you on about?!! The Rehansbhai begins at 7pm finishes at 5am. The rally starts about 11am. You can get about 3-4 hours sleep between then if you really want to attend the events - dass has done it before. Sure, we would all like our beauty sleep but its not as though its every weekend is it? its a one-off. So take laahaa of the rehansbhai, do ure ishnaan, recite panj baniyaa, get a bit of sleep if you so wish, then make your way into the city centre. Gravesend isnt very far at all. To be fair on both organisations, AKJ plan their events a year in advance at least, and this year, Sikh Federation (the main organisers) had no choice but to do the second weekend in June, as an oppose to the first weekend (which is normally the case) because some other event is already booked in city centre that first weekend. Wasnt a deliberate clash and i think it was quite unavoidable too. Oh and in terms of Sikh Channel, I was there last year myself and the owner of the channel does not like to promote 1984 events because he feels only a small proportion of Sikhs support Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa. He will delay advertising it as much as he can

Audio also now available to download. http://sikhroots.com/component/content/article/8-featured/1301-gurpreet-singh-shimla-wale