Just A Little Story

[aiksaath_SL1]

I just thought I'd post this for two reasons.

Firstly, a tiny minority of posts I've read have been a little bit down about how the rest of society view Sikhs (be it in UK, Canada etc.) when I think it's important to recognise the great deal of respect so may people of various backgrounds have for Sikhs.

Secondly, it happened days ago and it's still making me laugh.

Last week, an anti-racism conference took place in Burnley and the group of young people I took along were a mixture of white British, Muslims and Sikhs. We knew that the trip would coincide with Bandi Chor Divas and the Sikh contingent said that they did not mind as long as they could go to the Gurdwara. We knew the date well in advance so we found the address of the nearest Gurdwara- it was in Blackburn. We made sure we knew where it was so that the night we would arrive, it would be easy for us to find.

When we got there it was closed and when we asked around we were told it usually opened on a Sunday. Because of the long trip it was getting late and we knew that there would be one in Manchester but had no idea where to find it- 118500 weren't very helpful.

We needed petrol so we went to the petrol station and spoke to the Muslim owners who rang friends to find out if there was another Gurdwara near by. They gave us directions to Preston and a contact at a video store. We inevitably got lost but found our way to Preston. We asked in a couple of shops where the local Gurdwara was but it drew blank and confused faces every time from the shopkeepers.

Eventually, we went inside a video shop and the guy behind the counter was very helpful. We had decided on a change of approach (I hope this doesn't offend), so we asked for the Sikh Temple. He scratched his head for a while and looked really thoughtful. Eventually he said, I'll ask the manager. The manager came in and he shouted, "these two lads are looking for a film called Sikh Temple, can you help them?' We tried to explain but it was no use. The manager vaguely pointed up the road and we ran off looking for it, conscious it was getting late.

We found the Gurdwara about ten minutes later. It was packed out with people of all ages and our group of white British, Muslim and Sikh young people were made most welcome.

It still makes me smile- the fact that someone thought we were desperately seeking a film called Sikh Temple. What makes me smile even more though, is the way people from different backgrounds (Muslim, white etc) went out of their way to help us get young Sikh people to the Gurdwara. I think there's a lot more care for each other in our communities than we sometimes recognise- regardless of our religion or background.