Jump to content

Sikhi For Kids


Freed
 Share

Recommended Posts

Gurfateh !

One of the roots of my obssession with Sikhi related pictures etc is that when I was growing up in the England of the dark distant 1970s 80s I was always the only Singh at school - I lived in a town with a few Sikh families and 'Sikh resources' were very hard to get hold of . Our local library had only 4 books on Sikhi,one by Khushwant Singh, two by Piara Singh Sambhi / Owen Cole and my favourite - as I was about 7 and liked the pictures - was 'Pavan is a Sikh'. I grabbed as much information as I could wherever I could find it. On TV there were very few 'Sikh' faces - the dodgy comedy 'mind your language' type or the ' let's have a programme about racism type' - anyone remember 'Randhir Singh' and 'gripper' in 'Grange Hill' ? another distant memory is the BBC kids drama 'The Changes' - from the book 'The Devil's Children' by Peter Dickinson - it deals with a time when people have turned against machines and all aspects of modern civilisation - it featured lots of Sikhs and a story line where they are initially feared then become accepted and become heroes and saviours of a village. - The TV situation is not really much better today ! - but the Sikh 'resources' situation is better.

Nowadays most school children in England are taught about all faith communities and are encouraged to reflect on and consider religious and spiritual feelings, experiences and concepts such as worship, wonder, praise, thanks, concern, joy and sadness. This is a great step as in many parts of the world this is unheard of - while sometimes the teaching can be a little 'saris, steelbands and samosas' as it focuses on the surface symbols of dress, food and music - anyone who has tried to give a talk to younger school children will know that sometimes it is hard not to fall into that type of explanation. In the main the teaching is very heartening with emphasis on looking at similarities and personal experiences and asking questions - which can only lead to better understanding.

There are lots of resources available to teachers - many of these resources are also good for Sikh kids as they help discussion and understanding. I am posting some of the videos shown on 'schools' TV about Sikhi - while they are not perfect , they are presented in a child friendly way - I am also posting them as 2 of the 3 films focus on female Sikhs and their experiences - this is heartening as many resources on Sikhi focus exclusively on Male Sikhs.

have a look at the videos and see what you think - if you don't like them - you know what you can do - make one of your own !! - in these days of 'youtube' it's not that hard to reach a wide audience !

Harsimran Kaur - 'The Golden Temple - Sikhism (Channel 4 1996)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...71&hl=en-GB

Simranjit Kaur - 'God , Oneness and equality' - (BBC 2 1998)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...34&hl=en-GB

Sahib Singh Lall - 'Living as a Sikh - Vaisakhi ' (BBC 2 1998)

Click link to see ;

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...34&hl=en-GB

These next pictures are of 3 'Sikh' books for kids published in the UK - they are out of print and hard to get hold of - 'Pavan is a Sikh' was published in 1977 - Pavan is probably about 40 now !. - While it is not a brillant book - with some strange comments which aren't exactly positive - it was one of the first books of its kind, and has some great 1970s pictures.

Rani and Jugnu Singh's 'Stories from the Sikh World' is a classic - it has wonderful illustrations by Jeroo Roy - published in 1987 - Rani and Jugnu used to have a travelling show which performed plays in schools of these stories.

The last book is 'Topsy and Tim meet new friends' - - a favourite because of 'Balraj' , perhaps one of the first books with a little boy with a 'jura and rumaal'

--- aw so sweet !

Pavan is a Sikh - Sean Lyle - A & C Black - 1977

dsc00905ec1.jpg

dsc00906pg3.jpg

dsc00907qa4.jpg

dsc00909sy1.jpg

dsc00910ko2.jpg

dsc00911sl7.jpg

dsc00912ib7.jpg

dsc00913by2.jpg

dsc00914nc5.jpg

dsc00915jl3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • yeh it's true, we shouldn't be lazy and need to learn jhatka shikaar. It doesn't help some of grew up in surrounding areas like Slough and Southall where everyone thought it was super bad for amrit dharis to eat meat, and they were following Sant babas and jathas, and instead the Singhs should have been normalising jhatka just like the recent world war soldiers did. We are trying to rectifiy this and khalsa should learn jhatka.  But I am just writing about bhog for those that are still learning rehit. As I explained, there are all these negative influences in the panth that talk against rehit, but this shouldn't deter us from taking khanda pahul, no matter what level of rehit we are!
    • How is it going to help? The link is of a Sikh hunter. Fine, but what good does that do the lazy Sikh who ate khulla maas in a restaurant? By the way, for the OP, yes, it's against rehit to eat khulla maas.
    • Yeah, Sikhs should do bhog of food they eat. But the point of bhog is to only do bhog of food which is fit to be presented to Maharaj. It's not maryada to do bhog of khulla maas and pretend it's OK to eat. It's not. Come on, bro, you should know better than to bring this Sakhi into it. Is this Sikh in the restaurant accompanied by Guru Gobind Singh ji? Is he fighting a dharam yudh? Or is he merely filling his belly with the nearest restaurant?  Please don't make a mockery of our puratan Singhs' sacrifices by comparing them to lazy Sikhs who eat khulla maas.
    • Seriously?? The Dhadi is trying to be cute. For those who didn't get it, he said: "Some say Maharaj killed bakras (goats). Some say he cut the heads of the Panj Piyaras. The truth is that they weren't goats. It was she-goats (ਬਕਰੀਆਂ). He jhatka'd she-goats. Not he-goats." Wow. This is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard in relation to Sikhi.
    • Instead of a 9 inch or larger kirpan, take a smaller kirpan and put it (without gatra) inside your smaller turban and tie the turban tightly. This keeps a kirpan on your person without interfering with the massage or alarming the masseuse. I'm not talking about a trinket but rather an actual small kirpan that fits in a sheath (you'll have to search to find one). As for ahem, "problems", you could get a male masseuse. I don't know where you are, but in most places there are professional masseuses who actually know what they are doing and can really relieve your muscle pains.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use