Jaswant Singh from Malaysia honoured by SGPC for sewa

[Azaad]

Jaswant Singh (second from left) being felicitated by the SGPC in Amritsar; and (right) Jaswant at work. Tribune photos

Seventy-six-year-old Jaswant Singh Khosa from Malaysia starts his day as early as 4 am and for the next 12 to 13 hours he writes copies of Guru Granth Sahib in Gurmukhi. It is the outcome of his faith and passion that he has already prepared five handwritten copies of the holy book in the last over two decades. He presented one copy to the Akal Takht on Monday.

Talking to The Tribune, Khosa said the copy of Guru Granth Sahib which he handed over to the Akal Takht had pages having a length of 26 inches and width of 19 inches. "The holy book weighs 50 kg while it has a total of 1,430 pages, the same as a printed copy has. It has also made it to the Malaysia Book of Records as the heaviest handwritten religious book. It is a meticulous work to write in Gurmukhi script in exactly the same way as appears in the printed copy. One has to ensure that words are linked together and each of the 19 lines on every page are perfectly aligned. Moreover, it needs a lot of attention, as a single misspelled word will mean sacrilege," he said.

Khosa said he had used a special white paper and ink named Kohinoor which was procured from the US. He said the handwritten copy could last up to 300 years and even water could not affect it. He said he had already started working on his sixth handwritten copy of Guru Granth Sahib. He said his first handwritten copy had been installed at a gurdwara in Southall, London, while the second one was at Har-ki-Pauri at the Golden Temple. Similarly, his third "bir" had been installed at a gurdwara at Edmonton and the fourth one at a California shrine.

On what inspired him to take up this work, Khosa said it was his visit to Amritsar post-1984 as a part of a five-member Sikh panel from Malaysia to take stock of the damage caused to the Golden Temple during the Operation Bluestar. "We visited the Sikh Reference Library and were distraught to see the damage it had suffered. Our treasure trove of rare books laid burnt and destroyed," he said.

Whether he faces any health problem while performing this painstaking task, Khosa said he was perfectly fine, though he wore glasses while writing the holy book. He said he wrote the first four copies while sitting on the ground in a conventional manner. However, the fifth copy was penned on a table as he had some problem in his knees.

[Shaheed Singh Khalsa]

Waheguru bless bhai sahib