Guru Nanak Dev Jee's Parkash @ City hall

Today I had a chance to go to the Parkash calibrations of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Jee at Surrey city hall. I got there at about 5:15pm and a few people were already there. I think this was the first time city council has ever done something like this, never heard about anything like this before. I thought it would be in the council chambers area where they normally have hearings; but they had a podium set up near the information area.

Local politicians were all over the place shaking hands and doing as much vote pitching as possible for the upcoming civic election. Tom Gill was the first person I saw, a few minutes later independent councillor Judy Villeneuve come by. When she was about to introduce herself I told her what her name was. She asked me how I knew her name; I told her I had seen her on televised city council hearings. She seemed surprised at that and told me it was her 7th term as councillor.

The program was to begin at 5:30 but like all things Punjabi it started over 20 minutes late. The Granthi Singh from Guru Nanak Sikh Temple Surrey did ardass at the beginning and the Mayor Doug McCallum said a few words about the special day.

The thing that made my day was when the lady introduced the mayor to say a few words this guy behind me said “HANNNJEE” in a loud voice and started to applaud with excitement.

Bhavraj Singh spoke about the life of Guru Nanak Dev Jee and the lessons he taught us. He outlined the importance of what Guru Sahib and how those teachings should be incorporated into our lives. This was the very first time I heard Bhavraj Singh speak in public, I was impressed.

Then Bibi Gurminder kaur talked about the philosophical aspects of Guru Sahibs life and how basic Sikhi is universal and makes humankind perfect. She reminded the people gathered there that it was possible to end all suffering, war, poverty and abuse and establish world peace if the ‘3 rules’ of earning an honest living, giving daswandh to others and remembering whaeguru at all times were followed.

Halfway through her speech I noticed Balwant Gill had come and was standing in the front row. It was amazing the guy was actually paying attention to what was being said.

The most important thing said tonight was the separation of religion from culture. I am not sure if everyone there fully understood what Gurminder Kaur was getting at, but no one was paying more attention to what she spoke about than councillor Villeneuve. She was nodding her head and smiling at the end of every sentence. Everything Gurminder Kaur said was hitting home 100% . Just that made the whole thing successful.

After that Balwant Gill presented a sort of 3D picture in a frame(supposedly of Guru Nanak Dev Jee) to the mayor. Some koamnshut veers shouted a jakara from the back steps. They were the only people who didn’t have their heads covered.

I urge everyone to take a look at the upcoming surrey papers to see from which angle they covered this event. There were at least 10 people taking pictures. This was very annoying. Even during ardass they kept going. The flash would light up my closed eyelids 10 times a minute. And every 30 seconds someone’s phone would go off. That was really irritating. Life does go on without phones people just don’t realize that.

The Dashmesh Darbaar Granthi Narinder Singh did the final ardass. This was the first attempt at some real unity between the two factions. Politics had actually brought the two groups together. One ardass would have been enough; I think it was a good move. In the beginning all kids of people were bringing in stuff to eat- both the koamnshut and less koamnshut.

After ardass I knew it would become a social gathering; it was time for me to leave.

You can listen to Bhavraj Singh’s speech here.
Gurminder Kaurs Speech can be found here.