'New years' eve 2005

Exactly a year ago tonight something happened that I’ll never forget. I wanted to go for a walk tonight too but i guess it wont be happening.

.....it started off like any other walk with Jagjeet Singh at around 10:00pm. The first noteworthy thing happened just a few seconds after we left my house; a few houses down some guys were having a party, drinking in the driveway wearing gloves in the cold. And these were old grown Punjabi men all over 45-50. The smell of some poor animal’s maas smoking on a propane grill was too strong and vicious. It made us walk faster and cover our noses even through the garage door half closed. The discussion turned to why people can still eat meat when it smells this bad.

We had only gone a few more blocks when Jagjeet Singh told me the guy coming toward us was drunk. The only drunk people I’d ever seen were in his presence and he’s always the one who points them out. ‘notice how he cant walk straight’ and when he said that the drunk guy rolled to the right and almost hit a parked car.

As the guy came near us, Jagjeet Singh closed folded his hands and said ਸ਼ਾਸ਼ੀ-ਕਾਲ(ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ, ਸ਼ਹਿਰੀਆਂ ਵਾਂਙੂੰ). This was middle aged baba at least 60 years old wearing a thick coat and a messed up pug. He looked a little bit like an ammali. He was a little surprised and managed to mutter out ਸਾਸਰੀਕਾਲ ਕਾਕਾ in a low voice. His eyes were red and seemed to be 100% "ਟੱਲੀ" Jagjeet Singh said ਚੰਗਾ ਫੇਰ, ਸ਼ਾਸ਼ੀਕਾਲ!!

They guy smiled said something and turned to leave. Just then Jagjeet Singh held him by the arm and gave him a good hard slap him on his back! "ਥੋੜੀ ਜੀ ਘੱਟ ਪੀਆ ਕਰ ਚੰਗਾ" he said to the baba who turned around and just stood there for a while trying to figure out what had just happened. We than walked away, I guess he was a taken aback and displayed a surprised look not wanting to mess with the two of us 4 times his size combined.

No Jageet Singh isn’t crazy, he’s just his courageous nature that springs to life in situations like these. He tends to go with first instincts more often. He said there isnt any need to fear drunk babai because they cant fight back in that state anyway.

We walked on and when we turned west on Boundry Drive we could hear loud chatter coming from a dense crowd of at least 60-80 youth in front of Boundry Park Elementry. Majority of the people living in that part of town are Caucasian. All these were white kids too. As we walked past the patch of trees and came to view few by few their eyes looked up at us and the ones that did just stopped talking and we could feel their stares gazing on us.

I don’t think stuff like this ever happens in real life, just staged and acted out in movies. Anyone that caught sight of us stopped talking and fell silent. We kept our conversation going and didn’t bother looking at them. We reached near the last of the log fence sections and the 7-8 kids sitting there too stopped talking and looked up at us as we passed. Jagjeet Singh said a quick ‘hello’ and they all responded in unison a little taken aback.

There are a lot of different possible scenarios that could have played out that night. But I never would have thought this would be one of them. I doubt something like this would ever happen again. The worse thing that could have happened: they could all have attacked us right there and that certainly would have been the end without any traces left at all. The ratio of us vs. them was more 1:30+.

Considering that Nirmal Gill the caretaker at Surrey-Delta Gurdwara was beaten by 5 guys and killed; that too inside Gurdwara property in the heart of Punjabi dominated area. Them not making even a single remark while being under the influence speaks volume as to how far things have improved the past few years.

Most of them were drunk too. Anything could have happened. But I think it was the ‘roop’ that did the trick. Maybe they were just astonished to see us in those parts...