Inspired by Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara

The blog has come alive yet again. And I am sticking with Google since this is where I started out. People, you have to be loyal...

So, last month there was a program to commemorate Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara through Kirtan at Khalsa Schol. You may do a web search to find more information about him. He passed away in 2004. Here is a clip of him doing Kirtan, I was there to witness this live back in the day:

A few years ago we got his book and my father read it, I asked him how it was and he said that you should read it after I am done... It sat at his bedside for a bit and then ended up in one of the bookshelves.

So about a year ago, I woke up at night to eat and it caught my eye. Reminded of his advice, I picked it up and had placed his last book, Gurbani The Saral Vikaran Boadh (Grammar of the Sikh Scripture), on my bedside as a part of a pile that I read before going to bed. Apart from school stuff, I read a lot of other books since then.

I finally got my hands on this book last night... I really wish I had gotten to it earlier, I had more time to spare in the last year but anyhow this I think is as good a time as any.

So at the end of the program at Khalsa School last month, Bhai Kulvinder Singh Jee mic in hand challenged us all sitting there to not just celebrate Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara's life through doing Kirtan, eating Langar, and going home and then forgetting about the guy in whose memory everyone had come. He said that Talwara Jee had given us a treasure in this book and that we should all do us a favour and have it read. He told us that it is available from Satnam Trust and that if you don't understand what is in there, since some of it is a little daunting, you should come for help and help will be provided free of charge. Here is the clip:

I am not sure why I waited so long. But I am glad that I started to read the book.

Coincidently this week, Darshan Singh, a childhood friend, messaged me about a Youtube video he had stumbled upon. It was a Dhunni-free track of Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara from Darbar Sahib Shri Amritsar Sahib from the 1984 Vaisakhi Smagam. The back and forth started and he kept asking me more and more information about him. I told him all I knew and it wasn't very much. Reading the book's introduction provided many insights. This is the famous video Darshan Singh sent:  

The introduction of this book is eye opening and gives a glimpse of how much hard work Bhai Sahib did for the Panth and it gives me a much greater appreciation of how great his sewa was. Before, I saw him only as a distant figure who I saw do Kirtan live 3-4 times, but now reading just a short bit into the book makes me really see how much of a personal hero he has become. This book is in a league of its own. It is accessible so far and everything actually makes sense, but the technical part is still coming.

Like so many other tragedies, this is a major one, while he was alive no one, or very few valued him for how big of a scholar he was. I think 2004 marked the end of an era with Bhai Sahib Jee's passing. We no longer have the luxury of having someone as devoted and capable as him with us today. Flipping through a few examples from the book makes this apparent. He put in a lot of work into book and everything he researched since 1972 till his failing health near the end of 2003 he published in this two part work. Sadly we lost him before he could write more parts to this series of just two books.

In the coming days I hope to share some of the great things in the book. Bhai Sahib is very frank, open, and humble about his views on grammar.

His first words in the beginning of the book are cautionary, and really... well, honest. He writes that grammar is a very rough and dry subject and that a few minutes of grammar makes your head hurt and makes even the most astute and eagerly studious of students yawn like there is no tomorrow. Lucky for me I did not yawn and my head did not hurt.  

A BIG THANK YOU to Bhai Sahib Joginder Singh Jee Talwara which I could never pay him when I saw him the last time in November 2002. Folks: Do yourself a favour and get this book; I am certain it'll do wonders, we all benefit from better grammar usage, especially in Gurbani and Kirtan.