Nagar Social Surrey 3

For some reason the Khalsa School floats always have the best Kirtan compared to any float, this year was no exception. (Kirtan is Kirtan- but you just can’t beat kirtan done by kids with a pure atma; the kirtan on this float was worth experiencing) This year even with the brand new KSS PA system, the Kirtan level was BAD, you couldn’t hear it from more than a 100 feet. Bhai Satwant Singh fit in the horn type speakers on the roof a couple of years ago, which made for Khalsa School Kirtan being heard a few blocks in each direction. The roof was so well decorated that year too.

The float looks good but could have been better..

Here we have the Canadian Singh Sabha Gurdwara klan. When we first approached their stall we decided that we would stick around and sing along with the kirtan, but then when we were in speaker range we heard: KHANDA KHARRKOOGA!! We couldn’t believe our ears! That hit geet(sung as kirtan) from 1999 was still alive and well. It was crazy. Giani Jagdesh Singh was chanting on the side with a mic while a ragi jatha was on the stage pumping away at the vaja. With each pangati they would come back to Khanda kharkooga! Kharkooga jaroor khanda kharkooga! Someone needs to explain to then what kacchi bani is...

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After that we reached the Channel M broadcast studio. On the side we talked to a Singh abut the media and its impact in the community for some time. I was so excited to see the robotic arm for the camera, I thought they were broadcasting the whole thing live, but I later found out that they were taping it for a one hour special, which was showed Sunday night.

From there we could hear Bhai Sukhpreet Singh Jee chant the call for Khalsa Rule. So we rushed to the stage and saw the above.

All the politicians were lined up behind Sukhpreet Singh. Including Dave/David Hayer and Gurmant Grewal. It makes me wonder why Punjabis are so fond of a sellout thug who is too ashamed to use a Punjabi name taken from Shri Guru Grant Sahib. The guy has a gora name and can’t even speak proper English. How can this guy properly represent his multi-ethnic constituents when he can’t even stay true to his culture. I find it hard to believe that Tara(Being a Khalistani Militant) would name his kid against gurmat, then again you never know, weirder things have happened.

CAMERA TIP: When shooting at a subject against the sun, always cover the camera with something to it isn’t exposed to the sunlight or else you get a picture like this...

We then came to the BMX track on 75th Ave and stood on a power transformer for
about 15 minutes and waited for the main float to arrive. As it came into view,
these 7-8 guys with bare heads took out their rumals,covered their heads while
approaching the main float, put some $$$$ into the golak, waited for the float
to pass, took their rumals off and merged into the crowd.

Bhai Parminder Singh Jee will be greatly missed

This was another one of the Gatka Dal floats. There was some controversy (like
every year) between the different Gataka groups. It’s clear that a good number
of the performers have an ego problem. Some kind of politics ends up being
discussed for weeks afterward every year. I remember the good old days when
there were just 4-5 old babbai playing with each other. When one saw those 70+
year Singhs battle it out on Main Street there was something that stayed with
you for many years. Even with some manmutt, the nagar kirtans of the early 90’s
were very inspirational and actually uplifting. Today’s gatka is different,
perhaps the motivation behind the art has changed.

This is the Gatka/Katha flot(the one with Bhai Parminder Singh’s Picture). We
saw Santbir Singh standing on the stage and waited for him to address the sangat.
It’s always inspiring to listen to his
emotionally charged speeches. But this bibi went on and on and finally after
over 15 minutes we moved on...

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Then we saw the back of the ‘Team Igali’ banner a few hundred feet in front of the Gatka float and rushed to look for Tufaan Singh(Daniel Igali). He saw me come, folded his hands, bowed forward and said WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH! With that there was silence….. Then after a second or two all of Team Igali started to clap and there were a few thunderous Jakarrai as well. I looked around and saw the amazement on their faces; they couldn’t understand how an African Singh could say Fateh better than them Punjabis(this is gupt). That was without a doubt an unforgettable Nagar Kirtan moment. For those who aren’t from Surrey, Tufaan Singh is the Liberal Party candidate running for Surrey-Newton riding in the upcoming Provincial election. Oh, he’s also a World Wrestling Champ (not WWF, real wrestling), Olympic Gold medalist, BC hall of Fame inductee and holds other titles as well. I really hope he makes it to Victoria, if he does he will do a lot of good for the community, unlike Tony ‘Drunk’ Bhullar. Those that know him know that he’s extremely intelligent and knows stuff, he has a Crim degree from SFU to prove it… So if you have relatives in his riding make sure you tell them to vote this Gurmukh in!(y)

Oh yeah, Tufaan Singh walked the whole route and kept waving at the crowd, JFK style. I don’t think there has ever been any politician that did this. If there is any way to get people on side, this is the way to do it...

Team Tufaan Singh’s political parchaar was not overwhelming like these guys above. This was also very memorable because they expect to lure people like me to their camp and vote NDP by just being statue-sign-posts. I have never been influenced by sign posts, junk mail, harassing phone calls every hour, koamnshuts at the door or anything like that. I think I am a pretty normal person, if I didn’t jump on the NDP boat by looking at this train of signs, no one else would have either.

To write a caption for this is to waste time… note ‘Surrey India Arts Club’

The ‘Singhs on Harleys’ was a big hit in the first couple of years after the dastar on bikes law passed but now it just seems pointless. And the little singh on a mini chopper may look ‘cute’ but you can’t ride one of those on a Canadian road because of safety concerns. I still don’t see what significance this has in relation to Vasakhi.

A lot of people contacted me when they saw this one. I don’t see anything wrong
with this picture, these kids had the guts to wear traditional Punjabi clothing unlike some others who wear western cloths and still call themselves Punjabi Jutts. The main reason why I wanted to get a picture taken with them was because of their WIKKID domalla. After realizing that we were such big rebels we laughed hard for a few minutes (Balwant Gill kind of laughter) when we looked back the Bhangara kids were confused why we were laughing. Then...

THE BHANGRA POLE could be seen 7 times along one block of road the entire route. The manmukhs/gurmukhs would just be waiting to get to one of these shows after the jaloose. This was a major disappointment, the City of Surrey has a by-law that says you cant advertise on any city property like these poles. We caught up with Sukhpreet Singh a few minutes later and asked him why nothing was done about this. He told us that the city sends out violation fines but they never end up in city hall. Something has to be done, the city should be pressured. We should all write to the Now and Leader about this. Maybe next year I should post up my dad’s Driving School posters there. But we have a plan for next year if nothing gets done...

They have Singhs of the Canadian Forces every year for the past few years. I hope more youth get inspired to serve in the Army. One day the dream of a Sikh Regiment should become a reality and history will be made!

The chopper kids again… the smoke from these things looked good and when Hardeep Singh got the camera ready it was gone. A good shot nonetheless

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The Panj Payaary

This is a new low! I bet Dashmesh Darbaar got a hefty sum for this stall. What does the incarnation of Kalyug(TV) have to do with Vasakhi?? Everything they had there would have been used for things other than Gurbani. But I don’t think anyone cared about what Sony displayed there. When the Nagar Kirtan ended there were well over 800 people close to this booth but no one seemed to be interested. People were more worried about tea and pakorray. But this guy didn’t even know what he was talking about when I asked him for an amplified mic for an mp3 recorder, he went on about other things. I didn’t want to be rude so kept listening to him for a good 5 minutes. Finally Hardeep Singh told the guy we were getting late.

carnival....

These guys are a part of the Darpan group. It turned out that the guy who started this magazine went to school with me so I will reserve comment...

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This float was perhaps the most decent and the only one with true PUNJABI content among the displays other than sikhi. This one with the Charkha and Madhanni brought back old memories of life in a pind before machine took over most of the work. But for all the kids that saw this, I don’t think they had any clue about what the displays were about. It’s sad to think that in another 20 years things like these will be confined to museums (if there are any) only.

They had 3 of these busses to move people from ‘the pind’-KSS area to where the nagar kirtan ended. This was a good idea on Translink’s part to score some points with Punjabis and especially the seniors that make real good use of the Lower Mainland transit system

There were a few of these police offices that wore Sgt. Slaughter kind of hats. They were for reasons unknown following us for about two hours. At the end of the nagar kirtan we saw a pair of them near the RCMP command center. One guy was a Punjabi and he saw Hardeep Singh with the camera pointed toward him. He panicked, took off his hat and hid his face from view with it. He kept walking and talking to the officer beside him and finally disappeared from view. It was funny. I had never seen anyone so camera shy like that. Maybe he was shy, maybe...

When we left eastbound on 84th most of the streets were filled with Punjabis heading home. There was too much traffic on KG HWY so I introduced Hardeep Singh to some new routes previously unknown. When we headed towards the motor vehicle branch there were these two driving instructors both Caucasian they saw us approaching and then with less than 30 feet to go the guy in the first car took a left we both almost freaked out, and barely contained a scream. Then the second guy looked at us and turned right so fast that it made us laugh harder than the whole day’s laughter put together. There was an intersection a block up ahead and then the guy slammed on the brakes barely missing an oncoming truck. I took a picture of the car to remember how badly driving instructors can really drive! As the guy turned left he was merrily yapping on the phone. What? People like these going to teach new drivers defensive driving???? Maybe, just maybe this guy was having a bad day or some other more serious issues that blurred his judgment to drive properly.