Since at 2005 Nagatr Social was presented on this site as a series of pictures, this time around I’ve decided to use the wonderful world of words of illustrate the happenings of the Surrey Nagar Kirtan and the things behind the obvious layer of simplicity. So here goes; I’ll attempt to go through everything as best as I remember and in the most accurate way possible. Since I DO have very good memory I believe that pretty much all of what will be presented in the following parts is as accurate as it can and did get.
As the morning rain, cleared up white grey puffs of cloud hung abreast the glistening blue sky just above the tree-line. As a looked out of my room through the south facing window, rays of light were piercing through the remaining cloud covering the lower reaches of the horizon. It was April 15th and not just any other Saturday, but somewhat special this time as Surrey and Vancouver were bracing themselves for a concurrent Nagar Social jaloosefest.
Unlike the 2005 Nagar-Socials where both of them took place one week apart, this year in 2006 they decided to outdo each other by the media coverage alone, which is always open for dispute; spectators like us would not have the chance to actually go see the two different jalooses in person, see, and conclude ‘which one was better.’ So while the Surrey Nagar-social-jaloose was set to happen, across the Fraser, the historical ‘Nagar Kirtan’ turned Street-bhangra-Classic was preparing to launch out of the Ross Street Gurdvara. At both places the mood would be celebratory and inflated spirited chardhi kala greetings would be exchanged along with the usual, “Veh halsa Veh Fateh’s”
To be honest I have never been a keen Nagar Kirtan participator for many reasons, including the most creative ones listed below:
1) (Unleashing of maha-pakhand, for just one day) ≠ (chardhikala)
2) When the media questions someone what they like today: definitely the FOOD & MUSIC .
3) Wearing of Kesri(saffron) ≠ [panthic jazba]
4) Roadside stalls of food ≠ [langar]
5) Politics of which float will lead ≠ [panchic unity]
6) Singers singing ‘dharmik songs’ ≠ [dharmik person]
7) Commercial aspects, Vasakhi sales etc. ≠ [Celebration of Vasakhi]
8) Unfit entities hitching a ride on floats defeat the entire purpose of the ‘kirtan’ part
9) 400db of loudspeakers blaring out CD tracks making you deaf in your tracks
10) The Shaheed police trying to stop certain pictures from going up on floats, so much for
freedom of expression under the charter…
Knowing just how much chardhi kala would be on the measuring block I decided that for this Vaisakhi Nagar Social day today I must not merely go into the mela as a normal nagar social goer in garbs of a ‘chardhi kala sikh’: Navy Blue gurmukhi-Kurta pajama, navy Blue Gurmukhi Dastaar, white Hazooria without any kadhaayee, but make a statement like everyone else. Why? Why not? Nagar social gear is what I wear everyday, so to capture the true essence of the mela hype I thought for once I should do something khutti.
Looking out the window I pondered how the costume predicament should be best handled. Should I go with a costume like everyone else or was there a plausible reason why I could defy convention and dress the way I really wanted. After deep thought lasting a few seconds I decided to go with something I hadn’t worn in quite a long time. Actually about six years or so, not only was it something close to my heart, it also was a collective article of clothing which forged the Davinder Singh as is today.
So this mystery bana was actually the uniform of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets’ Irish Fusiliers. It would be a great injustice to not mention the Irish here. The cadet experience and why I was involved with it is simple, it was like anything else everyone does when they’re in high school, everyone I knew From Khalsa School was in it, and just because of that reason, and maybe because being a fauji seemed cool, I was inclined to join the Irish Fusiliers cadets. Commitment of Tuesday evenings and sometimes weekends compared to the rewards of free skiing trips, repelling exercises, winter excursions, camps and possible chance to make serious money during summer camp not to mention the chance to get 2 high School credits, the overall lure was just too much. Almost everyone I had known at the time were in the cadets among them: Bhai Jagjeet singh, Daljit Singh, Arvinder Singh, Khushminder singh, Amrit Singh, Manjot Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, Ricky Sahota, Panesar, Sukhminder singh and Bhai Karamjeet Singh was the officer stationed who oversaw ‘the klan’ and kept everyone in check. Another obvious reason was to be able to get arms training, shooting targets with serious firepower is a chance of a lifetime for many.
At about 8:00am I went into my room and got the tunic, shirt, pants, belt and everything else but the tie and kalgi. Yes, we did wear a kalgi when going to cadets, and a green one too.
We had some singhs from our of town who stayed over just so they could attend the nagar kirtan. Really, I had already had enough of the drama from nagar social 2005, it was the singhs pushing me and my thinking that they had come all the way just so they could watch it, so I agreed.
At about 8:30 we were all ready to leave for the main gathering area, near Dashmesh Darbaar ~ 128th street & 84thh Ave. We left and went to Bhai Jagjeet Singhs house to pick him up. Afterwards we made out way out to 132Street north. Along the way we could see almost everyone flocking towards khalsa school, to catch a free bus ride, so they wouldn’t have to take their cars. Almost everyone was dressed in either blue or kaisri(saffron).
As we turned onto 132 Street we could see the huge line of traffic backing up more and more by the second. It took about 15 minutes to pass just half a block. When we reached about a block before the 80th Ave intersection I had enough of waiting in line, so I got out. Even with about 20 cars in front of us we could see the mismanagement of traffic by the traffic lady hired for the day. Anyone could see that she was deliberately obstructing traffic. I had a word with her and told her to call up another traffic person, until the other person arrived I directed traffic coming from all 4 sides.
For anyone whos been to a Surrey nagar Kirtan will know that it doesn’t take much to clog all routes leading to Gurdvara Dashmesh Darbar, and it starts getting bad at about 8:00am. In the past years I’ve been fortunate enough to reach the Gurdvara at around 7:00am or so. So from there as the traffic situation improved I in full cadet uniform walked west on 80th Ave.
It’s worth mentioning here that the cadet uniform worn by the Army cadets is very similar to the uniforms worn by the Canadian Army. So for the laypeople who have no knowledge about the two uniforms, they think that the we, the Irish were really the Canadian Army.
One thing I knew about cadets was that Army cadets were way more fun than air or sea cadets. The people above were all full fledged cadets before I decided to go. But the things they talked about on exercises were unreal and were what finally convinced me to join. Most of all the cadet program was next to being free, you got to go places and the skills learnt were transferable to other scenarios not to mention the natural JUTT-FAUJI connection. Its worth mentioning here that if you know anyone who’s under 17 and meets the enterence age of ~10years I highly recommend the cadet experience. With a few years under their belt, the Canadian cadet program makes one a better person, a leader and many times stronger from the outside-in to the inside out.......(chaldha)
