A Punjabi Sikh wedding in England

Well, we just got back from London last night with my daughter and son. I wished wife and the youngest one could have come as well, but it did not work out that way. It was great to see so many old and new faces at the wedding; people I had not seen for over 15 to 25 years and their sons, daughters etc. that I had never met. The guy who got married was a son of my cousin (meri bhua da pota) and was around six years old, when I saw him last in India. The wedding itself was a lot of fun with a people telling a lot of jokes, political discussions, bhangra, games with movie songs, shabads etc. Sadly, my cousin and other women of the house ended up having to do a lot of work as some of us men sit around and try to solve world’s problems. Some of us did help out but not as many as I would have thought. Its funny, during my childhood growing up in Punjab, I used to see more men helping out during weddings such as cutting vegetables, cooking jalebis and laddoos. I remember my taya cutting onins, carrots, gobhi, making jalebis, rolling boondis, karah parshad and helping out in Kitchen in almost every wedding. He could have made a great halwayee. Somehow it seems like it is slowly fading and more and more is left for women to do. But, Punjabi weddings sure are a lot of fun and would love to attend one again. I wish the amount of alcohol could be cut down. But, it was really nice to be on the other side and watch some people acting goofy, and emotional after drinking so much. The Anand Karaj at Gurdwara was nice and granthi did say some really nice things and explained the importance of Anand Karaj and lavan according to Gurmat. I am saying this because I went to a wedding of one of my friends who got married to a causaian girl, the granthi started preaching how wrong it is to marry outside of culture during the Anand Karaj ceremony which in my opinion was the most inappropriate thing to say as part of Guru's blessing. Here there was no such controversy. The shagan afterwards where people bless the couple and place money in couple's lap created a little controversy though since there were different opinions as to whether it was apporpriate to do it in front of the Guru Granth Saheb.

For me, the nice part of my trip was to see my 94 year old aunt (bhua) who is an amazing lady when it comes to being a full of energy, enthusiasm, discipline, hard work, loving and caring. She was the same as I remembered her from my childhood in India, always full of energy and in chardi kala. Here is the part that amazed me the most, inspite of not being able to see so clearly and having a weak eyesight, she starts her day by waking up at 4AM every morning, takes the morning bath, does the Guru parkash and recites Jap Ji Saheb by heart and reads the wak from Guru Granth Sahib. She can climb upstairs without any help or walking stick. Since I don’t have Guru Granth Saheb installed at my house, it was quite an experience to learn from her. Sometimes, I wish I knew Jap Ji Saheb and other banis by heart. I have heard all kinds of negative things about Gurbani recitation without understanding, but I have to say, to hear this 94 year old lady recite entire Jap Ji Saheb by heart was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. It just showed the love and effort somebody has put into being a Gursikh. I so much wish and pray to be like her if I ever get to be that old.

The city of London itself is beautiful, but very expensive. We had bought a three day London Pass that is only available to tourists outside of England. Pass allowed us to explore various things like history, culture, transit system and our hosts took us to see Stonehenge which was a nice drive thru beautiful English countryside. It was also nice to see a big visible Punjabi community and more turbaned Sikhs working in all kinds of jobs from construction sites on highways (or motorways as they are called in England), at airport security, immigration and escort services, malls, restaurants, even doing ice skating and other things. To me, these guys make the true role models for future generations of Khalsa to come. Having just a basic cable here in the U.S. for the last 20 years, I was also shocked to see all these Punjabi channels thru sattelite dish that play non stop bhangra videos, bollywood soap opera, Indian news all day long including gurbani from Darbar Sahib. I have some opinions on some of these bhangra videos but that is a topic for another post. Overall, it was really a fun trip.

Pictures - coming soon!

Also, here is some really good information on Anand Karaj (Sikh wedding) and its real meaning to Sikhs if anyone is interested:

http://www.sikhs.org/wedding/