Recent content by IJSingh

Days & Dates: Their weirdness continues to haunt us. Forget the exact date, we are not even sure when Founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, was born – around April or months later in September. The year may not be quite so much in doubt. Similar questions surface about the date ascribed to...

Guru Nanak’s perspective on humanity is larger than life; expansive and timeless.. In a lifespan of about 70 years, Nanak married, sired two sons, traveled widely across much of the known world of his times. Today, a worldwide ever-growing circle of more than 25 million Sikhs and non-Sikhs swear...

Recurring Thoughts on India under a Triumphant Narendra Modi I.J. Singh A stroll down Google Lane tells us that the term sound-bite originated around1980. Sound-bites holds your attention for about 30 seconds, a time span critical to catching a reader’s eye and focusing it quickly but sharply...

A la Cassandra, the legendary seer of ancient Greek mythology, I bring you news, good and bad; welcome and not so welcome. Even though her predictions were true she was cursed by Apollo so that no one would believe her. My simple purpose today is to foster a conversation. I came to America in...

by I.J. Singh India and Pakistan remined me of a couple that have lived together for a lifetime and more. But they have also grown weary of each other. When the British left the Indian subcontinent the main body of land (largely the northwest territory of Punjab) was divided into India and...

While waiting in the anteroom of my Retirement Investment Advisor, I caught the headline of an editorial in The Wall Street Journal. It was as many OP-EDs are these days – mostly lamenting or celebrating President Donald Trump. His relationship with truth remains problematic but there is never...

A few years ago, my wife and I were attending the local gurduara in New York. It had started to drizzle in the meantime and when the service ended, we stepped out into a messy puddle and rain. As we ran for our car that was parked nearby, we noticed a middle-aged Sikh woman who had also stepped...

I think it was the historian Arnold Toynbee who said that Vedantic and Judaic disciplines - the two great religious systems of the world - met in northern India. 'Collided' would be more like it. Their confrontation spawned a new order - Sikhism - which has some elements of each but in other...

First things first. Most of us connect with one religion or another; naturally, we treasure some deeply held practices. You need to know that I am a Sikh so that my biases won’t surprise you. Today I take on a question that is larger than life. I attack this Gordian knot less to resolve but...

We Sikhs are no strangers to bullying and harassment. We are also a minority and destined to remain one no matter where we live, whether it is somewhere in India where the faith originated over 500 years ago or in a modern megapolis like New York, London or Toronto. And minorities make...

By I.J. Singh and Neena I. Singh Like most Sikhs we, too, have attended oodles of discussions on and about Sikhi over the years. The attendance is often heavy with both young and old Sikhs, and we p{censored} issues that confront us, our colorful history, and our direction forward. The primary...

by I.J. Singh & Neena I. Singh Only a few days from today, October 31beckons the day that promised to live in our memories for ever. But I had already paid my respects to the events that orchestrated such senseless attack on the Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) of the Sikhs by the Indian Army...

A universal sequence, nay, a law to human life and progress comes to mind. Sometimes an idea sparks in a brain and mind prepared by circumstance or conscious design. Without technology to breathe life into it, the idea remains unfulfilled. If it is not to be buried in the ash heap of...

Since the dawn of time, human survival has always been in jeopardy. Risky during birth and early development, even as adults; desperately dependent on others. Hence the family and the community. Humans thrive as families and communities. Such togetherness, essential to survival, demands...

Am I an ideology guy or a results guy? I wish it was easy to figure out. Friends that I used to hang out with years ago in the early 1960’s, when we spent too much time, if you ask me, living in what was fondly dubbed our MOL moments. (MOL = Meaning of Life.) We spoke loudly, emphatically...