Re: Anti-Sikh riot victims burn Rahul Gandhi effigy
Gyani Jarnail Singh,
Your appreciation is appreciated.
I do feel the need to remind those who were not there that it is difficult for us survivors to speak/write about these experiences. Twenty-five years? Yesterday? Two Hundred Fifty years? Sometimes it's easy to lose count.
I said nothing for 20 years. I left my family and the sangat and lived among people who knew nothing of my past, who wouldn't know what questions to ask. I wanted only to escape from it all. I learned that Guru Ji doesn't easily let go of his children.
I got a terrible longing to return which I did. Almost immediately I had a debilitating stroke that, among other things, left my Punjabi memory banks almost totally erased. In fact, I had only one Punjabi word: "Vaheguru."
This is not the time or place to tell the whole story (much of it is in The Road To Khalistan.) The point is that these things are very painful to talk about. If your mother or aunt or grandmother - or even yourself - hesitates, please be gentle. A broken heart can be mended, but it has still been broken.
To other survivors, if any read this, please force yourself to tell what you went through and are still going through. This is the legacy, the history we give to our children, living and dead. This generation need to understand that being a Sikh means much more than going to gurudwara or not, tying a turban or not, even taking Amrit or not. All these things are - imo - vital to being a Sikh. However, actually being a Sikh goes deep into the soul. It is not merely what I do, it is what I am. How can our children understand this if we don't get past our own pain and teach them. Please indulge me a bit and let me post the lyrics to an old song from the late 1960s.
Please from my generation to yours:
"...And know [we] love you."
And from this wonderful new generation to us:
"...And know [we] love you."
We all need each other.
Teach Your Children
by Graham Nash
You, who are on the road
Must have a code
That you can live by.
And so, become yourself
Because the past
Is just a goodbye.
Teach, your children well
Their parents' hell
Did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.
And you (Can you hear and)
Of tender years (Do you care and)
Can't know the fears (Can you see we)
That your elders grew by (Must be free to)
And so please help (Teach your children)
Them with your youth (You believe and)
They seek the truth (Make a world that)
Before they can die (We can live in)
Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.