• Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
    Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
    Sign up Log in

Randip Singh

Writer
Historian
SPNer
May 25, 2005
2,935
2,949
55
United Kingdom
Jonathan Aitken’s girl Sikhs a new lifestyle . . .


Last updated at 2:04 AM on 27th October 2010

Old Etonian *Jonathan Aitken has made a career out of re-*inventing himself, from war correspondent and TV mogul to Tory MP and jailbird — and, last but by no means least, a born-again Christian.

Now his daughter Alexandra, twin sister of rap artist Victoria, has given herself a new identity. The one-time party girl and *budding actress has changed her name and her lifestyle.

She is now known by the Sikh name *Harvinder Kaur Khalsa after embracing *eastern spirituality.

Her new moniker — Kaur means princess in Punjabi — comes after Alexandra, 29, whose father is the nephew of the great *newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook, abandoned the bustling London social scene two years ago to move to California, where she began *studying yoga. She later became a teacher of the art at a retreat in Los Angeles.

Her photograph appears on the website of Yoga West, the centre in LA where she teaches, together with the pictures of other *turbaned professional yogis. Says one Sikh: ‘The name Khalsa means you are a baptised Sikh, so she probably had a *baptism ceremony.’

The American move has had a profound effect on Ally — as her friends and family still know her. She has often said she would not enjoy a return to her previous life, claiming that her role as a yogi was always to be her ‘destiny’.

But while no doubt *concentrating on her newfound spiritual career, it appears that pretty Alexandra’s relocation has brought dividends to her romantic life.

For she has found love with the strapping Inderjot Singh, whom she is said to have met inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holy Sikh shrine, on one of her spiritual yoga voyages to India.

Only last week the couple announced they are to marry this month, with their nuptials spread out over two lavish weddings — one in India and one in Britain.

‘The announcement of the *wedding has been a little bit of a surprise, to say the least,’ a family friend tells us.

‘But all of Ally’s friends are thrilled for both her and Inderjot, since they are such a close and happy couple. The Aitken family simply cannot wait for the special occasion. With two weddings, there’ll be two lots of celebrations and plenty of cheer.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...andra-Sikhs-new-lifestyle-.html#ixzz13Y31h6LS
 

Attachments

  • hkk.jpg
    hkk.jpg
    38 KB · Reads: 581
  • inderjot singh marries alexandra aitken.jpg
    inderjot singh marries alexandra aitken.jpg
    24.8 KB · Reads: 397

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Does anyone know if this article is hinting that she is now 3HO?

Living in Los Amgeles and teaching yoga makes that seem likely.
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
I guess it does not matter if one believes that sikhism will be spread to many people.

On the other hand, if one does not agree that sikhism will be spread, then it does matter.

The answer to "So what?" would then be, "Here's what!"

Two sides of the debate. :)
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Found the new Alexandra now Harvinder Kaur Khalsa at the yoga center in LA. Answered my own question.
 

Attachments

  • harvinder.jpg
    harvinder.jpg
    91.4 KB · Reads: 698
Jul 13, 2004
588
63
35
UK
to anyone interested, i have just seen on the news where they show what the headlines will be covering in the newspapers tomorrow.
i think it was either the guardian or may be the daily mail - but they are covering her wedding. in the photo on the front she is wearing a dastar. so if anyone from the uk is interested look out for it tomorrow 1/feb/2011
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Why I swapped my party girl lifestyle to marry a Sikh warrior

By Alexandra Aitken
Last updated at 12:24 AM on 2nd February 201



For years she had a reputation as a hedonistic party girl. Now Alexandra Aitken, daughter of former government minister Jonathan, has married a devout Sikh and changed religion, too. How did her transformation come about? Here, Alexandra, 30, tells her intriguing story . . .

Frankly, if someone had told me ten years ago, when I was living the party girl *lifestyle in London, that a decade later I’d be a teetotal vegan, I simply wouldn’t have believed them.

If they’d gone on to tell me that I’d also have converted to Sikhism, changed my name to Harvinder Kaur Khalsa and be married to an Indian warrior whom I fell in love with before we even exchanged a single word, I’d have laughed my head off.

After all, I was positively allergic to organised religion. It just seemed so grey to me. But then I don’t really think of Sikhism as a religion, more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual.

Alexandra married Inderjot Singh in Amritsar , India. She says she fell in love with him even before they'd even said a word to each other

We live in a computer age where life is increasingly stressful and the world is speeding up, and people are desperately trying to find a way to relax, to escape from everything.

As I see it, you’ve got one of two options; you can either find a drug dealer, or you can find something that’s going to give you a natural high. Everyone’s looking for something — I’ve found it in Sikhism.

But I didn’t just jump on the first bus going. I did my homework. I’ve read just about everything.

I looked at Kabbalah — the fashionable offshoot of Judaism — I read about Islam, about Buddhism, but it wasn’t until about four years ago when I went to a Kundalini yoga class in Los *Angeles, after I moved out there from London, that I started to look at Sikhism.

I’d tried various different types of yoga before, but never Kundalini, which comes from the Sikh tradition and incorporates mantras or prayers into the classes.

The people I met through Kundalini just seemed to be so amazingly happy that I felt compelled to ask why. And I heard the most amazing stories; wild drug addicts whose lives had been completely transformed, cancer sufferers who’d had miraculous recoveries.
But Alexandra has now left her party girl *lifestyle in London behind

Even though my life wasn’t nearly that extreme, it was an appealing prospect. Put simply, if someone told you that you could change all the things that made you unhappy, just by reading something, or chanting something, and that you could get to a point where every part of every day — even the grim commute to work — is just really nice, why wouldn’t you want to try it?

Because most people just want to be happy. We only do what we do — put the hours in with work, chase the man, take the drug — because we think that thing will make us happy.

I know some of the richest people in the world, some of the most famous people in the world, some of the most successful people in the world and some of the most intelligent people in the world.

But the happiest people I’ve ever met are those who follow a spiritual path; you’ve got to think that they might be on to something.

Of course, none of this happened to me overnight. It was a very gradual process. I compare it to someone who’s never been to a gym who eats chips and chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If that person starts to exercise, then they’ll find that their body wants different foods, that they start to eat more healthily because they work out how to *sustain their body and feel better.

That’s how I feel about Sikhism. Everything has been a very natural and organic process, things evolved step by step.

Part of that process has been meeting Inderjot Singh, the man I’ve called my husband from the day we met — though of course it’s only just become official.
Alexandra with father - and former Cabinet minister - Jonathan Aitken. She kept the wedding a secret from everyone except her twin sister Victoria

I first saw him, about a year ago, on the roof of the Golden Temple in Amritsar and just knew we were going to get married.

Six weeks later, I flew back to Los Angeles and we’d still not said a word to each other, but somehow I was in love with him.

I just knew I had to go back to India to find him, so I did. I can’t really explain it. I was just praying he didn’t live in a tent on top of a mountain, because I knew that even if he did I was going to marry him anyway. He doesn’t, thank goodness.

He’s actually one of the Nihang — it’s the warrior tribe of Sikhism, the SAS, if you will, of the religion. And I suppose it’s inevitable that people will assume that I’ve *converted for him, but that’s just not true.

My friends and family only really care about the fact that I’m happy. My new name — which is a symbol of the new life I’ve started as a Sikh — has been tricky for people to get their heads round. My twin sister, Victoria, said to me: ‘What am I meant to call you?’

Well, people can call me whatever they like, whatever is easiest for them. I don’t expect my friends to stop calling me Ally.
Alexandra says she doesn't think of Sikhism as a religion, 'more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual'. She features in Hello! this week

As for my parents, Mum has always been a very spiritual person anyway, and the first thing that Dad said to me about it was that my great-grandfather — Lord Rugby, who spent time in the Punjab where Inderjot is from, and was the chief commissioner of the North-West Province in the 1920s — would have been very proud.

But I’m sure that for people who don’t know me, it’s hard to work out how I went from being the sort of person who gets drunk and falls out of clubs to being the sort ofperson who wears a turban and meditates, and I’m sure there are people who will judge me, or misunderstand my motives, but I completely understand that. I was like that, too.

Years ago, I remembered seeing a Sikh girl wearing a turban and thinking that she must be a bit crazy. I just couldn’t understand why someone would do that. It just wasn’t a part of anything I was familiar with. I just didn’t get it.

But I think if I’d carried on living my life the way I had been I would have been a very unhappy person. I would have been unfulfilled and, basically, empty.

I don’t judge people who want to live the way I did, I’m just much happier like this.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...festyle-marry-Sikh-warrior.html#ixzz1Cm3ADK63
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Jonathan Aitken: Instant combustion is a family tradition
Jonathan Aitken speaks for the first time about his daughter's surprise marriage



Cassandra Jardine
By Cassandra Jardine 7:00AM GMT 02 Feb 2011

16 Comments

Dropping bombshells has become rather a tradition within the Aitken family. Jonathan Aitken himself has delivered a few in his time. The most notorious being, of course, his spectacular lies in court about who paid his Ritz hotel bill (Answer: not his then wife, Lolicia, or daughter, Victoria, because they weren’t in Paris at the time). Those little fibs landed the former Conservative MP with an 18-month sentence for perjury in 1999.

Now Alexandra, Victoria Aitken’s 30-year-old twin, has proved herself indeed to be her father’s daughter by delivering an equally startling piece of news; she has married a devout Sikh from the religion’s Nihang military order. “We had no warning, ” says her father. “She simply telephoned one day and said: 'Are you sitting down, daddy? I’m getting married.’

“'When?’ and 'To whom?’ were the first two thoughts that went through my mind. I knew she had an Indian admirer, but I didn’t know it was so serious.”

Unable to jump on a plane, Aitken is now mugging up on the November wedding via the pages of Hello magazine which this week displays pages of grinning Alexandra (Ali), once an aspiring actress, in her new role as Harvinder Kaur Khalsa, wife of a man who appears to have invited 150 cave-dwelling male Sikh saints to his wedding, but no women. As a recipe for cultural discord, this new union makes the (now dissolved) marriage of Jemima Goldsmith to Imran Khan look like a safe bet.

Ali - or as her website puts it “The artist formerly known as Alexandra Aitken” - is both a former It-girl and holder of the world’s most vacuous title: champion mobile phone thrower (awarded, Finland, 2003). She’s done all those model/actress/whatever jobs that were thrust upon the Aitken girls by their father’s disgrace and bankruptcy. Theirs was, as her twin Victoria called it, a “riches to rags story” which involved predictable episodes of wild behaviour, including nude photoshoots with Petrina Khashoggi, the twins’ half-sister whose existence was revealed via DNA test, when all three girls were 18 years old.

Having done London society, Ali moved to Los Angeles and did psychic readings for celebrities. Now, in what looks like a pure la-la land fantasy, she is marrying a man who is “part of the religious SAS” as her twin puts it, serving soup to the poor of Amritsar.

A glance at her website shows her to be deeply earnest about her new philosophy of “happiness, healing and peace” and happy to embrace aspects of her new religion including numerology. In film clips, she teaches mantras that will ensure spiritual wealth - a more reliable commodity she discovered in her late teens, than her father’s material riches.

Once the excitement of the becoming white turban has worn off, she might find her new life a little self-denying, but Jonathan Aitken, 68, fresh from a five-day trip to Amritsar to see the newly-weds, found 27-year-old Inderjot Singh a pleasant surprise. “I liked him,” says his new father-in-law with what sounds like genuine enthusiasm as well as innate optimism.

“He’s gentle, quiet and probably rather deep and very devoted to his faith. Of course to anyone of my generation her new life would be quite a culture shock, but she is very much at peace and so is he. It is wonderful to see two people so deeply in love and blissfully happy.”

Far from communication being limited to smiles and gestures, Aitken was relieved to discover that Inderjot speaks fluent English having finished his education at the Holmes Institute in Sydney, Australia. At the time he did not wear a turban or a beard for Inderjot, like Aitken himself, has been on a relatively recent spiritual journey - though not with the threat of prison hanging over him.

Nor is he a full-time saint. The happy couple live in a home which Aitken describes as “simple” but they will soon be building themselves a new and bigger house, as well as a school for the disadvantaged, north of Amritsar. There Alexandra hopes to fulfill her dreams of watching future children bound around like cashmere goats in the foothills of the Himalayas. There’s even some money around. Aitken recounts with some relief that his son-in-law is a property developer, building houses on land which he bought.

There was always a likelihood that at least one of the three Aitken children would embrace a religion other than the Church of England because their Yugoslav-born mother, Lolicia Azucki, was a great spiritual experimenter. Victoria Aitken has described family holidays spent communing with gurus, staying with whirling dervishes in Turkey or sitting in sweat lodges in California.

Lolicia eventually opted for Buddhism. Jonathan became a born again Chrsitian (via the Alpha course). William, the youngest child, read theology at university. Now her sister has become a sikh, Victoria describes as being “stuck in the middle of an awful lots of religious zealotry”. Although she was the only member of the family who made it over for the wedding, she doesn’t sound as if she is delighted that her sister’s new path now dictates that meetings are no longer over coffee or a drink, but at yoga classes.

Ali was always the more religious of the two girls. Aged 13 she wanted to be a nun and became head sacrist at Canterbury cathedral. “Then she discovered boys and religion took a back seat - until now,” said Victoria, a rap artist. Rocked by the upheavals in her family, in her twenties she started looking for “something higher than herself”. The Kabbalah, Buddhism and Islam were all options before she went to a Kundalini (Sikh) yoga class which eventually led to the meditation course at the Golden Temple in Amritsar where she spotted Inderjot.

She was instantly smitten: “I knew I was blindly in love with this man, having never spoken a to him,” says Ali/Harvinder. “I knew straight away he was my husband, within one second it was completely clear.” But due to a ban on men and women mixing, she left a week later having never exchanged a word with him. She didn’t even know whether he spoke any English. Obsessed, she returned six weeks later to Amritsar and, illicitly, engaged her love- object in conversation. The bedazzlement turned out to be mutual and, after months of intercontinetal Skype calls, she returned to the Punjab, and they married.

Perhaps she got the idea of love-at-first-sight from her mother, Lolicia, who decided: “You’re the man I’m going to marry,” fifteen minutes after meeting Aitken. “Instant combustion is a family tradition,” he says now. That marriage last 19 years, until he went to prison; he is now married one of his earlier girlfriends. Elizabeth Harris.

“It’s a good thing to move on from being an It-girl. I’m pleased that she has a spiritual dimension. The little dagger she carried at the wedding symbolises all the bad things she is cutting out of her life. Of course I am very loyal to my own faith but there are many paths to God and she and her husband are on a different path to me.”

In that spirit of happy acceptance, he looks forward to celebrating the marriage when the newly-weds come over to Britian shortly. “I don’t know whether alcohol will be allowed. Inderjot and Ali don’t drink - for some reason to do with her yoga she hasn’t touched alcohol for years,” he says. “But some of us will be listing our glasses.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/fea...Instant-combustion-is-a-family-tradition.html
 

Gyani Jarnail Singh

Sawa lakh se EK larraoan
Mentor
Writer
SPNer
Jul 4, 2004
7,706
14,381
75
KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA
Gursikh ji, what does the last line in your post mean?

Ishna

Ishna Ji..

It means ..."I AM VERY JEALOUS". I wish it were ME shes marrying .
Its a common trait among humans and also Sikhs/Punjabis....its very difficult to share someone elses JOY or be genuinely Happy for someone...so the Sour Grapes attitudes we have...thats how I interpret the last line...LOttery lagg gayee..He has struck the Lottery !! Apologies in advance if i am mistaken...
 
Jul 25, 2010
11
12
London
Ishna Ji..

It means ..."I AM VERY JEALOUS". I wish it were ME shes marrying .
Its a common trait among humans and also Sikhs/Punjabis....its very difficult to share someone elses JOY or be genuinely Happy for someone...so the Sour Grapes attitudes we have...thats how I interpret the last line...LOttery lagg gayee..He has struck the Lottery !! Apologies in advance if i am mistaken...

"Freshie dee Lottery aagee!"

This literally means The Freshie's Lottery has come, which means that (apologise for me being a Daily Mail reader), not only has he married a white girl, he's got a free access to a british Passport as well....which means access to benefits, free housing etc....all his freshie mates must be well jealous.
:grinning:

In all seriousness, I wish the best for the happy couple.


Deletion for a couple of reasons. It was inappropriate and mixed with sexual innuendo. It is an insult to Indian women. Tread carefully :angryadminsingh::angryadminkaur:


article-0-0D0BE584000005DC-741_468x611.jpg
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Gursikh Singh ji

I am not sure he would need a British passport or free housing. My understanding is the the bridegroom has traveled without assistance outside of India. He also is a real-estate developer.

There is no accounting for the fantasies of our human-kind nonetheless.
 
Jul 25, 2010
11
12
London
The article by Cassandra Jardine, (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/fea...Instant-combustion-is-a-family-tradition.html) is the worst example of sensationalism I've seen. (The author describes herself as a Journalist…a bullsh*tter is more like it).


A list of her BS is as follows:

BS No.1
….displays pages of grinning Alexandra (Ali), once an aspiring actress, in her new role as Harvinder Kaur Khalsa.


Her new role?….this isn't a role but her life choice. This sensationalist is trying to make out her taking amrit is some sort of fad.

BS No.2

wife of a man who appears to have invited 150 cave-dwelling male Sikh saints to his wedding, but no women


There are no such things as 'cave-dwelling' male Sikh saints. And no women?….Complete cr*p. This sensationalist is trying to make out that Sikhs are some sort of sexist religion, that we have a problem having women at wedding ceremonies.

BS No.3

As a recipe for cultural discord, this new union makes the (now dissolved) marriage of Jemima Goldsmith to Imran Khan look like a safe bet.

I'm not even going to respond to that. Outragous.


BS No.4

sister’s new path now dictates that meetings are no longer over coffee or a drink, but at yoga classes.


What?…where in Sikhism does it even mention that. This sensationalist is just make things up.

BS No.5
But due to a ban on men and women mixing, she left a week later having never exchanged a word with him.


What ban?…More cr*p


BS No.6
She didn’t even know whether he spoke any English. Obsessed, she returned six weeks later to Amritsar and, illicitly, engaged her love- object in conversation.


Obsessed?…Illict?…

BS No.7
The little dagger she carried at the wedding symbolises all the bad things she is cutting out of her life.

Dagger?….it doesn't symbolised that!


Right…I'm off to snoop through Hello magazine.
 

badshah

SPNer
May 8, 2010
210
121
So I have read a few threads here about our women not wanting turban wearing Singh - well lets shun them and look else where as did this Nihang Singh

I have noticed it too, that you have more of a chance with non-Sikh/Indian women.

Whilst some Sikh women whether in India or in the West want to become loose, some Westen non-Sikh women look for religion

Another example is Waris Singh Ahluwalia

So maybe its time to look elsewhere also, since within our people we are caste divided and some of our women have reservation towards traditional Sikhs. This will help to bring new people into the Sikh fold and also solve the issue of these Sikh women as we will have more choice and thereore not be effected by their requirements.

Alexandra Aitken marries Nihang Sikh: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...daughter-happily-scrubbing-temple-floors.html



Deleted. I am removing the images: a) because one we have seen how many times already? b) because we can go to the commercial media to see the "flesh" shots. Let's maintain some dignity.

The thread is being merged with an existing thread so that SPN does not take on the identity of a society column or a gossip magazine. spnadmin
 

❤️ CLICK HERE TO JOIN SPN MOBILE PLATFORM

Top