Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin

3. Substituting words ‘Akal Purakh’ for ‘Bhagauti’ in the Sikh Ardaas.
4. Birth of The Sikh Bulletin as an instrument of reform in Sikhi.
5. Initiation of practice of annual conferences.
Next person who came into my Sikhi Reformation life has very kindly agreed to assume the major
responsibility for the publication of The Sikh Bulletin in its new vision, as Editor-In-Chief, to carry the
message of Guru Nanak to the non-Sikhs and to those Sikhs who choose to listen to unadulterated version
of Gurbani, unencumbered by rituals and miracles being practiced in all of our Gurdwaras, including
Darbar Sahib. He is S. Gurpal Singh Khaira.
Gurpal Singh Khaira left India at a very young age and was educated in England and Canada. After a very
successful career at upper management level in the Canadian Government and private sector which took
him all over the world, he retired to
Sacramento area to be closer to his Doctor Sons and grandchildren. He is a Punjabi language poet and
fiction writer and loves Sikh classical kirtan music. He had been very active most of his life organizing
Sikh conferences to teach and propagate Guru Nanak's mission as enshrined in Shri Guru Granth Sahib
Ji. He had been frequent speaker at Sikh forums and his articles have been published in Sikh Review,
Sikh Bulletin, and other local publication.
He started visiting us in Roseville around the year 2000 when he moved to this area from Southern
California. This was the time when we had decided to call our reform movement ‘Singh Sabha
International’.
I address him as Singh Sahib because he really foots the bill; he considers me as his older brother. But
more appropriately he would be my brother-in-law because he is married to a Shergill from my ancestral
village in District Jalandhar that my great-grandmother and her family left for Bikaner state nine decades
ago, my great-grandfather having passed away at a rather young age. Or it could be a relationship one
generation up or down. It is not unusual among large families that have stayed in the same place over a
long period of time to have age differences that create unusual relationships.
The only time I went to my family’s ancestral village was when my father took me there when I was six
years old. I remember three things from that visit:
1. Mela at Kultham with all its fun events.
2. Train with just as many passengers riding on the roof as inside and a whole lot hanging from the
doors.
3. And in the house of my father’s second cousin kids twice my age looking at me and giggling
while addressing me as their granduncle.
Being a student of History, Geography and Indo-European language I cannot help but wonder where my
family’s roots lie in the distant past. North Indians belong to a group called Caucasians because they
supposedly migrated east and west from the region of Caucasus Mountains. The two syllables of my first
name ‘Har’ and ‘Dev’ have clearly Indian connotation because in Hinduism they both refer to ‘God’. The
two syllables of my last name ‘Sher’ and ‘Gill’, however, are clearly of Persian origin, meaning ‘Lion’
(Shir) and ‘soil’ in Persian. A northern province of Iran that slopes down from the mountains to the shores
of the Caspian Sea is called ‘Gilan’ and its inhabitants are called ‘Gils’. Surname Gill or versions of it are
widespread. Pakistan has Gilani surnames, Pakistan and India have Gills and Shergills, British Isles have
Gills, McGills, Cowgills and Scargills.
Sorry I got carried away; you cannot be immersed in Gurbani and not think everybody is your cousin.
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