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