My Favorite Sikh Bureaucrat

Harpal Singh Kapoor, Director of Miami-Dade Transit, must be the coolest bureacrat in all of Florida.  At a recent office party he not only showed off some mad bhangra skills, he taught his non-Punjabi colleagues some skills too, to the beat of a live dhol.

I know there are some purists in the audience who think that bhangra might not be a good way to promote relations with Sikhs because it’s Punjabi culture, not Sikh, etc. … but I disagree.

Music and dance are a universal language.  Kapoor probably already knows his office staff, and so he’s not a stranger to them, but unless they do bhangra in the office, they probably don’t get a chance to connect across the conference table like you can in response to the beat of a dhol.  Connecting on that most basic human level, in response to music, reminds people that underneath our exteriors we’re all the same.  And if they DO do bhangra in the office, then I’m moving to Florida to join their staff.