Yaad: Remembrance & Renewal - Individually & Collectively

Yaad:

Remembrance & Renewal -
Individually & Collectively

T. SHER SINGH

Saturday, November 1
Sunday, November 2
Monday, November 3

This year, already loaded with so many significant anniversaries and commemorations, is the 30th since 1984, now seared in our collective memory and history as the year of yet another ghallughaara -- holocaust.

Three days -- November 1, 2 and 3 -- mark the commencement of the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children not only in New Delhi, India’s capital, but across the length and breadth of the sad country. Their only ‘crime’ was that they were Sikh, as they were singled out by mobs organized and led by government officials, who were in turn aided by politicians, bureaucrats, media, police, and a pliant populace.

The three days were only the beginning. What followed was a decade of pogroms, constituting nothing less than a state-sanctioned genocide.

This year, Sikhs around the globe will mark the three days in silent remembrance and prayer.

We ask you -- wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you‘re doing -- to set aside, wherever possible, five minutes on each of those three days and observe them in silence, remembrance and prayer.

At work. At home. At school. At play. On the road.

There is endless strength in our collectivity. Doing it together, at the same time, will remind us that we are united in the One and stand strong, tall and invincible.

There is magic -- barqat, actually -- in doing it together.

A simple observance: simran, meditation, mool mantar, ardaas or just quiet time.

Do it for a minute if you can’t spare the five. For a brief moment, if you can’t find a minute. Do it on one day if you can’t do it on each of the three days ...

If you’re home, have at least a brief discussion with your children and explain the context.

If at work or school, explain if necessary the ‘why’ to your close friends and colleagues, but don’t waste this time in advocacy ... find other opportunities to do so.

But on each of these three days, for a simple 5 minutes: Just. Silence. Remembrance. Prayer.

We suggest the following coordinated times around the globe. If you live in other time zones, adjust your inner clock to match 5:30 pm in New Delhi on each day.

If you can’t, not to worry. Tailor-make your own time and manner of honouring, in the words of our daily ardaas, the memory of “those Singhs and Singhniyaan who sacrificed their lives at the altar of Sikhi …”

But, if you can, please do join us.

Let’s do it together.

P.S. Please share this plea with your loved ones, friends, relatives and colleagues the world over. There is no ownership in this project … it’s yours.