A pain lurks within me. Why do I have to be treated as an exception? It reminds me of a similar incident in the Rajasthan State Assembly where I was disallowed to sit in the visitors gallery because of my 'Kirpan', even though I was a gazetted officer of the same state government. Later at the personal discretion of the Speaker I was admitted as an 'exception'.
I reflect now and believe that one becomes an 'exception' and a difficult case, because most of the times, so many of us bend too easily for personal convenience.
Sometimes there are pleasant surprises. I was to go through a medical examination in a state hospital. As I entered the room the doctor-on-duty shot at me a question, "Are you a Sikh ?"
He had recently attended an international conference in India and visited Sri Harimandir Sahib (Golden Temple) at Amritsar, where Sikhism was explained to him. He would not believe me until he had physically seen and counted himself all my five 'Kakkars'. He then showed the same to a group of doctors and explained to them their symbolic value.
The young here, as elsewhere, are not religious minded. For them socialism seems to be the future hope of a just society. I live in a hostel with these young people. My daily prayers and
reading from Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Sehaj Paath) within the hostel room (I had taken care in India that my Guru accompanies me) and some of my ideas on national economic organization perplexes them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment