MrSikhNet Video

Ok... it's like 1AM and it's been a long day, so I'll be somewhat brief. We have been having Khalsa Council meetings all week and this afternoon we had a special ceremony to honor the memory of Yogi Bhajan. The city of Espanola and state of New Mexico have dedicated the highway which passes in front of the home of Yogi Bhajan after him. This is a great honor and recognition for all his selfless service to the world. I don't know of any other highways in the USA which are named after a Sikh. The New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and other guests spoke at the dedication event. Many of the New Mexico political figures have been long time friends of Yogi Bhajan (20+ years) and have great respect for him and the things that he accomplished in his lifetime. One of the things that was cool was that originally the dedication was going to be at a different location outside, but a very unusual thing happened. IT RAINED...AND RAINED...AND RAINED. Normally when it rains you are lucky to get 2 minutes of rain. We haven't had pretty much any rain for over 6 months and the land has been soo dry. It was as if it rained for this very occasion. Twice a year we hold "Khalsa Council" meetings which is a leadership group of Sikhs from all over the world that come to Espanola to vision for the future. We had been having these meetings and as a result of the rain the Highway memorial dedication could not be held outside. So, instead... everyone came to the Khalsa Council meetings. So the Governor and all the other New Mexico political figures came to "meet" the Khalsa Council. Cool eh?

When I was in Malaysia I had the chance to meet some of the young Sikh guys from the Sri Dasmesh Band. There were four guys that I met at the four day Baisakhi program (Cheras) and they performed with their bagpipes and dhol drums. I missed their performance so the day before I left they all came over to the house I was staying at and we jammed again on the Bagpipes. It was great fun. (see some of the pictures here) Here is part of a video that I got from them. I guess there was a news story about the Sri Dasmesh band on Malaysian TV. The first part is the actual news story and the second is some raw video footage. The news dialog is in Malay (the language of Malaysia) however you can watch and listen. It's cool seeing Sikhs involved in different cultural aspects. Especially exploring other styles of music and instruments.

Download File

To celebrate and remember Vaisakhi and the history from Guru Gobind Singh's times I am posting a great video story of Guru Gobind Singh and his sons. Hopefully you learn something and enjoy the stories. Please share with your kids too! Download Audio /Video (24MB)

DASTAAR: DEFENDING SIKH IDENTITY presents the struggle of the Sikh American community against discrimination and violence caused by ignorance of an essential symbol of the Sikh faith -- the dastaar , or turban. The documentary begins by observing the simple, quiet act of putting on the dastaar, a daily ritual imbued with the Sikh values of honor, discipline and faith. The solemnity of this ritual contrasts with recent incidents of violence and discrimination against Sikhs due to the wearing of the dastaar , which all Sikh men are required to wear at all times in public. Such incidents include the vicious attack on Gurcharan Singh and Rajinder Singh Khalsa by five men after being accused of being terrorists, two NYPD officers who left the force after refusing the order to remove their dastaars while on duty, and a subway operator who wore his dastaar for 20 years until being recently ordered to remove his dastaar. Even though Sikhs have no relationship with the terrorist networks of the Middle East, they are often mistaken as terrorists due to their wearing turbans. The film explores how images in the media fuel the association of the turban with terrorism, leading to the widespread discrimination against Sikhs. The film also shows the efforts made by the Sikh community to counter this discrimination through a combination of community activism, legal action, legislation and education. Presented by Third World Newsreel Produced and Directed by Kevin Lee Associate Producer: Josh Weisbrot Editor: Helen Yum Production made possible through the support of Third World Newsreel (J.T. Takagi, Series Producer) Ravinder S. Gulati. More info at: http://www.warriorsaintsfilm.com/Dastaarimpact.html Watch the video below: Download Video