G.Kaur

I'm at a friends house so I haven't read all the posts in this topic yet, so you might already have answered my questions, but are you saying that people from a low caste background should accept being raped by high caste boys, get beaten up by the high castes, not allowed to be in the same room with a high caste, brahmin kids bullying your kids because they are dalits? There comes a time when enough is enough. Parchaar and education won't help people who are stubborn and obsessed with their caste and don't want to change their mind. I already tried talking to a lot of people back home in my pind and they all said "we are x caste and we will never marry our kids to people from other castes, if they do we won't talk to them anymore" etc. I'm not gonna waste my time and life to explain what Sikhi says, life is too long for that. We as a community failed to practice what Sikhi says about caste, if your sister got raped by high caste boys, if your family got beaten up just because they were from a low caste, if an employer denied you a job because of your background you wouldn't accept it and say "oh yeah well that's life, I just gotta accept it". You would create your own community just like the chamars, if I were in their shoes I know I would.

I haven't seen your topic before. I'll read it when I get back from the Gurdvara. You should read about racialized medicine, if you are interested. A very interesting topic, in my opinion.

I will, if there's an interest in it otherwise there's no point. To what you said earlier, I completely agree with you. It is a known fact that most medical trials are done on white males in their 30's, so we have scientists making heart medicine that is supposedly going to work as effectively on a 65-year-old Punjabi male, as it will the 30-year-old white male that it was originally tested and tried for.

I don't understand why a lot of our people are in total denial of all the caste crap that goes on, directly AND indirectly, in our community. This is the same way some gore are in total denial of all the racism there is in a community. They brush it aside and are in total denial on what's going on. We can't blame our parents' generation because a lot of them aren't much educated and they grew up in India where they have been very influenced by Indian/Punjabi culture, but what excuse do the youth outside India have? Amritdharis asking their soon-to-be spouses directly or indirectly what caste they belong to, Amritdharis using words like "chura" and "chamar" to insult other people, Sikhs who don't want to marry other Sikhs from a low-caste background let alone eat at their houses but use them to clean their houses or the naalis on the streets or make food at weddings- So why do we blame people from low-caste backgrounds who want their own community separated from other people, people who've been oppressing them for decades?

I agree with kds, you should make some folders you can give non-Sikhs when they come to a Gurdvara. A lot of people have no clue what they are allowed to, what they are expected to do and what are big NOs when they come to a Gurdvara. You can't expect non-Sikhs (and some Sikhs) to know that. A Norwegian Gurdvara made a folder few years ago for non-Sikhs about Sikhism, I think they distributed it on Vaisakhi. We were also sent some at our Gurdvara even though it's in Norwegian. It was a short, informative folder and it was very good. If south-Indians can't read or speak English you could make some folders in the language they speak (if there are many of them at your Gurdvara), do they speak Telugu? Have you got folders or posters in your Gurdvara for non-Sikhs? Is it Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Seven Kings? If I remember correctly I think there were some folders about Sikhism to non-Sikhs, or maybe it was at Karamsar Gurdvara?

I was just browsing the net and found this interesting article. Our people could learn something from it Suspended Animation….My Heart Attack http://www.the-nri.com/index.php/2011/02/suspended-animation-my-heart-attack/

Thanks.

Sri Japji Sahib Katha of the first pauree http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL82A3F7D62B094CC9

I'm not much help because I don't live in the UK, but my brother has a usb internet connection and it works fine for him. You might want to get a internet connection in near future, because the usb one can be pretty slow sometimes.

I do. There are a lot of problems in India and Punjab, but unlike you, I'm trying to understand other people who are less fortune as me.

Yes Dal, you know everything and the rest of us know nothing.

I just told you to try to be in another man's shoes and when you have then come and talk. It's nothing personal to you, if there were other members saying what you do/did I'd tell them to do the same.

Who's acting like a child here, Dal? Calling someone a fh*** and other names is what we did when we were kids and teenagers, let's try to act like adults. To me it seems like you have no empathy for other people let alone Punjabis. When you have never been in the situation (and probably never will be) most Punjabis in Punjab are in, how on earth can you say things like "why do pendus not do their homework before they go abroad" blah blah blah. You sound like you're some white guy. If you were a white guy and saying all these things, I'd say okay but since you're not you shouldn't say people should do this and that, because if you were in the same situation you wouldn't do all the things you mention. Are you in total denial of your own identity and background? I've asked you before and going to ask again since since you didn's answer my question last time, why did your parents come to the UK, why didn't they stay in Punjab? Didn't they want a better life abroad just like everyone else? Why do you think you are better than immigrants from Punjab who want to go to the UK? It's a fact that we cannot predict what we will do in our future, or what we would do in a situation we have never been in. You're not living in Punjab, so I'm asking you again, how can you say you would do your homework before going to Europe? It's like when people make fun of poor people in Asia and Africa and say they look like bandars when they've been starving for days and finally get some food (rice or other food from the UN) and they go totally crazy in the queue because they want food for themselves and their families. People who haven't been starving for more than an hour, how dare they make fun of people in those situations in refugee camps in third world countries! I'd suggest you go to India or another third world country and stay there for 6-12 months, go live in the slum areas in India where's there's no clean water or electricity, go to Africa and live with a poor farmer who only get food every second day or go to Punjab and live on the streets with other homeless people or go begging on the streets like a lot of children do. Dal, when you know nothing about what's going on in Punjab and why people want to go abroad, I don't understand why you're saying all these things because you've never been in their shoes. Go to Africa or India and stay there for a year and then come back and tell us about your experiences. Don't just sit there like a spoiled kid in the UK thinking you are better than everyone else, because there's no difference between you and and those immigrants from India who lives in the UK.

I didn't ask about your family, I asked about you. What do you classify yourself as? If you don't want to answer, it's okay. My colleagues always go "Gurjeet, how do you make cakes without using egg", and then my boss was like "please make some eggless cookies for our meeting today". If I ever get fired, I can always start my own cake business, lol. I don't really like punjeeri.

Wasn't it you who was going to invite all of the SA sangat to your house for roti with lamb brain? I'm still awaiting my invitation!

So do you classify yourself as a pendu from Pindustania? Thanks for the paper, I'll read it later. I'm a bit preoccupied right now making chocolate cookies for my colleagues

Thanks for the links, I'll have a look.

Dal, what is the definition of a pendu to you?

It's called tippi. Thanks for the help, kam1825.

Care to elaborate?

How do you know that? Any statistics to prove your theory? I was thinking about anatomy and physiology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/mole00/mole00212.htm Perhaps after educating people in biology they might stop blaming women when they get girls, and stop taking all kind of drinks, powder, pills and medicine because they're told they will get a boy if they eat that.

Education and parchaar is needed.

A very interesting and thought-provoking documentary about surrogate mothers in India. There are a lot of other documentaries about India on http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures

I'm not looking for excuses on how to avoid certain food, because avoiding food is not the problem. I'm asking here because I spoke to 2 of my friends about this, a muslim and an amritdhari. My muslim friend said that in Islam you're not allowed to ask another muslim if they have checked the food, because by going to another muslim's house you shouldn't question the food they made for you. My amritdhari friend said that you should always ask because you don't know how much other people focus on the ingredients and just because you do, you can't expect others to do the same. So I'm asking from a Sikh point of view, if there is any? Thanks for the replies btw.

I'm not vegan, I'm vegetarian. My topic is not about being polite, I would like to know if we should have faith in our fellow vegetarians and just assume there's no animal ingredients in the food they give you?