Johnathan Aitkens Girl Marries A Singh

[SURYADEV]

Heres the online page:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1352367/Daughter-Tory-MP-Jonathan-Aitken-Alexandra-weds-Indian-lover.html

[Mithar]

Is he a Nihung?

[dalsingh101]

Something about the whole tone of the piece seems skewed, but it is the legendary Daily Mail.

Good luck to them. I hope she doesn't do a Liz Hurley on the brother. Personally I think they have a chance if they stay away from the UK with its hounding paparazzi.

Some of the posted comments are unnecessarily arsey but do reflect a lot of the arses you meet at work in England.

Edited February 1, 2011 by dalsingh101

[SURYADEV]

comments are by the typical DM readership.

Like Dalsingh said hope she doesn't do a Liz or Jemima.

Having said that it doesn't seem that she went for him just to rebel against daddy or established norms. She initially went for kundalini yoga to sikhism to her hubby. So, for me that seems to mean a more stable relationship.

Hope the singh doesn't get trapped into the celeb/moneyied/maya lifestyle she has led. surely that will destroy him.

[dalsingh101]

What, did Jemima cheat on Imran?

[SURYADEV]

What, did Jemima cheat on Imran?

No, but the marriage did ultimately fail. and to all intents and purposes jemima did give up on islam which she submitted to because of imran khan. then there were all those 'i told you so'

[kdsingh80]

No, but the marriage did ultimately fail. and to all intents and purposes jemima did give up on islam which she submitted to because of imran khan. then there were all those 'i told you so'

Everyone expected that ,even Jemima's Father knew about it.I read somewhere that Jemima's Father told Imran that he hope that he will become Jemima's good first husband.The only stupid person I found here is Imran.He was a genuis on cricket field But how at the age of 42 he fell for a english Girl who was 21 and expected that the Girl will live happily in conservative enviroment of Pakistan especially when he was trying his hand in Politics

[kdsingh80]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1352704/Alexandra-Aitken-Why-I-swapped-party-girl-lifestyle-marry-Sikh-warrior.html#ixzz1Cm3ADK63

Why I swapped my party girl lifestyle to marry a Sikh warrior

By Alexandra Aitken

Last updated at 12:24 AM on 2nd February 2011

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For years she had a reputation as a hedonistic party girl. Now Alexandra Aitken, daughter of former government minister Jonathan, has married a devout Sikh and changed religion, too. How did her transformation come about? Here, Alexandra, 30, tells her intriguing story . . .

Frankly, if someone had told me ten years ago, when I was living the party girl lifestyle in London, that a decade later I’d be a teetotal vegan, I simply wouldn’t have believed them.

If they’d gone on to tell me that I’d also have converted to Sikhism, changed my name to Harvinder Kaur Khalsa and be married to an Indian warrior whom I fell in love with before we even exchanged a single word, I’d have laughed my head off.

After all, I was positively allergic to organised religion. It just seemed so grey to me. But then I don’t really think of Sikhism as a religion, more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual.

Celebration: Alexandra married Inderjot Singh in Amritsar , India. She says she fell in love with him even before they'd even said a word to each other

We live in a computer age where life is increasingly stressful and the world is speeding up, and people are desperately trying to find a way to relax, to escape from everything.

As I see it, you’ve got one of two options; you can either find a drug dealer, or you can find something that’s going to give you a natural high. Everyone’s looking for something — I’ve found it in Sikhism.

But I didn’t just jump on the first bus going. I did my homework. I’ve read just about everything.

More...

Daughter of disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken weds Indian lover without telling her parents

I looked at Kabbalah — the fashionable offshoot of Judaism — I read about Islam, about Buddhism, but it wasn’t until about four years ago when I went to a Kundalini yoga class in Los Angeles, after I moved out there from London, that I started to look at Sikhism.

I’d tried various different types of yoga before, but never Kundalini, which comes from the Sikh tradition and incorporates mantras or prayers into the classes.

The people I met through Kundalini just seemed to be so amazingly happy that I felt compelled to ask why. And I heard the most amazing stories; wild drug addicts whose lives had been completely transformed, cancer sufferers who’d had miraculous recoveries.

Glamorous: But Alexandra has now left her party girl lifestyle in London behind

Even though my life wasn’t nearly that extreme, it was an appealing prospect. Put simply, if someone told you that you could change all the things that made you unhappy, just by reading something, or chanting something, and that you could get to a point where every part of every day — even the grim commute to work — is just really nice, why wouldn’t you want to try it?

Because most people just want to be happy. We only do what we do — put the hours in with work, chase the man, take the drug — because we think that thing will make us happy.

I know some of the richest people in the world, some of the most famous people in the world, some of the most successful people in the world and some of the most intelligent people in the world.

But the happiest people I’ve ever met are those who follow a spiritual path; you’ve got to think that they might be on to something.

Of course, none of this happened to me overnight. It was a very gradual process. I compare it to someone who’s never been to a gym who eats chips and chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If that person starts to exercise, then they’ll find that their body wants different foods, that they start to eat more healthily because they work out how to sustain their body and feel better.

That’s how I feel about Sikhism. Everything has been a very natural and organic process, things evolved step by step.

Part of that process has been meeting Inderjot Singh, the man I’ve called my husband from the day we met — though of course it’s only just become official.

Family: Alexandra with father - and former Cabinet minister - Jonathan Aitken. She kept the wedding a secret from everyone except her twin sister Victoria

I first saw him, about a year ago, on the roof of the Golden Temple in Amritsar and just knew we were going to get married.

Six weeks later, I flew back to Los Angeles and we’d still not said a word to each other, but somehow I was in love with him.

I just knew I had to go back to India to find him, so I did. I can’t really explain it. I was just praying he didn’t live in a tent on top of a mountain, because I knew that even if he did I was going to marry him anyway. He doesn’t, thank goodness.

He’s actually one of the Nihang — it’s the warrior tribe of Sikhism, the SAS, if you will, of the religion. And I suppose it’s inevitable that people will assume that I’ve converted for him, but that’s just not true.

My friends and family only really care about the fact that I’m happy. My new name — which is a symbol of the new life I’ve started as a Sikh — has been tricky for people to get their heads round. My twin sister, Victoria, said to me: ‘What am I meant to call you?’

Well, people can call me whatever they like, whatever is easiest for them. I don’t expect my friends to stop calling me Ally.

Happy: Alexandra says she doesn't think of Sikhism as a religion, 'more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual'. She features in Hello! this week

As for my parents, Mum has always been a very spiritual person anyway, and the first thing that Dad said to me about it was that my great-grandfather — Lord Rugby, who spent time in the Punjab where Inderjot is from, and was the chief commissioner of the North-West Province in the 1920s — would have been very proud.

But I’m sure that for people who don’t know me, it’s hard to work out how I went from being the sort of person who gets drunk and falls out of clubs to being the sort of

person who wears a turban and meditates, and I’m sure there are people who will judge me, or misunderstand my motives, but I completely understand that. I was like that, too.

Years ago, I remembered seeing a Sikh girl wearing a turban and thinking that she must be a bit crazy. I just couldn’t understand why someone would do that. It just wasn’t a part of anything I was familiar with. I just didn’t get it.

But I think if I’d carried on living my life the way I had been I would have been a very unhappy person. I would have been unfulfilled and, basically, empty.

I don’t judge people who want to live the way I did, I’m just much happier like this.

[dalsingh101]

I’d tried various different types of yoga before, but never Kundalini, which comes from the Sikh tradition and incorporates mantras or prayers into the classes.

?????

[chatanga1]

i think its sad that the girls parents at least were no part of the wedding ceremony. its sad for parents t think their children wouldnt want them there on one of the happiest days of their life.

[dalsingh101]

i think its sad that the girls parents at least were no part of the wedding ceremony. its sad for parents t think their children wouldnt want them there on one of the happiest days of their life.

Maybe she has good reasons that she doesn't want to expose publically?

Edited February 2, 2011 by dalsingh101

[chatanga1]

i think it given more media exposure that her parents weren't there, as the DM has highlighted. If they were both there, it would have looked better.

do you mean cos of her dad's colourful past?

[dalsingh101]

i think it given more media exposure that her parents weren't there, as the DM has highlighted. If they were both there, it would have looked better.

Typical Daily Mail whites would never be happy with something like this. As one commenter put it, this is many middle class white families worst nightmare. They were probably going to hammer him one way or another.

When I briefly saw the actual front page headline on the DM yesterday it seemed to be along the lines of as..."Look at what Aitken's daughter is bringing home to daddy! haw haw haw!"

If two white celebrities married in comparable circumstances they would be described as having a 'whirlwind romance...." etc. etc. But here its portrayed as negative, weird, without parental consent. Like many whites ever give a shit about that these days.

Plus, notice how it was the DM who covered the story with such prominence, front page no less, I don't think many or possibly any of the other papers even touched it. Personally I see undercurrents of typical snootyness underlying the piece. They are quick to attach 'disgraced' to her father's name and indirectly attach it to Sikhi. Truth is that the DM is a bastion of waspyness and all of the condescending bullshit that carries.

do you mean cos of her dad's colourful past?

No it could be anything. These days a lot of kids feel disconnect with their parents. They don't have to be ex-cons for this. lol

Edited February 2, 2011 by dalsingh101

[chatanga1]

Typical Daily Mail whites would never be happy with something like this. As one commenter put it, this is many middle class white families worst nightmare.

If two white celebrities married in comparable circumstances they would be described as having a 'whirlwind romance...." etc. etc. But here its portrayed as negative, weird, without parental consent.

Sadly so true...

[amardeep]

Glad to hear about them.

[Mithar]

Personally I think it is a beautiful story of a person who has not only found a spiritual path but also her soul mate. But this article seems to make it out to be something else. The first article made it seem like there is something strange or weird about this whole thing, the comments by the Goray were no different. The second article posted by KDS was a little better.

I hope both of them have a happy and spiritual future together.

[SURYADEV]

there is an article in todays INDEPENDENT newspaper about several pages in. possibly also in online edition.

[dalsingh101]

there is an article in todays INDEPENDENT newspaper about several pages in. possibly also in online edition.

I think this is it?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-astonishing-conversion-of-the-aitken-girls-2201459.html

[SURYADEV]

updating article in DM :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353884/Alexandra-Aitken-hellraiser-holiness-Four-months-marriage-devout-Sikh-Torys-daughter-happily-scrubbing-temple-floors.html

[amardeep]

Its better but still sucks.. They portray Singh ji as a man who suppresses his wife and dont let her talk to anyone besides him, as if she joined some radical cult.

[dalsingh101]

You know, I was thinking, even if this goes all 'Sarah Lloyd' on a brother, at least he didn't 'convert' like so many idiot apneean do, and so many coconuts do.

Good on him.

[chatanga1]

You know, I was thinking, even if this goes all 'Sarah Lloyd' on a brother, at least he didn't 'convert' like so many idiot apneean do, and so many coconuts do.

Good on him.

who's sarah lloyd? the one who got hanged?

[dalsingh101]

who's sarah lloyd? the one who got hanged?

No, the gori who had a thing with a nihang and then left him. She wrote this about the experience.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Attachment-Sarah-Lloyd/dp/1906011036

[HSD1]

Dont want to be sceptical but didnt one of the articles say he speaks no english and she speaks no punjabi? Girls like her dont know what they want from life at the best of times so forgive me if I say this wont last long. Posh girls like her get fed up and just up and leave. It wouldnt surprise me if her half sikh kids end up growing up here and are plastered all over the papers as typical young snobs. Or maybe I'm being too harsh. Good luck to the both of them, I hope they work at it.

[kdsingh80]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/8296757/Jonathan-Aitken-Instant-combustion-is-a-family-tradition.html

Dropping bombshells has become rather a tradition within the Aitken family. Jonathan Aitken himself has delivered a few in his time. The most notorious being, of course, his spectacular lies in court about who paid his Ritz hotel bill (Answer: not his then wife, Lolicia, or daughter, Victoria, because they weren’t in Paris at the time). Those little fibs landed the former Conservative MP with an 18-month sentence for perjury in 1999.

Now Alexandra, Victoria Aitken’s 30-year-old twin, has proved herself indeed to be her father’s daughter by delivering an equally startling piece of news; she has married a devout Sikh from the religion’s Nihang military order. “We had no warning, ” says her father. “She simply telephoned one day and said: 'Are you sitting down, daddy? I’m getting married.’

“'When?’ and 'To whom?’ were the first two thoughts that went through my mind. I knew she had an Indian admirer, but I didn’t know it was so serious.”

Unable to jump on a plane, Aitken is now mugging up on the November wedding via the pages of Hello magazine which this week displays pages of grinning Alexandra (Ali), once an aspiring actress, in her new role as Harvinder Kaur Khalsa, wife of a man who appears to have invited 150 cave-dwelling male Sikh saints to his wedding, but no women. As a recipe for cultural discord, this new union makes the (now dissolved) marriage of Jemima Goldsmith to Imran Khan look like a safe bet.

Ali - or as her website puts it “The artist formerly known as Alexandra Aitken” - is both a former It-girl and holder of the world’s most vacuous title: champion mobile phone thrower (awarded, Finland, 2003). She’s done all those model/actress/whatever jobs that were thrust upon the Aitken girls by their father’s disgrace and bankruptcy. Theirs was, as her twin Victoria called it, a “riches to rags story” which involved predictable episodes of wild behaviour, including nude photoshoots with Petrina Khashoggi, the twins’ half-sister whose existence was revealed via DNA test, when all three girls were 18 years old.

Having done London society, Ali moved to Los Angeles and did psychic readings for celebrities. Now, in what looks like a pure la-la land fantasy, she is marrying a man who is “part of the religious SAS” as her twin puts it, serving soup to the poor of Amritsar.

A glance at her website shows her to be deeply earnest about her new philosophy of “happiness, healing and peace” and happy to embrace aspects of her new religion including numerology. In film clips, she teaches mantras that will ensure spiritual wealth - a more reliable commodity she discovered in her late teens, than her father’s material riches.

Once the excitement of the becoming white turban has worn off, she might find her new life a little self-denying, but Jonathan Aitken, 68, fresh from a five-day trip to Amritsar to see the newly-weds, found 27-year-old Inderjot Singh a pleasant surprise. “I liked him,” says his new father-in-law with what sounds like genuine enthusiasm as well as innate optimism.

“He’s gentle, quiet and probably rather deep and very devoted to his faith. Of course to anyone of my generation her new life would be quite a culture shock, but she is very much at peace and so is he. It is wonderful to see two people so deeply in love and blissfully happy.”

Far from communication being limited to smiles and gestures, Aitken was relieved to discover that Inderjot speaks fluent English having finished his education at the Holmes Institute in Sydney, Australia. At the time he did not wear a turban or a beard for Inderjot, like Aitken himself, has been on a relatively recent spiritual journey - though not with the threat of prison hanging over him.

Nor is he a full-time saint. The happy couple live in a home which Aitken describes as “simple” but they will soon be building themselves a new and bigger house, as well as a school for the disadvantaged, north of Amritsar. There Alexandra hopes to fulfill her dreams of watching future children bound around like cashmere goats in the foothills of the Himalayas. There’s even some money around. Aitken recounts with some relief that his son-in-law is a property developer, building houses on land which he bought.

There was always a likelihood that at least one of the three Aitken children would embrace a religion other than the Church of England because their Yugoslav-born mother, Lolicia Azucki, was a great spiritual experimenter. Victoria Aitken has described family holidays spent communing with gurus, staying with whirling dervishes in Turkey or sitting in sweat lodges in California.

Lolicia eventually opted for Buddhism. Jonathan became a born again Chrsitian (via the Alpha course). William, the youngest child, read theology at university. Now her sister has become a sikh, Victoria describes as being “stuck in the middle of an awful lots of religious zealotry”. Although she was the only member of the family who made it over for the wedding, she doesn’t sound as if she is delighted that her sister’s new path now dictates that meetings are no longer over coffee or a drink, but at yoga classes.

Ali was always the more religious of the two girls. Aged 13 she wanted to be a nun and became head sacrist at Canterbury cathedral. “Then she discovered boys and religion took a back seat - until now,” said Victoria, a rap artist. Rocked by the upheavals in her family, in her twenties she started looking for “something higher than herself”. The Kabbalah, Buddhism and Islam were all options before she went to a Kundalini (Sikh) yoga class which eventually led to the meditation course at the Golden Temple in Amritsar where she spotted Inderjot.

She was instantly smitten: “I knew I was blindly in love with this man, having never spoken a to him,” says Ali/Harvinder. “I knew straight away he was my husband, within one second it was completely clear.” But due to a ban on men and women mixing, she left a week later having never exchanged a word with him. She didn’t even know whether he spoke any English. Obsessed, she returned six weeks later to Amritsar and, illicitly, engaged her love- object in conversation. The bedazzlement turned out to be mutual and, after months of intercontinetal Skype calls, she returned to the Punjab, and they married.

Perhaps she got the idea of love-at-first-sight from her mother, Lolicia, who decided: “You’re the man I’m going to marry,” fifteen minutes after meeting Aitken. “Instant combustion is a family tradition,” he says now. That marriage last 19 years, until he went to prison; he is now married one of his earlier girlfriends. Elizabeth Harris.

“It’s a good thing to move on from being an It-girl. I’m pleased that she has a spiritual dimension. The little dagger she carried at the wedding symbolises all the bad things she is cutting out of her life. Of course I am very loyal to my own faith but there are many paths to God and she and her husband are on a different path to me.”

In that spirit of happy acceptance, he looks forward to celebrating the marriage when the newly-weds come over to Britian shortly. “I don’t know whether alcohol will be allowed. Inderjot and Ali don’t drink - for some reason to do with her yoga she hasn’t touched alcohol for years,” he says. “But some of us will be listing our glasses.”