Bhai Kanaiya Ji

[Freed]

The Bhai Kanaiya Statue / Fountain - situated on a chowk / roundabout in Bhatinda City.

This is an extremely striking statue - it makes a refreshing change - in both choice of subject and its construction - from the usual modern political/independence/mythological public statues that you see, which are usually quite cartoon like and painted in 'fairground-esque' colours (for an example see The Maharajah Ranjit Singh Statue at The Sikh School Hayes Middx UK)

Very impressive - especially after the very long bumpy drive from Jalandhar - a sight for sore eyes (and bottoms !)

Does anyone have any info about other places to see in Bhatinda ? - I went on a very fleeting visit for a wedding - I didn't even get time to see the Fort !

I told my brother in law and he said why would you want to go to Bhatinda - it's just full of sand and camels ! - But he would say that he's from Chandigarh !

[tSingh]

You were about 10 minutes in car from the Sewapanthi HQ as it were at Goniana Mandi. It was Sant Bhupinder Singh who organised the construction of the statue, there is a placard put up in honour of Sant ji since his untimely death on this statue. If you go through Yamuna Nagar toward Haridwar you'll drive past another statue of Bhai Kanhaiyya at a chowk there also, which is linked to Sant Jagmohan Singh's dera I think. There are two in Yamuna Nagar both headed by shish of Pandit Nischal Singh Sewapanthi.

If you're in Bhatinda one place worth trying to find, (not been thjere myself yet) is the Haji Baba Dargah. Haji Baba as the name suggests was a fakir who claimed to have been a friend of the prophet who had granted him a life of hundreds of years. Scholars from middle-east wishing to compile hadith actually travelled to Bhatinda to interview this fakir in his time (which I think was the 11th or 12th century or so). Most discredited him, but he still features in some writings from that period (don't ask me which)...interesting stuff!