While hanging out at a veerji’s house the other day, I was flipping through the 2009 Sikh Foundation Calendar, featuring Sikh athletes and others. It’s pretty sweet, though I couldn’t find a link to buy the calendar from the website.

You’ll agree that this is an amazing image:

The caption reads:

Avneet Sidhu won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2006 in the 10m Air Rifle (pairs). She is also part of the Indian contingent for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is the third Indian to shoot a perfect score. She honed her skills as a student of Dashmesh Girls Colleege, Badal (Muktsar) and now lives in Bhatinda, Punjab.

From the Sikh Spirit Foundation:

Help us assist the Sikh Community. Tell us how you would spend $25,000 to improve Sikh Education or your local Gurduara for a chance to win an iPod!

Submit two written paragraphs explaining what you would do and how it would help the Sikh Community.

Project ideas should be submitted to ideas@sikhspiritfoundation.org by March 25, 2009.

Winners will be announced by April 10, 2009.

Grand Prize - iPod Nano.

First Five submissions will receive a t-shirt of choice from PunjabMall.com.

The Sikh Spirit Foundation intends to pursue the winning idea this summer by inviting the global community to submit proposals for the project. The Foundation will select and fund the best proposal among the submissions.

Click for the full size flier:

This story is from 2006, but cool nonetheless. Mandeep Kaur Writes:

So, i was watching the food network the other day and I saw an episode where a Sikh gentleman, Daljeet Singh from Florida, participated in a “Build A Better Burger” challenge using his own recipe. I was impressed to see Mr. Singh because it goes to show that Sikhs are paving paths in all parts of society- even All-American Food Competitions!

Mr. Singh was Chardi Kala donning a red turban that matched his food network challenge apron…nice touch! He also demonstrated great sportsmanship informing a fellow competitor, while he himself was pressed for time, about a trouble that occurred to their preparations. In the end, Mr. Singh didn’t win but was all smiles and still managed to impress the judges with his unique burger (his burger inspired iron chef, Cat Cora, to do a bellydance!)
I know you like hearing about Sikh American achievements, so I thought I’d share the news. Here is Mr. Daljeet Singh’s recipe and a link to show timings:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-challenge/masala-burgers-with-tangy-tamarind-sauce-and-red-onion-mint-relish-recipe/index.html

If you click on the “Episode: Build a better Burger III” link, you can find future show timings.

Image of a Sikh on the CNN.com front page, just below the news about Slumdog Millionaire. Cool!

Challenges, rewards for those who wear faith on their sleeve

Yay! Some national exposure for the Sikh identity. Thank you Ajitpal Singh Raina and Ameek Singh Sodhi! Great work guys!

Hopefully people will realize that:

1) Sikhism is a distinct religion.

2) Sikhs do not make an exclusive claim on the Divine.

3) In Sikhism, women are given 100% equality in everything.

4) Sikhs support science at a way to explain the creation — there is no ‘creation story’.

5) Sikhism is a way of life.

6) There is no future time or event that Sikhs look forward to. What’s important is the here and now.

7) The most sacred shrine in the world, for a Sikh, is her own mind.

I can think of a few more. But these are the key points.

-s

NHL Play by Play in Punjabi Scores Big Time

There’s nothing better than scientifically defensible evidence when making a case. The Harvard Law School graduates at Ensaaf know this well, so they teamed up with Benetech’s HRDAG (Human Rights Data Analysis Group) to produce some academically sound findings regarding mass disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Punjab. You can listen to the excellent podcast here:

Ensaaf & Benetech Podcast on Human Rights in Punjab

Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire? Most would agree that it’s a great film. But it’s especially great because it touches on torture as a commonplace technique used by the Indian police. (Remember when Jamal was being electrocuted?) This report takes it beyond movie references and produces some cold, hard numbers about the gravity of this problem and how justice has not been served to the countless innocent victims.

Here’s a link to the full press release and report as well. If India is such a great state it will work with human rights activists to expose these atrocities and punish those involved.

Looks like I was having server problems (or a rival Sikh blog launched a DoS attack). Anyway the site is back up now.

According to this Washington Times Article, Rajwant Singh represented the Sikh community as part of Obama’s National Prayer Service at the Washington Cathedral. If you have any photos of this event, do post them in the comments. So I don’t know if Obama actually met with Rajwant Singh, but Obama definitely saw him, as he showed up early to get front row seats to the event.

Here’s a quick excerpt from the article:

The omission nettled Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education to the point that he contacted Mr. Dubois, asking for tickets to the service.

Wearing a bright yellow turban, Mr. Singh showed up at the cathedral at 6:20 a.m. to be sure to get a seat on the front row in the north transcept facing the new president.

“We have a lot of work to do to educate our leaders,” he said. “Obama mentioned Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and non-believers in his inaugural speech but not Sikhs. And we are the world’s fifth-largest religion.”

I’m glad that Rajwant Singh had the contacts and the foresight to be able to get in on this event. There’s no one person that can represent the Sikh viewpoint to Obama, just as there is no one Christian, Jew, or Hindu (well, in the Christian case, perhaps the Pope?) — but it’s good to know that Rajwant Singh is out there — willing to wake up early and get a front row seat at high profile Washington events. Thank you Rajwant!

This is really exciting news. The MSA has partnered with NYU Sikhs to organize a workshop where Sikh professionals can advise Sikh students considering various careers. Cool stuff — this sort of thing shows we’re really coming of age as a community. I hope this inspires more interaction of this sort. As a side note, several Sikhs I know have tried to start the Sikh Entrepreneurs Network — or some sort of Sikh Angel or VC Fund… Can somebody please organize that?

Dear MSA members,

In collaboration with the United Sikh Association at NYU, the MSA will be hosting its first-ever career mentorship workshop on Sunday, February 8th from 2 - 6pm at NYU (flyer below). We are looking for representatives from a diverse set of industries to speak with students about their careers and how to navigate the daunting job search processwith their Sikh saroop intact. Not only will you be a positive role model for the next generation of Sikh leaders, but also you will have the chance to meet and mingle with fellow Sikhs in the workforce.
If you are interested in volunteering, please email Zoravar Dhaliwal (zoravar at gmai) and Nimeeta Sachdev (nimeetaks at gmail) as soon as possible with your contact details and please indicate which industry you belong to. We will follow-up individually with you. Thank you in advance for your help! - PSK