by blogadmin | Apr 8, 2019 | Delaware, SAM, Sikhism, Year 2019
Delaware Governor John Carney has signed an executive proclamation naming April 2019 as the ‘Delaware Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month’; in recognition of the contribution of the small but influential Sikh community in the economic and social milieu of the state. This is the third straight year Delaware is observing the Sikh awareness month.
They are all fingers. But different. In look, size, ability, strength, and position. But the hand they belong to is One. Since they know it, they live and work together: Harmoniously. Peacefully. Lovingly!
We all are those fingers. April 6th, let us come together to become the Hand!
by blogadmin | Mar 25, 2019 | Lalkar – Bhangra Competition, Sikhism, Year 2019
What a joyous evening it was yesterday. Teams from across the nation nailed a packed Mitchell Hall to the seats. Thanks to Delaware for the great audience turnout. Thanks to sponsors: Muneesh Patel, TD Bank, Apna Bazar, Kenney Foundation, WSFS Bank, Major Minhas, Manveen Duggal, Alpesh Patel, Brian Chandler, Tekstrom and others. Thanks to the Lalkar Board, especially Usha Ponnaganti and Aastha Patel, it’s co-directors!
#Bhangra & Fusion Dance Competition at University of Delaware
Posted by PTC News USA on Wednesday, April 3, 2019
A glimpse of Lalkar 2019 telecast by PTC channel
by blogadmin | Mar 20, 2019 | Blog Post, Delaware, Sikhism, Year 2019
All three of them are from Delaware. All three of them are beacons of sharing and caring. They epitomize ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
They are all Toms, and although they may not even know each other, they are comrades in service to those in need.
Tom Davis
I met the first Tom, Rev. Tom Davis, slightly over six years ago. He was part of a river of kind and concerned men and women who flowed into Delaware’s first and the only gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) at the time, Sikh Center of Delaware, for a candlelight vigil in the aftermath of the gurdwara shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
In that terrible incident of hate, six Sikhs were fatally shot during a service by 40-year-old Wade Michael Page in September 2012. Candlelight is an apt metaphor for Tom’s work.
A Vietnam veteran and retired Presbyterian pastor, Tom expressed an interest in learning more about Sikhism. More than that, I think, he was interested in exploring ways to help the local Sikh community heal.
It is no wonder he has been a commissioned interfaith peacemaker in New Castle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church for many years.
Tom is an avid photographer, writer and musician. His insatiable curiosity extends to learning and using the latest software tools and applications as a way to keep his mind sharp, and he is always happy to help others who don’t find the rising sea of technology friendly and welcoming.
However, Tom’s special service is reflected in his dedication to helping our veterans.
More than 20 veterans take their own lives every day. Most of us, despite our dismay, sadly sigh and then move on to deal with our own day-to-day problems.
But not Tom.
He has been investing all his skills — as a writer, researcher, poet, filmmaker, photographer, man of cloth, singer, instrument player, peace lover, yogi and fundraiser — to this consuming cause. He is focused on creating awareness about the deep and deadly role of the “moral injury” that Tom says is a main factor in the high rate of veterans’ suicides.
In a proactive effort, he established the nonprofit Interfaith Veterans Workshop (IVW) to help veterans connect with each other and various faith communities. Though not a veteran myself, I was also invited to be a part of the IVW, perhaps to strengthen its interfaith participation.
The group is currently working on creating a “Veterans Peace Video Project” under Tom’s leadership. It features quite a menu of activities to constructively engage the state’s veterans, ranging from hiking and writing to meditation and yoga.
Tom Clark
Tom Clark leads an interfaith initiative that is focused on service. He has a great company of men and women to help him in the cause. They label their humanitarian work under the acronym GWACS — God Wants All Children Serving.
I am part of the group that does service every fourth Saturday in Wilmington at the intersection of Front and Lombard. We gather to serve the needy and homeless with everything from baked goods and hot food to many other everyday need items such as toothbrushes, lip balm, hand lotion or clothing. Hats, gloves, socks and jackets have been very much in demand recently.
Tom Clark is a different kind of a leader. He is unassuming and doesn’t talk or smile much. He loves to work with other people but hates meetings.
In fact, the only meeting the group may have ever had was at Vaqar Sharief’s house a few years back.
“We decided from the word go to conduct no meetings, no bureaucracy, no paperwork, no bells and whistles, just focus on the service,” Tom had said at that meeting. The group follows it like a court order.
The only thing that happens away from the physical serving venue is a monthly after-service email communication from Tom that updates the number of servings, gives appreciation for the work done, and provides an update on continuing and new needs.
When I didn’t see Tom in our last December serving, I asked Vaqar, “No Tom?” I learned that he was caring for his ill wife. No wonder the normal connection and cheer was missing during the January service.
Tom’s spirit and strength are reflected in a line from the prayer he uses at the end of each monthly email: “We know what we are doing and what we are doing is not enough; Please help us do more.”
Tom Parkins
The third Tom’s email starts with mrfizzix. Why? Maybe he loves to state his love for physics, humorously!
I knew Tom from his emails in the Newark interfaith group, but we met in person only last December at the “Christmas for All” serving for homeless in Calvary Baptist.
He is a retired physics school teacher who is trying to defeat and diminish the “centrifugal” forces scattering the lives and families of the homeless and disadvantaged in our area. He is the “centripetal” part of many of Newark Empowerment Center’s activities aimed at helping the area’s needy.
NEC works in cooperation with Friendship House with a motto and philosophy of, “A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out.”
Tom’s commitment to service and betterment of others can be judged from his admission, “I pray a dangerous prayer that God will use me to bring joy to others.”
In today’s world where dictators, disruptors and kleptocrats are on rise, “The Three Toms” are uncommon men who share a common name. In this whirlpool of chaos where hate and violence are gaining new currency, what these three do seems blessed and beautiful.
If you would like to become involved in the work they do, please contact them via email: T.C. Davis, [email protected]; Tom Clark, [email protected]; Tom Parkins, [email protected].
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This column was published online by the News Journal/Delawareonline.com on Wednesday, March 20, and printed in its Sunday, March 24th edition.
Website Link: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2019/03/20/opinion-meet-three-toms-making-delaware-better-place/3221462002/?fbclid=IwAR1zaqfv8mH8Y42vgyGqrcOvlziAGF23vVdZe6QW59gFzw1MgrU33vk_hoI
Print Version:
https://charanjeetsinghminhas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/newspaper_toms.jpg
by blogadmin | Dec 11, 2018 | Blog Post, Delaware, Media Publishing's, Sikhism, Year 2018
It was the morning of the Thursday (15 November) before — one full week before Turkey Day, an informal way we here in America refer to Thanksgiving. It was snowing outside. Delaware National Guard’s 36th Annual Prayer Breakfast was that same morning, and I was among the invited.
Like a pucca Indian, when I reached the venue, Cavaliers Country Club, others were about to finish eating. I was courteously led to my designated table after I showed the reception staff my driver’s license to help them out of the struggle with my name.
My friends, (Rev.) Tom Davis and Jack Sanders, got up to give me a hug. Among the others at the same table was Chaplain (Lt Col) Andy Werner, who I later learnt had started this wonderful tradition. He had paid for my breakfast, too. I blessed him even more for that.
In the large hall were men and women in uniform and, of course, the chaplains, most of them in uniform as well, making me wonder if their divine approach was any different from their civilian counterparts.
The woman who came to greet us at the table was the Adjutant General, the official host of the event.
The woman who came to greet us at the table was the Adjutant General, the official host of the event. The only other person I could recognise was Delaware Governor John Carney when he greeted me. We were later informed that representatives of the state’s Congressional delegation were there too.
Driving back, I wondered about the various ways Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Some start with a great breakfast followed by an evening feast of turkey, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole.
In India and most other countries, such joyous feasting and festivity is reserved for religious events. But this great American festival is for everyone, including those who have no faith or don’t believe in Rab-ji! (God).
Here, we have had our own tradition since 1992. People of different religions in our area come together at an inter-faith Thanksgiving prayer. Clergy members (I am an exception) of different faiths and denominations speak at the event. More than two hundred people attend year after year.
I have been associated with this great tradition from several years. It started when I first attended one of the group’s monthly meetings as a representative of the local Sikh community.
Members of the group have joined me in the last two inter-faith peace walks as part of the Delaware Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. The Delaware Sikh Awareness Coalition (DSAC) — which I founded and chair — organised the DSAAM resolutions as well as the peace walks in April of 2017 and 2018.
The DSAC also has received tremendous help and support from Rev Cynthia Robinson (my dear “sister”) of the New Ark United Church of Christ. She even knows a couple of Hindi words, learned from her aunt who was a missionary in India — including Batala in Punjab — for several years. One of them is shabash,which Cynthia not only uses appropriately but wonderfully.
Last year, when I shared with fellow speakers and the audience why Thanksgiving has this special connection for me, I was mobbed at the end by people to further explain to them the grand idiom of positivity and prosperity — Sarbat Da Bhala!
I told them that every Sikh prayer I had ever heard or read ended with Sarbat Da Bhala, regardless of the occasion, day or time. However, I considered it a religious formality without real life application.
Then I came to America and experienced Thanksgiving. That’s when the bulb in my mind lit up and I understood, for the first time, that the spirit of Sarbat Da Bhalaalso has practical applications in real life. The native Americans didn’t help the pilgrims because they spoke the same language or had the same colour or because their religions were the same.
And they certainly did not support the same cricket team, nor did their wives belong to the same kitty group. I am sure their kids didn’t go to the same high school, I told them. For me it was simply a living example of Sarbat Da Bhala! It was the embodiment of the divine saying.
And so, I am sure my “sister” Cynthia will not mind when I borrow her word to say, “Shabash Thanksgiving!”
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This column was published online by the www.thequint.com on Dec 01, 2018 & www.delawareonline.com on Dec 10, 2018.
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