on time

Because i am still recovering of my cold i was in full week. That gave me the chance to work on the annual report of the GURU NANAK SIKH SOCIETY. Today i completed it.
ON TIME!
What a great feeling, even if a few remarks would come in (don't you dare guys!), i still have time to make a change.
So being sick can turn into a little benefit sometimes...
Hope i am better by Saturday, because then we celebrate our 5 th anniversary!

for me?

I just read the hukumnama of today. If you read the post that i posted an hour ago, you can imagine why i, for an instant of a moment, wondered if it was especially for me.
Again it makes me very humble...


Out of Shri Guru Granth Sahib p626

"Taap gavaa-i-aa gur pooray.
The perfect Guru has dispelled the fever.

Vaajay anhad tooray.
The unstruch melody of the current sounds resounds.

Sarab kali-aan parabh keenay.
God has bestowed all comforts.

Kar kirpaa aap deenay.
In His Mercy, He Himself has given Them.

Baydan satgur aap gavaa-ee.
The True Guru Himself has eradicated the disease.

Sikh sant sabh sarsay ho-ay har har naam Dhi-aa-ee. Rahaa-o
All sikhs and saints are filled with joy, meditating on the Name of the Lord, har, Har. Pause.

Jo mangeh so layveh
They obtain that which they ask for.

prabh apni-aa santaa dayveh.
God gives to His Saints.

Hargovind prabh raakhi-aa.
God saved Hargobind.

Jan Nanak saach subbhaakhi-aa
Servant Nanak speaks the Truth.

sikh# sick

For 3 days and a night my little princess was sitting on my lap, too sick to speak or play. She only wanted to be in oma's arms. Safe and showered with love.
So there i sat for 3 days in a corner of the sofa with this little kid doozing off now and then, complaining with a weak little voice that it hurts in her little ear. i think fever and pain have a function, so i comforted her as much as possible with my heated magic cherrypit cushion.
Singing Mool Mantra very soft in her tiny ear (very soft because i have very clear instructions of my son not to put any of this religious hocus pocus in his daughter's head...) and praying to God:" Dear Waheguru, i love this child, please don't make her suffer. If there is anyone to suffer, let it be me, over the past years i had very good experience. And see i survived well, so give her suffering to me and make her healthy and strong!"
Now God knows me very well and over the years He trained me very well to be patient. If i asked for something, usually He makes me wait a while, a week, a month, a year.
But this time He was very quick to respond, next day i was sick and little princess walked home to enjoy the weekend with her parents. :-)
I climbed into my bed, fighting fever and coughing. Plenty of time to think if it was not better to keep my mouth shut next time.

It made me think as well of all the mothers and grandmothers in the world with sick children in their arms, in so much worse conditions. War and famine, hurricanes and dryness, not able to help them, to feed or shelter them...It made me very humble and grateful...

What kept me going, though i was not feeling well myself, was this little cherished moment. After a long day and half of the night, we finally made it to our bed. She was still very feverish and looked with half closed, heavy eyes at me and said:
"Oma, sweet oma"
and with her little hand she touched my cheek. It was such an intense moment.
The perfect dramatic final scene for any tearjerker movie. So several times i went close to her mouth to be sure she was still breathing...Thank God she was!

And next day when she woke up, she was sitting on my arm, while i opened the curtains and princess said:" Look, oma there is opi, with his funny hat on!" (opi, is the name she gave to my beloved father who passed away last year)
She pointed through the window, of course i couldn't see anything, but anyhow i knew.
After her afternoon nap she said the same, pointing to the same place.

It made my heart light! She did not forget about him and ... yes, he did not forget about her...

And while i was having fever myself, i felt a very big "closeness" (is this english)...
like i was sitting on someone's lap for 3 days...

upset

i live in this little provincial town in the middle of an agricultural area. Besides for all the fruits that are growing here, we are known to have a small military airport. And where are soldiers, there are women who make a living of entertaining (!?) these soldiers. So we have a notorious "Chaussee d'amour" where red light ladies are trying to get the attention of the drivers that pass this street on a very slow (even slower than me)pace to get a very good look of the assorted meat products in the windows.
I am not a child (anymore) so i realise that both the agriculture and the red light district are attraction poles for people. For men. For all kind of men. Even sikhs, sorry to say so.
Of course some of them prefer to spend their hard-earned money to give these ladies a living. And every time a turbanned head is entering these places it is the gossip of the town (at least of the sikh community)for a long time.

Why this long intro to get to my story? Maybe i am just looking for reasons to understand what happened to my daughter today.

She was having her lunch break and went into town to do some Sinterklaas shopping for the little princess (Sinterklaas is the original -sorry,guys- European Santa Claus, celebrated on the sixth of December).
An old shaggy sikh, with turban, came up to her.
"Oh maybe it is someone that mummy knows."she thought. And turned towards him and smiled. She should have been on her guard when she smelled alcohol. The dirty man made an even dirtier face and said only one word."Sex!"

In complete shock she crossed the street.
And now i am in shock too. i really feel very upset!
And i can not figure out what is upsetting me most. That my daughter is taken for a prostitute? Or that a sikh is behaving this way?

I am upset, because my daughter is a really nice girl. i am her mother and i feel very insulted that she is treated this way.
Especially because she is treated like this by a sikh!!!!

But she is a very wise girl too, she said to me:" But mummy, did you forget all the times when you came back from gurdwara in tears, because you find out what they were gossiping about you?"
Yes, i had forgotten, i wanted to forget. Illiterate rural people, fresh from the Punjab, very easily take the manners of a western woman as an invitation for their husbands.
I never ever defended me, i always assured myself that they, one day, find out of my integrity.
They did.

But now that this is concerning my daughter i just feel the urge growing to give this man an uppercut (with my little rheumahands) he will never forget.

Oh God, he has to conquer lust and i have to conquer anger.
So give strength to both of us...
But a little more strength to him, because my anger will disappear very soon, but his... i doubt it.