Sitting on a curb outside an Einstein Bros. Bagels shop in Libertyville that closed for the day, Stevenson High School junior Amrit Johar wondered where he would go next to unload a batch of unused bagels.

He had just filled the trunk of his parents’ car with leftover bagels from the shop, an exercise he has been doing since earlier this summer when he decided to collect unused bagels from area stores and donate them to various food pantries that serve families in need.

Organizers with a few of those pantries have commended Johar for his volunteerism but noted how space on their shelves tighten during the holiday season, when donations usually increase and numerous food drives are put together.

Johar still is collecting the same amount of bagels that he collected during the summer. The dilemma now is finding more places to take them, he said.

“The hardest part is finding people who actually want the bagels because (the pantries) have so much food,” Johar said. “These bagels can feed a family. But once fall came, it was a sudden transition.”

The concept seemed simple to Johar when he started the project in the summer.

After going through training at the MA Center Chicago in west suburban Elburn on ways to serve others, Johar started noticing how many bagels and other goods bakeries throw away at the end of the day.

Johar, a Vernon Hills resident, decided he would ride around in his parent’ car, collect leftover bagels and deliver them directly to area food pantries for free.

But he quickly learned the process was much more complicated than that since bakeries simply don’t hand over unused goods to strangers. Before starting the project, he learned about online donation registries, where businesses and charities can verify information about volunteers, and reached out to local bakeries directly.

By August, Johar started delivering the unused bagels after making connections with several bakeries in Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Palatine and a few other locations in Lake County.

He since has averaged about three to four trips to bakeries each week. He spends time at his house repacking the bagels into clear plastic bags and tying each bag by hand.

After approaching St. Francis de Sales Catholic Parish in Lake Zurich about his donation idea, parishioners decided to raise funds and purchase 1,000 bags for Johar to use, said Kathleen Murray, the food pantry director at St. Francis de Sales.

They were even more appreciative of his effort, she said. After Johar showed he was committed to the idea, the Lake Zurich pantry made sure to reserve space for his bagels, Murray said.

Regarding his recent dilemma, pantries typically see heightened demand in the winter months, she said.

“Everybody wants to give at Christmas,” Murray said. “Nobody does it in the summer, and we get everything now.”

Nancy Urice, who coordinates the food supply for the Vernon Township Food Pantry near Buffalo Grove, said they were relieved to see a teenager eager and willing to help.

Organizers usually have room to take on extra goods throughout most of the year to serve the 300 people who come into the pantry each month, she said.

But space has diminished recently for Johar’s donated bagels.

“We’re getting more and more donations,” Urice said. “We do see a major increase at the end of the year.”

But Johar said he plans to continue his donation effort beyond the holiday season.

He said he is willing to travel to food pantries throughout Lake County, even as far north as Waukegan, where he recently found a food pantry in need of goods.

“I’m kind of scared for January,” he said. “I’m going to have a bigger demand for these bagels.”

Even in the busy winter months, the Vernon Township Food Pantry appreciates the months-long donation effort by Johar, Urice said. She usually sees teenagers burn out after only a few trips to the local pantry.

“People do get excited about some particular activity, then life gets in the way and they don’t follow up,” she said. “It’s really exciting when a child sticks with it like he is.”

On the weekend I went to France. Whenever I am invited to Paris, I usually stay with the same Gursikh family. The family have a three year old grandson named Tejvir Singh. The child is very Chardi Kalaa. Whenever you meet him, he is never shy to say Guru’s Fateh. It is as if an old Gursikh is in a child’s body. His parents are not Amritdhari, but his grandparents are.

The child loves wearing a Dumallaa. When he is not wearing anything on his head, he will make sure he covers his head with a Keski (chhotti dastaar) before eating or listening to keertan or paath. He is always playing with toy swords and jumping around pretending to fight Mughal soldiers. He loves talking about and mentioning Baba Banda Singh Ji Bahadur and Baba Deep Singh Ji etc. Every day without fail he will watch the Vismaad animation movies (Bhai Taru Singh Ji, Sahibzaade etc). I think he probably know the dialogue off by heart!

Tejvir Singh loves to hear Keertan. He will say “Singh Ji, Keertan Sunaao Ji” (Dear Singh, please do Keertan). Every morning he listens to Dukhbhanjani Sahib da Paatth recording from Sangat TV and doesn’t like anyone disturbing him. When I was upstairs doing Keertan by myself, he came running up, tied a Keski, wore a Hazooria and started playing Tablaa. Vaheguru!

His grandmother told me that when he went to India last month, he didn’t go near his relatives who had cut hair. He said that he only wants to play and talk to Singhs. One relative said, “Play with me, I will keep my Kesh.” He replied, “Keep your Kesh first and then come to me. Then I will play with you.” Waheguru. He loved visiting all the puraatan (old) Gurdwara Sahibs. When I asked him, he loved talking about visting the different Gurdwara Sahibs.

On Bandi Chhor Divas, he heard of the Saakhi of Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji. He dressed himself up and sat patiently in his room by himself. When his mother asked what he is doing, he replied, “I am waiting for Guru Hargobind Ji to come and visit me. Mum, I keep praying that Guru Ji visits me tonight and I can see him. Don’t you also want to see him?” All night he stayed up calling out for Guru Ji. (I hope that Guru Ji blessed him with his wish. Waheguru).

Source- Manvirsingh.blogspot.in

Chesterfield County resident Aleka Gravely was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. She had a mastectomy and went through chemotherapy in 2009, after which she was declared cancer free.

But then she complained to her oncologist that she was walking strangely.

“I had a lot of symptoms that I can put together now but I didn’t realize then,” said Gravely, 62. “When I walked with somebody next to me, I’d find I was walking in front of them. I kept complaining that my car, which was new at the time, was pulling to the right.”

Gravely’s motor skills were impaired because her cancer had metastasized to her brain. That same year she had brain surgery, which kept her away from the store she owns, Back Room Tailor Shop in Bon Air, for several weeks.

Since then, she has developed cancer in her brain numerous times. Twice she has required brain surgery, but four times she has undergone a gamma knife procedure, which allowed her to walk out of HCA Virginia’s Johnston-Willis Hospital the same day, cancer-free.

“You’re there one day, in and out, and then you can go back to whatever you do. It’s great,” Gravely said. “And I love Dr. (Singh) Sahni.”

Sahni is the medical director of the Neuroscience and Gamma Knife Center at Johnston-Willis Hospital in Chesterfield and has been conducting gamma knife procedures and successfully treating patients with brain tumors or brain cancer for 12 years.

In early May, the neuroscience center conducted its 3,000th gamma knife procedure.

“Previously, if you had cancer in the brain, it would just change you,” Sahni said. “If they were not treating this patient, you’d be debilitated, you’d be paralyzed, you’d have other deficits. So we manage cancer to the brain very aggressively now.”

Despite what its name might suggest, the gamma knife technology is so noninvasive, especially when compared to brain surgery, that it is treated as an outpatient procedure.

“It’s just one day out of your life, and then it keeps going,” Gravely said.

Gamma knife requires patients to lie down in a machine from 30 to around 90 minutes, depending on the size of the tumor and how many the patient has. Then it uses 200 beams of radiation to precisely target and radiate the tumor, with minimal impact on other parts of the brain.

“We have excellent control of cancer now,” Sahni said. “Cancer is becoming more like AIDS — it’s not a death sentence.”

As recently as a decade ago, when various cancers metastasized to the brain, patients were told they had as little as six months to live. Now, since the treatment completely removes the tumor, those months become years or even decades.

“Twelve years ago, when I first started, it took me a little while to convince my colleagues, ‘Don’t give up because they have brain tumors,’” he said. “Now they all agree; now it’s nationally accepted.”

Two years ago, the American Cancer Society said the gamma knife procedure is the best form of treatment for patients whose cancer has metastasized to their brains, knocking out other forms of treatment such as whole-brain radiation, which Sahni said he is adamantly against due to its numerous side effects.

The side effects of gamma knife, he said, are minimal, if there are any at all. It can also be used on one patient multiple times if cancer continues returning to the brain. But there are restrictions — if the area is larger than 3 centimeters, brain surgery is required.

“We tell the oncologists: As long as you’re able to take care of the cancer in the rest of the body, we’ll take care of the brain,” Sahni said.

Johnston-Willis is the only medical facility in the region, and one of only three others in Virginia, that offers the gamma knife procedure.

Sahni and his team at Johnston-Willis work with oncologists from all over the Richmond area, regardless of their affiliated health system. Richmond’s gamma knife technology even draws patients nationally, as Sahni also treats trigeminal neuralgia, which causes sharp pains in the face without warning.

Right now Gravely has a clean bill of health, but there is a chance that the cancer could return. She’s hoping that, if it returns to the brain, it can be caught early enough to require just a gamma knife procedure rather than brain surgery.

“You have to take it one day at a time, and go on with your life,” she said. “You can’t just sit there and wait to see what’s going to happen. I have a business; I have a family; I have two beautiful grandchildren. Life goes on.”

Source-Sikhfoundation.org

Ludhiana-born Surjit Babra doesn’t hold any MBA or business degree, but he went on become the world’s first Sikh to start an airline in 1988.

Born in Ludhiana, Babra left the city for Kenya when was just two. “Our family was moving in and out of Ludhiana quite often.” From Kenya, he moved to London as a student. “I got parttime work as a helper in a travel office and then a full-time job.That’s how I got a break into this profession.

He describes the airlifting of new 149 birs (copies) of the Sikh holy Guru Granth from Amritsar to Canada by his airline as “the most satisfying event” of his life.

GURUDWARA SHRI FLAHI SAHIB is situated in village Duley Distt #Ludhiana. SHRI GURU GOBIND SINGH JI came here from Alamgir. GURU SAHIB stayed for a night. GURU SAHIB sent message to Sardars of Kila Raipur through Bhai Man Singh. But they didnt came. GURU SAHIB left for further journey.