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He can be seen at the wheel of a funeral van ferrying bodies, feeding patients and their attendants at the Regional Cancer Hospital or organising a blood donation camp. Shimla’s good Samaritan Sarabjeet Singh Bobby is present at all such social events, lending a helping hand to organisers.

Literally living by the dictum “Serving humanity is worship”, Bobby has devoted his life to society. His obsession with social service is so intense that he has no personal life and is popularly referred to as “Sabse Vela Insaan” in the social media where he has a huge following.

His admirers call him “Vela” because unlike other residents who are pre-occupied with their profession, family responsibilities or having a stroll on The Mall, Bobby has time only for social work and deeply involved in one or the other activity. He ferries bodies at odd hours free of cost. He has been running a free langar at the cancer hospital for the past one-and-a-half year.

It all started eight years back as Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital did not have a funeral van and Guru Nanak Seva Society was running a van from 10 am to 5 pm but what if somebody died after 5pm.

“I requested the society to allow me to ferry bodies after 5 pm until morning and since then the journey of carrying the bodies cutting across religious and caste barriers started,” says Bobby who finds living humans more dangerous than dead.

“In 2012, we collected Rs 3 lakh from citizens and bought a van and now we give free service. He has ferried more than 4,000 bodies till date,” he said.

But the social work was not limited to ferrying of bodies and he started holding blood donation camps and in the past one decade collected more than 20,000 units of blood. “Blood unites us when somebody gives blood or takes blood, no one enquires about your sex, creed, religion and caste,” he says.

Bobby observed that the only cancer hospital in the state situated near the IGMC had no medical shop and canteen and life was tough for patients and attendants. Boby, president, Almighty Blessings (NGO), who started with free tea and biscuits for attendants and dalia and soup for patients, is providing free langars in evening.

“As the space was small (90 sq.feet), it was not possible for us to make chapatti and earlier we used to get chapattis from our home but gradually people came forward and a chain of Shimla residents donating chapatis was formed (roti bank). Today the chapati banks are situated at Sanjauli, Totu, Lower Bazaar and Lakkar Bazaar and 200 families are involved in the chain who makes 10 chapatis. The latest to be roped in is the RKMV staff who give us chapatis on every Friday,” he said.

“We have provided a platform to people who wish to organise birthday and anniversary parties or wish to share their happy and sad moments with the needy at Rs 4,500,” Bobby said. Another initiative was giving free tea and biscuits at Kamla Nehru Hospital. Bobby, who is a businessman and runs two shops in Lower Bazaar, says “I believe in spirituality and not religion.”

Dream
My dream is that no one should sleep hungry and creation of more chapati banks in Shimla. I wish to built a langer hall, puja hall and sleeping corridors for patients and their attendants.

Words of wisdom
I would like to call upon all spiritual leaders to serve humanity and ask their followers to work for a cause and also donate blood as it saves you from heart attack.

Mission to continue
My eldest son Manav Deep Singh, studying in Class XII, will be the first donor at the blood donation camp to be organised on October 15 when he turns 18. “My son has promised me that he will serve society and on that day, he will drive the van for dead bodies for the first time and I will accompany him on his maiden journey.”

I was born and raised in a Hindu tradition family. If i put in words, I would say my father is from Hindu family while my mother from a Sikh family. I was a bit forced by father to follow the Hindu traditions but i was always looking for something better. Because I always knew that there is something better than this somewhere.

I grew up in India spent 18 years and moved to Canada. Moving to Canada, being on my own having no relatives or friends to help me, I started doing drugs and wrong things i could possibly do. But there was always something missing. It was just not what i been searching for. And after a year later, I bought an used car. It had an stereo in it and that time i could not afford a new CD of songs from market like one of Honey Singh’s or whatever. So one day i was at one truck repair shop and he had all kinds of Shabad Kirtan CD’s there. I asked him if i can take some of the CD’s as i spent all my money on drugs, doing wrong things and buying the car. He said yes. I took couple of Cd’s. And i started listening to it every day i drive.

Months later I started going to Gurudwara Sahib once in a week. I always had to take off my ear rings first put it in the change box and then put my patka on which was always sitting in my glove box.
One day i entered the parking lot of Gurudwara Sahib, I did park my car but sitting there in it, Got my head together and Wondering!!!!!

Why I Remove My Ear Ring Every Day? Why I Put Patka On My Head Everyday? there must be??????.
On that day i did remove earrings and put patka on but not just i was going to Gurudwara Sahib for 10-15 minutes but for REST OF LIFE.

And here i am now. More than happy than ever in my life. I did change my last name to Singh. Found nothing better than GuruSikhi in this world.

Source- Singh Station

WSN pre­sents the story of how a for­mer Dutch For­eign min­is­ter was saved by the Sikhs in In­done­sia dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. The in­ter­view by Bhupin­der Singh Hol­land is one of the se­ries of such in­ter­views con­ducted by him. This is a slice of his­tory which will makes Sikh proud of their her­itage.

Bernard Rudolf “Ben” Bot, a Dutch ca­reer diplo­mat of the Chris­t­ian De­mo­c­ra­tic Ap­peal party rose to be­come the Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs of Hol­land for 4 years from 2003 to 2007. I did not lose time to meet him as soon as I learnt that he was saved by Sikh sol­diers in In­done­sia dur­ing World War II.

Mr. Dolf Kruyt, liv­ing in Hoogeveen, Nether­lands
res­cued by the Sikhs in In­done­sia WW2. In­ter­view by Bhupin­der Singh Hol­land at the Na­tional Mon­u­ment of World Wars, Dam Square, Am­s­ter­dam.

I pre­sent an in­ter­view with Mr Ben Bot to bring for­ward his ac­knowl­edge­ment of the Sikhs and to re-es­tab­lish the hu­man­i­tar­ian role played by the Sikhs dur­ing the World Wars.

This may come as a sur­prise to the Sikhs. I was amazed to learn dur­ing my in­ter­view that af­ter Japan lost the sec­ond world war, op­po­nents of the Japan­ese were placed in camps. Sikhs freed them from those camps. He (Mr Ben Bot) was merely 9 years old at the time. He was with the Sikh sol­diers for 6 months, where he was well treated, re­ceived clean clothes and food. He praised the Sikhs very much as they were their lib­er­a­tors.

““I am al­ways with the Sikhs” – Ric­chard Rul­doph Ben Bolt, for­mer Dutch For­eign Min­is­ter”

It is pleas­ing to note that this Dutch diplo­mat ac­knowl­edged Sikhs as very nice, peace­ful and hard­work­ing peo­ple and that the Sikh val­ues are very sim­i­lar to Dutch val­ues.

When I men­tioned to him that in June 1984 Dar­bar Sahib -the Golden Tem­ple was in­vaded by the In­dian Army and that many in­no­cent peo­ple were killed, he said that the Dutch gov­ern­ment could not in­ter­fere with in­ter­nal con­flicts as that is the pol­icy of the Dutch gov­ern­ment, how­ever he men­tioned that he knew of the sit­u­a­tion, he saw the pic­tures and he said that the Dutch gov­ern­ment has the sym­pa­thy with the Sikhs. “I am al­ways with the Sikhs” he proudly pro­claimed.

Here is the youtube link

Source- theWorldSikhnews.com

In a heart-warming gesture, a gurdwara here, the largest in the Gulf region, organised an Iftar where people of different religions and over 30 nationalities broke the Muslim fast together.

To demonstrate the spirit of tolerance and giving, the Gurunanak Darbar Gurudwara, hosted about 120 residents of over 30 nationalities to celebrate the holy month of Ramzan and support the Muslim community in breaking their fast in a multicultural setting.

As the call to Maghreb (evening) prayers rang inside the gurdwara, Muslims broke their fast over water, dates and Indian dishes. Later, they offered their prayers inside the gurdwara premises in Jebel Ali.

Surender Singh Kandhari, chairman of Gurunanak Darbar, was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times, that the Iftar on Wednesday was to bring people together in the face of adversity.

“In a world that struggles with extremism, the best way to cut it is through creating friendships among different faiths and nationalities and making the difference ourselves. It is only through communication that we can overcome adversities,” said Kandhari, noting that guests varied from Arabs, Ethiopians, Mexicans to Americans and Serbians.

Indian Consul General in Dubai Vipul said the gurudwara is doing a great service by getting all communities and religions together.

He cited the example of the gurudwara achieving a Guinness World Record by hosting breakfast for 101 nationalities in April.

“I see today’s Iftar also as a step in that direction,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

A regular visitor at the gurdwara, Mitchell Peeters from Belgium, said as a Christian, having Iftar in a Sikh temple makes the experience in UAE more special.

“It is a nice experience to enjoy happiness and friendliness of people around you from different faiths and nationalities. It is part of the charm of living in Dubai and adjusting to the customs of the local people,” said Peeters, a UAE resident for four years.

Gurunanak Darbar is the largest gurudwara of Gulf region.

On a regular basis, the gurudwara serves free meals everyday to visitors, and distributes food packs to labour camps every weekend.

– Hindustan Times

In a heart-warming gesture, a gurdwara here, the largest in the Gulf region, organised an Iftar where people of different religions and over 30 nationalities broke the Muslim fast together.

To demonstrate the spirit of tolerance and giving, the Gurunanak Darbar Gurudwara, hosted about 120 residents of over 30 nationalities to celebrate the holy month of Ramzan and support the Muslim community in breaking their fast in a multicultural setting.

As the call to Maghreb (evening) prayers rang inside the gurdwara, Muslims broke their fast over water, dates and Indian dishes. Later, they offered their prayers inside the gurdwara premises in Jebel Ali.

Surender Singh Kandhari, chairman of Gurunanak Darbar, was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times, that the Iftar on Wednesday was to bring people together in the face of adversity.

“In a world that struggles with extremism, the best way to cut it is through creating friendships among different faiths and nationalities and making the difference ourselves. It is only through communication that we can overcome adversities,” said Kandhari, noting that guests varied from Arabs, Ethiopians, Mexicans to Americans and Serbians.

Indian Consul General in Dubai Vipul said the gurudwara is doing a great service by getting all communities and religions together.

He cited the example of the gurudwara achieving a Guinness World Record by hosting breakfast for 101 nationalities in April.

“I see today’s Iftar also as a step in that direction,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

A regular visitor at the gurdwara, Mitchell Peeters from Belgium, said as a Christian, having Iftar in a Sikh temple makes the experience in UAE more special.

“It is a nice experience to enjoy happiness and friendliness of people around you from different faiths and nationalities. It is part of the charm of living in Dubai and adjusting to the customs of the local people,” said Peeters, a UAE resident for four years.

Gurunanak Darbar is the largest gurudwara of Gulf region.

On a regular basis, the gurudwara serves free meals everyday to visitors, and distributes food packs to labour camps every weekend.

– Hindustan Times

FOR TARANDEEP Singh,19, his birthday was special. A day earlier, the teenager from Baramulla learnt he had qualified in JEE Advanced, the entrance to the IITs, with the highest rank in Kashmir this year.

Tarandeep, whose all-India rank is 872, feels it could have been better. “But considering the fact that very few [from the Valley] have qualified, I am satisfied,” says the son of a utensil merchant from Kanispora, on the outskirts of Baramulla town. He now hopes to join mechanical or electrical engineering in either IIT Kharagpur, Kanpur or Delhi.

“Let us see if I get my dream IIT and stream,” says Tarandeep, who credits his seniors at St Joseph’s School for pushing him to prepare. “It was not as if this was my childhood dream. After class X, I was inspired by IITians among my seniors at school. They are doing very well,” says Tarandeep, who went for coaching in Kota after high school in 2015. “I wanted to focus on my goal. I did both my senior school and coaching from Kota,” says Tarandeep, who also lauds his high school teachers. “They had created a strong base.”
His parents, Tejinder Singh and Arvinder Kaur, say the entire family had been anxiously waiting for the result but were confident. “We knew for sure that he would qualify as he has worked hard for two years,” says Tejinder, adding his son used would study till 3 am, only to wake up at 8 am. Read | PHOTOS: JEE Advanced result 2017: Here are the toppers. Click here
According to the chairman of the Coaching Centres Association, Kashmir, G N Var, only three students from Kashmir — Tarandeep and one each from Srinagar and Anantnag — have made the JEE Advanced merit list. “Only around 200 students even qualified to appear for JEE Advanced,” Var says.

An Army spokesperson, however, said nine more students from the force’s Kashmir Super-40, a coaching initiative for the youth of J&K, have cleared the exam.

Among the three mentioned by the Coaching Centres Association is Abdul Baki Mir of Kawairigam village, 16 km from Anantnag town. With his rank, though, he isn’t sure if he will get an IIT berth. “He is already in the first semester of computer engineering at NIT Srinagar.

I hope his dream of making it to the IIT is fulfilled this time,” says Baki’s father, Abdul Rehman Mir, a teacher at a government higher secondary school. “My elder son is also studying engineering.”

The nine qualifiers from the Kashmir Super-40 initiative are Aqib Amin, Mohammad Mussa, Bashir Ahmed, Nasir Ali, Imtiyaz Hussain, Feroz Ahmed, Maisam Ali, Shahid Sultan and Jahangir Shakeel.

“The success achieved this year was overwhelming with 9 out of a 36-student batch having qualified,” the Army spokesman said, adding the successful students interacted with Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat in New Delhi Tuesday.
The ‘Kashmir Super-40’ is being conducted by the Army at Srinagar in coordination with Centre for Social Responsibility and Learning (CSRL), and Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) since 2013. It provides a platform for underprivileged children from the state. “Free lodging and boarding along with coaching is provided to the selected 40 students of J&K for 11 months,” the spokesman said.

-IndianExpress