Alumni of Akal Academy Muktsar, I am Ajay Pal Singh Brar, a simple guy from a typical agrarian family who received only blessings in heritage. I did my entire schooling from the academy from year 1995 to 2009 – the year I passed my 12th . My father, Gurdeep Singh, besides following his family tradition of farming, also served Akal Academy for around 5 year as the President of PTA(Parent Teacher Association).

For a guy with a background so simple, I could’ve well been a follower of farming if it wasn’t for Akal Academy. The academy provided me a strong foundation and turned me into a dynamic individual; as a student, I was an all rounder – like one in the game of cricket; I was jack of all subjects and master of sciences. Though I was not too brilliant a student when it comes to scoring great, but I was very quick and dynamic – thanks to the super charged conductive environment of the academy where I was brought up during the most critical years of my youth.

Every time I hear the name of any of the Akal Academies or it’s students or updates on their progression, I feel proud; for there was never a parallel to the students of the Academy – during the schooling years, whilst attending several interschool competitions, science quizzes, debates, seminars…etc, I had witnessed the difference; the fluency, the writing skills, the brilliance, the confidence of the students was far more superior than the students of other Rural schools; our students were always a tough competition to the students of city schools. ‘Mainu ajj vi maan hunda Akal Academy te Jad vi main kissey student di achievement barey parhda haan; school ne saanu jehri basic Neeh diti hai, usda koi comparison nahi.’

I pursued B.Sc. in Biotechnology after school and had a deep aspiration to go to Canada to pursue my masters, but unfortunately my family wasn’t in favor of my wish, for they were contended with all that god has given us, hence I decided to stay. Upon changing my mind, my life went through a complete twist when I found out that there were no pure master’s courses available in Biotechnology Stream available anywhere locally, which could be feasible for me to join. I had a big decision to take to move on further in my life; thanks to the confidence & dynamism that Akal Academy had fostered into me that I took no time to restructure my mind & heart to switch stream from Biotechnology to Chemistry – and by grace of Almighty, today I am almost done with my M.Sc in Chemistry from Lovely Professional University and all set to launch my own pharmaceutical company very soon post my completion; my company would be producing range of veterinary products like Dog Food, Mineral Mixtures, Supplements, etc.

I am pretty confident that the blessings of Baru Sahib & the spirituality  they instilled into me will surely help me succeed in my business endeavor in the same way as my academic odyssey. I deeply feel thankful to the Akal Academy for imbibing religious and spiritual element into me; having been amongst my other friends I experienced that around 90% of youth in Rural areas are devoid of their religion i.e. Sikhi or its heritage. All my knowledge, ‘Baani’, habit of routinely recitation of ‘Paath’ is the credit of the Academy. I feel proud & eternally blissful to share that my cousin Karanpal Singh, who is also an Akal Academy Alumni recently took up ‘Amrit’, he also does Kirtan; currently, my family is already a vegetarian and I do ‘Ardaas’ to God to help me derive enough inspiration to be blessed with the gift of ‘Amrit’ soon in my life too.

I feel very happy to see the developments in the Rural regions, especially on the educational front as more and more academies are flourishing – they are doing an excellent job in spreading spiritual knowledge & Sikhi amongst the youth, providing them a safe and secure environment especially in the present critical times when drug & alcohol menace is looming large.

I wish to pay my homage and special regards to Principal Sukhraj Kaur of our time; she has a strong inspiring personality who personally touched lives of almost every student at the academy; we derived a great amount of motivation through her. My best wishes & regards to Baru Sahib & all its connected members and students.

Gur-Fateh.