From: satbir singh <ssbedi1945@yahoo.com>
To: Issuesonline_worldwide@yahoogroups.com; India-Force@yahoogroups.com; contribute@yahoogroups.com; eGovIndia@yahoogroups.com; Branded_Indian@yahoogroups.com; political_analysts@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 9 May, 2009 9:59:38
Subject: [issuesonline_worldwide] My father was a very handsome man and yet he was not handsome.
When I was a young boy, my mother told me to recite the name of God and the collection of verses from Holy Guru Granth Sahib like "Japji Sahib", "Anand Sahib" etc. She told me that only the name of God would help me to avoid hell and free me from the cycles of births and deaths. In particular, she told me not to become like my father who though a very handsome man, was always going on drinking sprees and abusing my mother. She told me that my father had been a Gursikh with long beard and long hair when he married her but under the influence of drink, he has had his hair and beard cut at a barber's shop in Lahore, which was then the capital of undivided Punjab. She also told me to fight against injustice and cruelty like the followers of the great Gurus of the Sikhs.
While I tried to recite the name of God and the collection of verses like "Japji Sahib" etc., I was at a sea in so far as fighting against injustice and cruelty was concerned. To my young mind, my father seemed to be the most cruel person who ill treated and abused my mother but I could not punish him because he was a big person while I was a small child. Moreover, it was written in the scriptures that we should respect our parents who give us birth and bring us up. I, therefore, went on tolerating my father like my mother. However, when I was about fourteen years old, I thought of strangulating him and getting rid of him.
I tightened my hands around his neck but then suddenly, I released my grip over his neck as I realised that if I kill him, there would be no bread winner of the family and we would starve. Moreover, he was such a handsome man and I loved him with all his faults.
My father was so handsome that I often wondered as to why he could not be an actor or a model. Perhaps, he was too much involved in his drinks and in other vices like gambling to think of improving his lot. He was also a very confused man. He often told me that he had been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). However, at other times he told me that the Hindus mistreated the Muslims by not sharing their meals with the latter and that is why Muslims had asked for Pakistan. He also in his later years supported the demand for a Sikh homeland although when there was a movement for the creation of Punjabi speaking state, he told everyone that he had both Sikhs and Hindus as his relatives and where would he go if such a state was formed? However, my mother was very clear in her ideas. She told me that Sikhs and Hindus were part and parcel of each other. In fact, she stated that Sikhs had been created by the tenth Guru to fight
against the cruelties of Aurangzeb perpetrated on Hindu religion. She told me that there would never be a Khalistan as Hindus and Sikhs were inseparable from each other. In fact, she said that Sikhs were a Sect (Panth) of Hindus.
My father felt that only fools died young and if we go by his statement, then he was not a fool because he lived upto the ripe age of seventy. When he died, I wept bitterly but in the ultimate analysis, I came to the view that it was my mother who was handsome and my father was not handsome because handsome is he that handsome does.
Satbir Singh Bedi
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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