‘eternal are his turban folds of love’, ‘he wears the crown of love-grown cotton and love-spun thread and love-woven cloth’ writes prof puran singh in his poem titled ‘the turbaned man’
as I read the above description, I’m reminded of a sardar jee of my childhood, whom myself and my siblings would call ‘nana jee’ or grandfather, though there was no blood relation present. I believe he belonged to the same village, or to the near vicinity of jalandhar where my nanke resided during the latter half of their lives.
this nana jee would gift all the children of panjabi school sweets, and would always save me a packet of milky-bar buttons which I most thoroughly enjoyed. nana jee would tie a crystal white pagh with a neatly tied beard and I can still rewire my memory to picture a live feed of him standing outside of the darbar sahib as he did with his back towards the white radio heater towards the jora-ghar and gazing towards the sangat with a white carrier-bag full of sweets in his hand.
a sardar of great standing, a true gentleman with a relaxed happy demeanour, standing tall and proud, a man of the people, or in this case, the children of panjabi school!
on the topic of paghs, the colour has and continues to play an iota of a role in my life-journey. during my university days, I would only really tie the colour dark blue, the colour of the premier sikh political party, the shiromani akali dal with an orange fifty - the colour of shahdat, or martyrdom and linked with the struggle for an independent sikh dominion.
but having graduated two years or so ago now, the hue of my pagh has perhaps changed ever so slightly, with the inclusion of patterned paghan, paying homage to the old skool sardars of years gone past.
and with this post, i pay homeage to bhai teja singh samundri on his 96th shaheedi anniversary. i know very little on this protagonist, but I hope to read a biography on his jeevan which is currently housed at the central gurdwara khalsa jatha.
sardar jee was a founding member of the SGPC and later became vice president of the institution of the sikhs, that will soon be totally reclaimed by the sikhs.
ਖੂਬੁ ਤੇਰੀ ਪਗਰੀ ਮੀਠੇ ਤੇਰੇ ਬੋਲ ॥ (727) (Bani Bhagat Namdev Ji)
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