By Jagdesh Singh | OPINION |
A quick scan of your individual timelines on your preferred social media platform over the past week will immediately tell you how we celebrated Vaisakhi at home, with our loved ones.
Some of us dressed up in our beautiful traditional attire, cooked up the typical dishes found in the gurdwara, basically trying our very best to celebrate akin to how we’ve been doing all our lives.
We showed that our spirits were still high despite the Covid-19 situation canvassed in the background. We showed that life does indeed go on. We showed that even if we were in different countries or even continents, with different customs and different ways of celebrating, we were all universally celebrating at home with our loved ones. Goes to show how universally drastic our lives have changed as we brave this pandemic one day at a time.
In Malaysia, online broadcasting or streaming of keertan and prayers by local keertanis and their jathas (groups) were admirably filling the vacuum created by the governmental lock down that disallowed our gurudwaras to host the typical celebratory congregations during Vaisakhi. Many families, like mine, found solace that we could at least have the akand-da-path live-streamed into our living rooms, as we sang along the majestic Deh Shiva anthem while the nishan (flag) was being hoisted right there on our television or devices.
SEE ALSO: From King to KJ, Malaysian leaders share Vaisakhi greetings
Even on Facebook, the streaming of a few keertanis, singing along with their families, for their followers to enjoy and participate, as another option for many families. We made do as the best we could to carry on.
But leading the pack in this wonderful sewa of bringing the Gurudwara ‘look and feel’ into our living rooms, as the hand that helped us celebrate the one big holiday in our Sikh calendar was the SikhInside.
These group of volunteers had camped out in one of our prominent Gurudwaras in Kuala Lumpur over the period of lock-down, selflessly away from their families and friends, to make sure the live-streaming was there on time, with the necessary keertans going on. Their equipment was minimal but effective as they worked hard every day improving on their quality. For many alone at home, like my father living in another state far away from us, the familiarity of keertans playing in the background provided much needed comfort. Due to the prevalence of WhatsApp messages, anyone with a smartphone and connectivity will get the daily reminders and links to the keertan live-streaming early in the morning from someone or another in our community. Marketing through word of mouth in the digital age, at its finest.
Through the same social media platforms, and in serendipitous fashion, the digital whispering game helped build up the screening of Malaysia’s very first locally produced Punjabi movie. What better timing for Punjabis, all at home with nowhere to go due to the lockdown, to sit down as families and watch this much anticipated movie.
I’m no Bollywood aficionado to say the least, but I was excited to see how this movie was going to fare, particularly with the unprecedented situation we were in, being locked down and all. I’ll leave the movie critic review in better hands, but I thought Rabba Mereya showed some nice and natural acting talent. The dialogue script sounded as authentic as any Malaysian Punjabi growing up in the settlement areas outside of our cities would sound. The acting direction looked professional and matured for a Punjabi speaking movie that’s never been done before. Alas, maybe because of the lack of Bollywood diet that I have, I was a bit bewildered with the story that was intended to be told. I was left hanging at the end of the movie with so many questions. Again, maybe it’s just me. But in any case, kudos has to be given to the film makers (Sri Saheb Production Sdn Bhd, directed by Arjin Uppal) for embarking on this project and delivering something unique for us Punjabis. There’s lots of room for improvement, but that first step is always the hardest.
Both of these media forms, be it live-streaming of keertans or the 90-minute Punjabi movie, will be etched in our memories as sort of groundbreaking in their own ways to how we began celebrating Vasakhi in 2020. Both may be different sides of the same coin, depending on the reception from our Sikh Punjabi communities in Malaysia. But both are significant developments and markers to some long standing changes to our community
Jagdesh Singh, a Kuala Lumpur-based executive with a US multinational company, is a father of three girls who are as opinionated as their mother
* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here |