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"On the bright and sunny Saturday morning, 24 April
2004, I reached Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre Coach park, the atmosphere
was alive and
exciting. I instantly felt that we were going to be treated to another
memorable cultural trip.
We set off just after 11:15 am
and soon everyone
was settled in the bus and having fun, including singing their favourite
Bollywood film songs in turns - so much so that I think from now on we should
call this event the Cultural Singing Talent
Trip!
The fun atmosphere was nicely complemented by home made
mouth-watering snacks - Onion Bhaji,
the popular Gujarati dishes Pudla (gram flour pan cakes), with
hot Red Garlic Chutney, and
Dhokla (gram
flour spicy cakes). We were so busy singing and eating the lovely
food, before we realised we reached Southall Gurdwara at 1:30 pm.
Gurdwara
Sri Guru Singh Sabha is the largest Gurdwara in Europe and
opened in March 2003. The cost of the project (£20 million)
was funded entirely by donations from the devoted community of
Sikhs, from
both within and outside the UK.
We had a guided tour of the Gurdwara.
Like any other temple, shoes were not allowed and we covered
our heads as a mark of respect. The
ground floor had a reception and library rooms, a very big foyer
and a very large Langar Hall (free kitchen) which currently serves,
on average, a thousand cooked vegetarian meals per day.
Two beautifully
constructed staircases on either side of the main foyer lead to the
first floor, which had two congregation halls were
constructed without pillars for an unobstructed view of services
and ceremonies. A huge dome in the centre of the main hall adds a feeling
of heavenly space. Both the halls have large glass windows commissioned
in a contemporary design and using predominantly the traditional
Khalsa
colours of blue and saffron. The big front window above the main
entrance depicted the creation of the Khalsa on Vaisakhi day, 1699.
We then
had a presentation which was an overview of the Sikh religion and
its philosophy.
After a late lunch in the Langar Hall we set off to
Old Southall just after 3:00 pm. We spent four hours there
enjoying the culture, sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the Punjabi
(Sikh) community which forms a large part of Old Southall.
We started on our way home at about 8:30pm, and began
a fun game of Antakshari between the front seats and
the back-benchers groups in
the coach.
Antakshari is a traditional South Asiansinging game in
which one team sings a few lines from their favourite song, and when
they stop, the
next team has to sing a song beginning with the last syllable of the
song sang by the opposing team! This continues in turn until one of
the teams is unable to think of a song to sing...!
It was
great fun and without anyone realizing, it slowly turned into Antakshari
between the men and the women! No prizes for guessing who won
that one!!! We all had some more of the home made snacks left from
the morning;
at one point, everyone began to dedicate the songs to Dhoklas,
which was quite amusing. You had to be there to know what I mean!!!!!
Around
11:15 pm we reached Bradley Stoke. Some children were tired and had
gone to sleep but the rest of us, I am sure, would have carried
on for a few more hours of singing !! All in all it was a fantastic
day out. And the singing keeps getting better with every trip!!"
Meera Adodra - SGAP
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