Essays by IJ Singh

 There are several drawbacks to emigrating, as well as a major gain. One has to recast one’s assumptions and cultural framework in terms of the new, host culture and in a new language. Such transformation is not easy. Since culture and language are inseparably intertwined, many of the religious and cultural concepts cannot be adequately or accurately expressed in a different language. Yet, effective communication requires that we try. The…

Many readers of Gurbani, particular those who proudly see themselves as superbly dedicated, when it comes to reading or writing Gurbani, become aggressively nit picking about the bases of the vocabulary of Gurbani – its pronunciation, precise unchanging interpretation, even possible translation, meaning, and applications. Their care is genuine, deserving admiration. Yet, I wonder! Should we be so unchangingly bound to a rich and hoary past, even in grammar and…

Since I sat down with this editorial in mind, competing alternate titles have flashed their presence and pushed their appeal, even though I am not yet clear about the contents and the direction that I prefer. For instance, The Last Frontier sounded just right as the title. Or perhaps of  Life is Full of Rude Awakenings. Life offers many a closed box to honestly parse some ideas imaginatively and honestly. …

Borrowing from scholars of Sociology, I have often argued that religious traditions and practices are the glue that unite a people and creates a community. People, then, need to elaborate a statement like the Articles of Confederation as the defining document of a community’s basic connecting glue. For a religious people, the prayer–Ardaas–is that. The many faiths of humanity agree on that One fundamental, although they continue to quibble over…

This Editorial owes its birth to some of the last brief conversations and contacts with the late Pushpinder Singh, the illustrious Founder of Nishaan-Nagaara.  Even though he lived in India and I was on the other end of the globe, I always thought that his base was not India but the greater globe itself.  We enjoyed our many exchanges, though sometimes quite brief. But I learned rapidly that for a…

I have often argued that religious traditions and practices are the glue that unite a people and creates a community. People, then, need to elaborate a statement like the Articles of Confederation as the defining document of a community’s basic connecting glue. For a religious people, the prayer–Ardaas–is that. The many faiths of humanity agree on that One fundamental, although they continue to quibble over the language, words, their meaning…

There are important matters in life that we all overlook, despite the best of intentions – such as credit cards, unpaid bills, birthdays and anniversaries, and timely medical advice, even matters of race and gender that have become the lightning rods of our times.  We brush them aside with a lightness of spirit and invariably rue the cost later.  This kind of neglect turns out to be not so benign,…