29 January 2007

A Pause on the Road

One slight correction. Only two of us were in Delhi. The third, the mother/grandmother was in Canada.

We do not believe that our stories are at all unusual. There was much courage and heroism in this Battle that has gone completely unreported, as far as we can tell. There seems to be a great glee in reporting Sikhs as victims, not heroes. We have all three heard other stories from survivors of the shaheeds appearing, especially where Guru Ji was present. We have also heard of Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself appearing. These stories need to be told when those who experienced them are recovered enough to expose themselves as we have. We were no stronger, braver or more heroic than many, many others. And none of us were all that devout.

The only differences between us and these others are:
  • we have chosen to share our stories with whoever cares to read them
  • we have the education to write about our experiences and, fortunately, one of us is a professional writer
  • we have the access to the Internet
  • we have been able to recover physically and psychologically to the point that we can communicate about this and that has taken a long time

We are not saints. One of us, in particular, strayed far from the Khalsa Panth in the intervening years, but is now trying to come home.

We would like to make an appeal to the Sangat worldwide:

PLEASE STOP CALLING THIS A MASSACRE,

A POGROM,

RIOTS.

CALL IT BY ITS PROPER NAME:

A BATTLE!!

LET IT GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS 'THE BATTLE OF DELHI, 1984'

WE WERE UNJUSTLY ATTACKED AS A COMMUNITY

WE FOUGHT, WE WERE OUTNUMBERED, MANY DIED

LET US GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS

VALIANT FIGHTERS

HEROIC MARTYRS

NOT HELPLESS VICTIMS.

We need also to give great financial, psychological and spiritual aid to the survivors, especially the widows and their children in India who are today living in squalor. These are real, live human beings who have not had the chance to recover that we have had as Canadians.

Our stories have been on the Internet for some months. No one knew of them until Google Alerts picked up 'Khalistan' in this new blog. Please, those of you who have these experiences, blog them, put in words that will be picked up, so they will be read. We need to tell our own stories. Otherwise, believe me, our enemies will.

We were asked, are these stories of ours true. The short answer is: Yes.

The long answer is: Yes, unfortunately.

And would someone please teach this spellcheck that 'Khalistan' is a correctly spelled word.