Rajvinder Kahlon - You Will Be Missed

My friend, simmal tree, posted this picture along with this story from the Surrey Leader on his flickr account

YOU WILL BE MISSED

An improvised memorial to toddler Rajvinder Kahlon is slowly growing, one bouquet of flowers at a time, on the front lawn of her family home in the 7800 block of 116 Street in North Delta.

Two ceramic fairies and three plush teddy bears, pink, green and red, stand guard over the candles, flowers and sympathy cards.

“You will be missed little one,” reads one.

“Peace be with you.”

Rajvinder died inside the house Friday morning while her mother was walking her two older sisters to a nearby elementary school.

Her father, 47-year-old Lakhvinder Kahlon, has been charged with first-degree murder.

On Monday, North Delta residents Heather Colpitts and Travis Tipton added some chrysanthemums and a card to the memorial.

Their son, Hunter, is 21 months old, close enough to Rajvinder’s age that his mother needed a moment to compose herself.

“It’s sick and sad,” she said, wiping a tear away. “I can’t get my mind around it.”

At age two and a half, Rajvinder Kahlon was tall for her age, standing almost three feet, a playful dark-haired girl with large expressive brown eyes who loved to sing traditional Punjabi-language tunes.

Most relatives believed Rajvinder would grow up taller than her two older sisters.

Her family lived in the upstairs of the recently renovated house in North Delta.

The windows of the 1970s-era two-storey wood frame stucco house have been replaced with modern glass and the gutters redone.

It’s a tidy home with cheerful light-blue and white walls.

The Kahlons shared it with a younger family of four, who lived downstairs.

On school days, Rajvinder would wait for her older sisters to come home so they could play songs on the computer and she would sing along.

Last Friday, as she normally did, Rajvinder’s mother Manjit took her two older daughters to school, walking them down the street to McCloskey Elementary.

She left her youngest with her husband.

When she returned, she discovered her daughter was dead.

Witness Sarbjeet Bath told CTV News she saw Manjit screaming on the front lawn of the house.

On Monday, Lakhvinder Kahlon made his first court appearance, just long enough for a Surrey Provincial Court judge to order a mental fitness test by a psychiatrist.

Kahlon will remain in custody until his next court appearance in February.

He is a short, stocky man with close-cropped hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His hair is almost completely white.

As he listened to a translator, Kahlon scanned the courtroom with haunted eyes.

It did not appear that any family members attended.

People who know the family say Kahlon became depressed after the birth of his youngest child. He had wanted a son, they say.

A relative has issued a plea on behalf of the family to the public and media to avoid speculation.

The family is devastated by the slaying, says the spokesman, who identified himself only as Jimmy.

“It’s unimaginable.”

Outside court, anti-violence activist Lali Pawa of the “We Can” campaign issued a similar caution against concluding the killing was somehow cultural.

“This is something that is horrific to everyone.”

dferguson@surreyleader

This was my response:

This is beyond sad.

Even beyond tragic.

How is Bhainji Manjit coping? And this story doesn't include the horrible, bloody details of what she found.

And if this murder wasn't about a cultural preference for boys over girls, what was it about? Can't we stop glossing over the evils in our midst? We need to confront them directly, eyes wide open, fearlessly, hearts and minds wide open, and

PUT AN END TO THESE ATROCITIES AGAINST GIRLS AND WOMEN!

If this is speculation, so be it!

This murder must wake up our community to put an end to this evil!

Gender preference has no place in our community. It should, it can and it must be stamped out!

Sorry for the tirade, but someone needs to say these things plainly and clearly, in a way that cannot be misconstrued.

I guess The Road To Khalistan needs to address this.

And so here we are addressing it. I have no more to say.

Except:

Just look into this child's eyes,
This LITTLE GIRL'S eyes.

They will never see anything,
ever again.

They cannot cry.
But you can,
I can.

Let our tears mean something.

Let us band together to end this atrocity.

It can be done.

It must be done.

And WE must do it!
NOW!