A HOMAGE TO ISHMEET SINGH from World Sikh News

From World Sikh News

IDOL TURNED IDEAL TURNED ICON ISHMEET SINGH IS NO MORE

VOICE OF INDIA
BELOVED ICON OF SIKH YOUTH
ISHMEET SINGH
IS NO MORE

A HOMAGE BY THE WORLD SIKH NEWS

When he would sing a lilting lyric, he made many cry; next he would hit a happy note with a chirpy song and the audience would dance in a frenzy.

Hope and icon of the Sikh youth, Ishmeet Singh, VOICE OF ALL OF US, is no more.

Ishmeet Singh (20) drowned in a swimming pool at a resort in Maldives at around 2000 hours Indian time. He had gone to Maldives to take part in a concert. Gurprinder Singh Sodhi, father of Ishmeet, who shot to fame by winning the Star India TV Voice of India contest in November last year, said at their home in Ludhiana that the event management company, which took his son to the Maldives, informed him at around 8 pm that the singer died due to drowning in the swimming pool of the hotel where he was staying.

An honour, and the queer feeling!

Only months ago, Ishmeet Singh was honoured by ghazal samrat Jagjeet Singh and his wife Chitra with an award in memory of their deceased son who had passed away in an accident. It was difficult not to cry. And just months later, Ishmeet has also left us all. It is heartless to tell someone not to cry.


Ishmeet was a student of B.Com second year at the MNC college in Mumbai. His father said he had no idea whether his son knew swimming. He said Ishmeet had left Ludhiana on Monday for Chandigarh from where he went to Mumbai on way to the Maldives.

The news of Ishmeet Singh's death left the world, his millions of fans, South Asia's TV audience and the diaspora which followed his progress song after song, week after week, shell shocked.

The Sikh community had celebrated worldwide his achievement at becoming VOICE OF INDIA through a popular TV contest where millions kept faith him, his voice and his loving and polite personality, voting for him all the way right to the top last year.

None other than the planet's goddess of singing, Lata Mangeshkar, had blessed Ishmeet Singh. Since then, Ishmeet Singh had been in demand and even months after the show ended, TV channels would keep pulling him in one or the other program to boost their audience figures.

Forever shall Ishmeet Singh be known as the man who made being a turbaned Sikh the trendiest hairstyle statement, inspiring many Sikh young men and women to follow the ways of the Guru and keep unshorn hair. Being turbaned became synonymous with being beautiful and smart.

Perhaps Ishmeet Singh was always closer to God. The day he won the biggest contest on Indian TV in November 2007 was also the day of the Guru. It was Guru Nanak Dev Ji's gurpurab.

Ludhiana, from whose noisy and industrial lanes Ishmeet Singh had risen to become the brightest of the stars on Indian glamour horizon went into a total shock.

Sikhs who had celebrated the event from California to Calgary to Christchurch to Chandigarh were frantically calling to confirm whether the sad news was indeed true.

Ishmeet Singh was honoured by Sikhs worldwide, by even the highest of the high Sri Akal Takht.

Forever shall the Sikh community remain indebted to this young man who made us all feel proud of our identity.

At the World Sikh News, we pay homage to Sardar Ishmeet Singh, and pray to Akal Purakh in this hour of grief to give his family and friends and fans the strength to cope with the immense loss.

29 July, 2008