Wrong Time and Place
Certain traditions lend themselves to transplantation from one country to another. Others do not. When coming from a basically rural and village environment to that of a more mechanized and motorized society a feel-good group walk in the dark along an urban road can spell disaster. And so it did, for a wedding party in Delta, British Columbia.
The irony of the situation is that this tragedy occurred in an area heavily settled by emigrants from India. Where everyone seems to know everyone else. Because the ties that bind are religious, social, traditional. And when something goes awry it strikes the entire community. That connection is not readily severed, and when some suffer, all tend to in communal compassion.
So when Satinder Kaur Mahil, 50, of Abbotsford, B.C.; Bhupindar Singh Kaler, 26, Rubal Kaur Gill, 21, from Ontario, and 13-year-old Damanpreet Kang of Toronto - some of the guests for the 24 August wedding of Harsiman Kaur Mahil and Robbie Singh Grewal were mown down by a car driven by 71-year-old Bachittar Singh Brar, it was full circle.
A traditional celebratory event transposed from the Indian sub-continent for a Sikh wedding at a Canadian site on a quiet urban-country road among large homes housing the area's Sikh community was tragically disrupted and celebration turned to horror, then sorrow and grief by an accident caused by an elderly Sikh man from that very area, driving his truck through the unseen celebrants.
The officiating Abbotsford temple priest at the funeral of Harjinder Kaur Sanghera counselled all those involved to remain calm and peaceful, not to apportion blame to anyone. Now it is for the community to think deeply whether the traditional jago, where pre-wedding participants wend their way on foot through alleyways and traffic-free lanes in India needs to be set aside in Canada.
"We are living in a different reality", said Jagrup Brar, member of the provincial legislature for Surrey-Panorama Ridge, a politician in attendance at the funeral. Migration from one's country of origin, often does result in the need to surrender familiar and proud traditions, while accepting the reality of another place, another time.
The irony of the situation is that this tragedy occurred in an area heavily settled by emigrants from India. Where everyone seems to know everyone else. Because the ties that bind are religious, social, traditional. And when something goes awry it strikes the entire community. That connection is not readily severed, and when some suffer, all tend to in communal compassion.
So when Satinder Kaur Mahil, 50, of Abbotsford, B.C.; Bhupindar Singh Kaler, 26, Rubal Kaur Gill, 21, from Ontario, and 13-year-old Damanpreet Kang of Toronto - some of the guests for the 24 August wedding of Harsiman Kaur Mahil and Robbie Singh Grewal were mown down by a car driven by 71-year-old Bachittar Singh Brar, it was full circle.
A traditional celebratory event transposed from the Indian sub-continent for a Sikh wedding at a Canadian site on a quiet urban-country road among large homes housing the area's Sikh community was tragically disrupted and celebration turned to horror, then sorrow and grief by an accident caused by an elderly Sikh man from that very area, driving his truck through the unseen celebrants.
The officiating Abbotsford temple priest at the funeral of Harjinder Kaur Sanghera counselled all those involved to remain calm and peaceful, not to apportion blame to anyone. Now it is for the community to think deeply whether the traditional jago, where pre-wedding participants wend their way on foot through alleyways and traffic-free lanes in India needs to be set aside in Canada.
"We are living in a different reality", said Jagrup Brar, member of the provincial legislature for Surrey-Panorama Ridge, a politician in attendance at the funeral. Migration from one's country of origin, often does result in the need to surrender familiar and proud traditions, while accepting the reality of another place, another time.
Labels: Life's Like That
posted by Pieface | 6:00 PM
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