Season 1 : Episode 7 - A Tour of Gurdwara's and more

For Episode developed an outside broadcast special, keeping to the same format : Meanings, a translation, history/story and ending with Inspirational music.

This episode was recorded in Southall on 21st May 2006. We travelled to different Gurdwaras. Also in this episode we are grateful for our audio support from Rohin Singh.

We visited Gurdwaras in Havlock Road, Park Avenue and Oswald Road. Each has its own interesting story.

Some of the early settlers of United Kingdom, in the late 1950s arrived in Southall, West London.

First Stop: Havlock Road Gurdwara
One of the newest of Gurdwaras in West London (UK), costing an estimated £17M. Its early foundation was a converted dairy back in the mid to late 1960s.

In the meanings section we talk about some of the important the themes of Sikhism for example, Equality of men and women and the importance of Human Rights. My thanks to Bhupinder Singh of http://www.sikhspirit.com. Back in 1999 during the Tricentennial celebrations of the Khalsa they produced an excellent publication called Millennium Khalsa.

We then proceeded to Park Avenue Gurdwara. I remember this Gurdwara building was originally a supermarket. It was set-up and enhanced while the Havlock Road Gurdwara was being built. It still remains as a Gurdwara today. Our featured Shabad translation is from Snatam Kaur from her CD Shandi entitled: Hariaa (Strength). The full translation is shown below (see also sound issues!).

In Romanised English:
Salok Mahla Panjva
Tera Keeta Jaato nahee
Mai noo jog keetoee
Mai nirgunharay ko gun naahee aapai tara payoee
Taras payaa may rahmut hoee
Satguru sajan miliaa
Nanak naam milay taa jeevaa, tun mun theeyay haryaa In English:
I cannot mearsure your grace.
You have made me worthy of you.
I am full of faults.
I have no virtue.
You have been Compassionate to me.
Merciful You have been and shown me Your grace.
Thus I was blessed with the True Guru.
Nanak says I can survive on the Holy name only;
It rejuvenates (Naam is the nectar which makes man immortal and links him with God) my heart and soul.(Shabad Translation from: Hymns from Guru Granth Sahib ; Published by Hemkunt Press)

Final Stop: Oswald Road Gurdwara
Our final stop was at Oswald Road Gurdwara. It is based in the most amazing location - in the centre of Southall - surrounded by houses behind one of Southall's hubs known as The Broadway.

Sound issues
With this show unfortunately we had some audio issues. Basically, our portable recorder's microphone synchronisation function appeared to be playing up (pardon the pun). The result was a frequent 'cutting short' of the ends or beginning of sentences. We apologise for this. To help, additional supportive text has been included on this posting. We hope to produce more outside broadcasts, hopefully with improved equipment et al.

We close with some inspirational music from Paul Hardcastle from his CD Paul Hardcastle II entitled - You are the one and M People - Search for a Hero.