They were very nice lads and I could tell they wanted to start a conversation with me. One of them asked me "Are you a Sikh?" to which I said yes. He said "I thought so" (I hope I didn't make it too obvious for him). He asked me if I went to the "big temple" in Gravesend. Then what he said next totally shocked me. He said "I've been there before with one of my friends. It's a nice building . One of the blokes in the temple told me that if someone brings in a pig or some bacon then they have to knock the building down and build it from scratch." I was so speechless! It got worse, he went on to say "They preach Islam in there aswell. I saw pictures where underneath it said they were tortured and killed for not embracing Islam." I was just thinking, Hai Rabba! I told him that it was just absolute nonsense to knock down a building for something like that, let alone such an expensive building. I told him that Islam was definitely not being taught in there, and infact the pictures he saw were of brave and fearless men and women who gave up their lives rather than their faith so we could be here today. If only someone in a Gurdwara Sahib could explain to non Sikhs the maryada and relevance of pictures and stuff, it would have such a huge impact and the 'parchaar' they do to their friends etc. Rather than them thinking Sikhs are a bunch of skeptical, forceful weirdos. He also said that someone he was speaking to inside the Gurdwara said although Sikhs aren't meant to smoke and drink, it is perfectly acceptable to 'eat marijuana'. If I wasn't wearing a Dastaar I would have pulled all of my hair out by now. Either the student was hallucinating or there are some seriously misguided and dangerous individuals inside the complex.
He then brought up a video of Gravesend Gurdwara on Youtube (by himself) and it was someone's wedding. The clip showed the groom being brough in from the car park. Behind him seemed to be all of his friends and family, accompanied with 3 dhol players. At the front of this procession was, what I can only guess was his mother and aunties etc, jumping up and down and waving their arms around - on the Gurdwara grounds! He then told me that his "Sikh" friends have told him in the past that men don't have to wear turbans, they can wear patke and women can cut and remove their hair. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies!
He said "Whilst I was there they tought me some Punjabi words that I still remember." I was really impressed and asked him to say them to me. I was expecting them to be words like Seva, Keertan, Guroo Sahib but he said "I remember the words aloo gobhi, dhaal and muttar paneer!" Dhan Vaheguroo!
It's all nice and lovely having such impressive, expensive, massive Gurdware but if we are not making any effort to educate first ourselves, and non Sikhs then these nice big buildings are nothing but an illusion and we have failed as a kaum.
