Volunteering For Its Own Sake

[2desi]

Volunteering for its own sake

The elderly lady with the long grey hair was furious.

Until Giani Narinder Singh showed up, none of the nurses on her ward at Surrey Memorial Hospital could figure out why.

The stroke that had confined her to a wheelchair and restricted her ability to move had also left her unable to speak.

But her eyes were flashing with indignation and she was clearly greatly offended about something.

She kept pointing at her chest.

Singh, who regularly visited the hospital to conduct religious services for Sikh patients, had forged a friendly relationship with the dignified older woman, evolving an improvised sign language to communicate.

She would even let him comb her hair, something she refused to permit the nurses to do.

He could see the problem right away.

Someone, probably a well-meaning nurse, had buttoned up the lady’s sweater for her, but got the buttons in the wrong order.

Her garb was crooked and she didn’t have enough mobility in her hands to fix it.

Singh re-buttoned the sweater properly. She smiled, threw her arms wide and hugged him.

The memory of it makes Singh smile.

“She is still in my mind,” he says of the since-deceased senior.

He loves his job.

The head Granthi of the Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran Sahib at the intersection of 152 Street and 68 Avenue is talking about his duties as the spiritual teacher of Surrey’s newest Sikh congregation.

The title of Granthi is usually translated into English as priest or holy man, but the literal meaning is “the keeper and the reader of the Sikh scripture,” and it refers to the man or woman who performs the reading of the Guru Granth Sahib scriptures at religious occasions and performs the morning prayers.

Singh was born in India’s Punjab state, the youngest of eight boys and one girl.

When he became a Granthi, all of his formerly clean-shaven older brothers eventually grew the beards required of a baptized Sikh as a sign of respect.

Most days, the 40-year-old married father of three arrives at the new temple about 4 a.m.

He will conduct morning prayers, then take a break from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. before he returns for the evening services.

There are weddings to arrange, funerals to schedule and all manner of detail work to consume his day.

And then there are the visits to the people who can’t make it to temple – usually the elderly and infirm.

“The times I spend with those people are the most precious in my life,” he says.

He recalls another patient, a stubborn older man who kept refusing to come to the services Singh would hold at the hospital until the younger man offered to personally push the elder’s wheelchair.

Volunteering is good for the soul, the Granthi says, and it’s something he would like see more people doing.

“It feels good, very good.”

He pats his heart for emphasis.

Then he notices the time and excuses himself.

He has a trip to make, someone to see.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/sur...s/17113721.html

[japmans]

i hope i can be half as good as this guy

great post, thank you very much

[dsinghkhalsa]

WAHEGURUJEEKAAKHAALSA WAHEGURUJEEKEEFATEH

Very amazing article.I have seen Giani Narinder Singh Jee around,very Charhdi Kalaa Singh.

WAHEGURUJEEKAAKHAALSA WAHEGURUJEEKEEFATEHHHHHHHHHHH

[2desi]

Giani Ji is doing such great seva!!!