India’s Shame: The Personal Ordeal of Cynthia Mahmood

First – If you have never read any of Cynthia Mahmood’s books, go do that. I suggest this book:

Fighting For Faith And Nation

You can check out a nice preview of this book at google books

Second – set aside a good half hour of quite time and read this article on Sikh Chic wherein she explains the amazing motivation behind her Sikh Studies. This could possible be one of the best articles I’ve ever read, and it’s one of the most moving stories I’ve heard in a long while.

Seriously. Go read it. Now.

Gurbani Anywhere – Bani on your Windows Mobile Phone

So my buddy Mr. Sikhnet contacted me and pointed me to this intriguing app called Gurbani Anywhere. This App promises to “enable fast and efficient methods to search & display Gurbani, on a truly mobile platform.”

So I registered on the website and waited (not-so)patiently for a several hours to get my membership approved. (Update: they have listened to user requests and enabled email activation rather than manual administrator activation for the website – definetly much easier to get to the download and forums now!)Finally got the download link so let’s have a look!

The app is distributed as a .zip file download from the site containing a terse README and a standard CAB file. Any owner of a windows mobile phone will know what this is and immediately what to do with it. Note: The application and cab file come in at a hefty 66MB so you will definitely want to transfer and install this to a storage card rather than to your phones (or PDA’s) main memory.

So I transferred the cab file over to my phone and installed it to the card. Let’s take a first-look visual tour!

Overall I found this to be a very nifty app, and I’m sure once the developers do some more updates, this will quickly  become the defacto standard in Sikh mobile applications. Personally I’ve allready replaced Sikhi To The Max – Mobile on my phone with this, as it’s much better, more stable, has active developers, has more features, and is generally a better product. The various cool features, and addition of SDGS and Bhai Gurdas Vara make it especially compelling. I would strongly encourage everyone with a windows mobile device to run over to the website, register, download, and give some positive feedback to the developers as soon as you can!

Unlike my usual self, I will not mirror the installer here as the developers have asked that everyone please register on their site/forums

Cool Website: Gurbani Today

Check out this cool website – Gurbani Today that shows you a new shabad every weekday with video,audio, Gurbani, and translation all synced up for your viewing/listening/understanding pleasure. From the about page:

About GurbaniToday.com
Spend 10 to 15 minutes every day listening, enjoying, and most importantly, understanding and embracing Gurbani, one shabad a day!

Every week day you will find a Shabad video along with English translation.

For weekends, you will find one audio-only Shabad.

In addition, other Nitnem banis and Aasa Di Vaar is available alongside English translation.

Pretty cool stuff, I only wish they had one bar for both videos, so scrolling one would appropriatly bring the other one in sync.

Amnesty International: India Government has failed victims of 1984 Sikh massacre

Amnesty International (UK) has put out a press release condemning the actions of the Indian Government in bringing justice to the Sikhs for 1984. While what the Indian government is doing (and has been doing for so long) is not unexpected, it’s always nice to see respected international organizations recognizing that.

All those responsible for the massacre must be brought to justice – whether they are political leaders, police or government officials.

Taliban chasing out Sikh Families in Orakzai

Interesting side story about how the Taliban is basically kicking out impoverished Sikh families from areas of Pakistan. With Pakistani President giving more power and land to the Taliban in recent days it’s only going to get worse. Full story reproduced below:

Sikh families leave Orakzai after Taliban demand jizia

By Abdul Saboor Khan

HANGU: Sikh families living in Orakzai Agency have left the agency after the Taliban demanded Rs 50 million as jizia (tax) from them, official sources and locals said on Tuesday.

Residents of Ferozekhel area in Lower Orakzai Agency told Daily Times on Tuesday that around 10 Sikh families left the agency after the demand by the Taliban, who said they were a minority and liable to pay the tax for living in the area in accordance with sharia.

Locals said the Taliban had notified the Sikh families about the ‘tax’ around a week ago. They said of the 15 Sikh families in Ferozekhel, 10 had shifted while the remaining were preparing to do so.

The locals said the families were impoverished and had left the area to avoid any Taliban action.