These days I am reading Celebrating 125 Years of Excellence: St. Stephen’s College: A History by Ashok Jaitly, a distinguished civil servant who served as Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir from 1996-2002. He is now working as a Distinguished Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi on rural development issues, his primary concerns are water, rural energy and decentralised governance.

Tony Jaitley, as his friends call him, and no, I am not one of them—he doesn’t know me but we have a few common friends like my contemporary, Nitya Ramakrishnan and his contemporary H Kishie Singh, left college around the time I was born, yet one finds so much in common as one reads the book! The college is now over 125 years old and it is an institution that leaves an indelible mark on its students. Last year, my batch was in college to for a get-together 25 years after we passed out, I though I would share the pictures with you. Click here to see more photographs and to read a post that I wrote then.

Sarabjit Dhaliwal read Mera Pind when he was in the eighth grade, and has been reading Giani Gurdit Singh’s writing since then. He was concerned when he heard about Gianiji having a heart attack in Delhi on September 12.

Sarabjit Dhaliwal met Giani Gurdit Singh at his home in Chandigarh on Sunday and wrote the following story for The Tribune. It has also been published in Punjabi Tribune. Click here to read more.

Please click in the thumbnail images for bigger pictures

It was on Tuesday, September 12, 2006, evening that my father, Giani Gurdit Singh, called me and said: “I am having a heart attack.” Click here to read more.

ONE of the most sought-after erudite writers and speakers in the USA and Canada on matters concerning the Sikhs is a Professor, not of religion or philosophy as you might imagine, but of anatomical sciences at New York University. Dr Inderjit Singh’s latest book The World According to Sikhi, is as thought provoking as it is insightful.

I have had the privilege of knowing Inder since the 1980s when I was in New York, and have always loved him for his writing and admired for being an exemplar in a community that needs many like him.

Cosmopolitan, yet seeped in tradition, open-minded and egalitarian to the core—a much admired teacher known for the values that he upholds and the way he has managed to pass them on to thousands of his students, Inder (as he likes me to call him) stands apart even among the many luminaries that the Indian diaspora has contributed to the world.

I hope that the review you go through will impel you to read his books and learn more.

THE first thing that strikes you about Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, is how huge the building is. A big edifice, and along with it, another half-finished OPD block. As you walk in, you notice that even early in the morning, the place is clean, and floors are being mopped. You look around for patients—and keep looking. Click here to read more, and see photographs.