Bhai Harbans Singh Jagadhari Wale had carved a niche among the raagis as a person who explained the shabads using simple idioms. His bhog ceremony, which took place in Ludhiana on Sunday, was attended by people from all walks of life, including SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh.

Bhai Harbans Singh Jagadhari Wale

He died on May 13 of prolonged illness at the age of 71. He is survived by three daughters and a son.

The industrial town of Ludhiana had been his home for the last three-and-a-half decades. Earlier, he lived in Jagadhri (Haryana) where he had migrated to after Partition.

A person who reached out to wide audiences using the then-new medium of audio cassette tapes, Bhai Harbans Singh’s rendering of Gurbani spread to many hearts.

He will long be remembered for his melodious voice and success in the endeavour to make the words of the Gurus reach the masses.

The obituary by Roopinder Singh was published in The Tribune on May 25, 2011

THE picture in The Tribune brought a lump in my throat. There was Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh DFC, and his two children, having just bid farewell to Teji Arjan Singh, MIAF’s wife and companion for 63 years, and whose soul had soared into the skies on April 15.My mind went back to the time, a decade ago, when I had first visited the Kautilya Road residence of India’s only living Field Marshal. It was Teji who put me at ease, and made me feel relaxed enough to pursue the subject that had brought me to their door.

The photo published in The Tribune: IAF Marshal Arjan Singh with his daughter and son at the cremation of his wife Teji Arjan Singh in New Delhi on Sunday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

“What will you write about me, there’s not much to write about,” MIAF said when I told him that I wanted to write a book on his life.

“Oh! There is much, just let me do it,” I replied. Eventually, he agreed to a series of interviews that laid the foundation of his first biography.

Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh with his wife, Teji

The person who helped me even more than him was the gracious and graceful lady, who had chronicled her husband’s journey in life with a thoroughness and meticulousness that showed her love for her man who had swept her off her feet and then made her his life partner.

Teji was born on October 22, 1930, in Sargodgha district of Punjab, now in Pakistan. Pretty, young and petite, she was still a student of Convent of Jesus and Mary in Delhi when, in 1943, she fell for the dashing Squadron Leader Arjan Singh who was visiting Delhi and staying in her father’s house.

They were married in Delhi, in the Janpath house of Sir Sobha Singh, on February 15, 1948. Twelve Harvard aircraft, flying in the formation “A” and “T” flew over the house in their honour, a gesture authorised by Air Marshal Elmhirst, the then Chief of Air Staff. The couple moved to Ambala Air Force station. Teji recalled how, as the CO’s wife, she was expected to give advice to other wives, who were otherwise elder to her.

Teji Arjan Singh’s soul soared into the skies on April 15, 2011.

The next year, Air Commodore Arjan Singh took over as Air Officer Commanding, Operational command and moved to Delhi, where they spent most of their life. That very year their daughter Amrita was born. Her brother Arvind followed three years later, and then came the youngest daughter Asha.

Known for her kindness and graciousness, Teji was the perfect host who put visitors at ease as soon as they entered her home, be it the Air House, an ambassadorial residence, a Raj Bhavan or the imposing Kautilya road residence.

Their last journey together. Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh DFC, and his son Arvind Singh carry Teji Arjan Singh at the cremation ground in Delhi on April 17, 2011.

She was, indeed, the wind beneath the Marshal of the Indian Air Force’s wings, his inspiration, his support. They worked together to achieve their goals. In 2004, MIAF Arjan Singh DFC sold off his farm near Delhi, and entrusted a corpus of Rs 2 crore to the “Marshal of the Air Force & Mrs Arjan Singh Trust” devoted to the welfare of retired Air Force personnel. When Teji asked him why he had put her name on it, he replied: “If you hadn’t agreed, how could I have done it?”

This middle by Roopinder Singh was published on the Editorial Page of The Tribune on March 20, 2011.

Please click here to read more about Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh DFC

How tall he stands
Baton for the Marshal
Review of the Indian Air Force
On Arjan Singh DFC
Marshal’s magnificent gesture
For the sake of honour

Teji Arjan Singh, a tribute published as a middle in The Tribune

Jerry Barrier was a historian and a scholar of Sikhism. I never met him, but I admired his work and was in touch with him over the phone and through e-mail. He was significantly responsible for taking Sikh studies forward in the US and in Canada, and also for focusing American academic interest on Punjab, India and South Asia.

His death, on June 6, did not make the news that it should have. I learnt of it late and wrote this short note on him.

Tribute to Billy Arjan Singh

by Roopinder Singh

Billy Arjan Singh with Tara. Photo courtesy: Shaminder Boparai

He was born as a royalty, spent his childhood in palaces and died in the wilderness that he so loved. Billy Arjan Singh, passed away on January 1 night, after a brief illness. He was 93. He lived at Tiger Haven, his home near the Dudhwa National Park, the sanctuary that he put on the wildlife map of the nation, about 250 km from Lucknow.
Great-grandson of Maharaja Randhir Singh, the ruler of Kapurthala, Billy was born on August 15, 1917, at Gorakhpur, in what was then the United Provinces. His father, Raja Sir Harnam Singh, was a Member of the Panjab Legislative Council, a Member of the Kapurthala Council of State and an Honorary Fellow of Panjab University.
Billy studied in Lucknow and was commissioned in the British Indian Army in 1940. Later, in 1945, he settled down at Palia. The farm brought him in touch with nature, and also the way in which wild animals were being threatened by human encroachment of their natural habitat, and the commercial exploitation of the forests which were rich in sal and teak trees. Hunting expeditions, mounted during the Raj, depleted the population of natural predators like tigers and leopards.
“Billy started as a hunter, and turned conservationist with a tremendous passion. In this he found support from even the then Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, who herself had a great interest in wildlife,” says Shaminder Boparai, who has just finished an illustrated book on Billy.
Palia was his home; it was where he spent his life with his beloved Tara, Harriet, Juliette and Eelie, all of whom are buried near his final resting place.
The Padma Bhushan was conferred upon Billy Arjan Singh for his conservation efforts in 2006. He had received the Padma Shri in 1975. In 2004, he was a joint winner of the J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership which is administered by World Wildlife Fund, and he was the first Asian to do so.
Billy, who never married, wrote prolifically about his adopted children—the predators like leopards and tigers who were his family. His books include The Legend of the Maneaters, Prince of Cats and A Tiger’s Story.
The Tiger of Dudwa, Billy Arjan Singh had a larger-than-life image which was the subject of many articles, books and also of television series. He lived a life that he wanted to, on his own terms, in his beloved forests, in the company of animals that he loved. His dogged determination, achievements and courage made him a legendary figure in his lifetime.

This tribute was published in The Tribune on January 3, 2010.

Patwant Singh was a truly multi-faceted personality. He was the polished face of the Sikhs in the later decades of his life. Patwant Singh was born in New Delhi, the city in which he died on August 7, 2009. In the 1980s I lived near his house because my mother, Inderjit Kaur, was Chairman, Staff Selection, Commission. She and my father, Giani Gurdit Singh, and sometimes I too, would meet Patwant Singh at his house. He was a good house-proud person and I have great memories of that time in the early 1980, when I was still studying.

Incidentally, I also have the honour of being a co-author, with him and Khushwant Singh, of a book that is just been published—Women, Many hues, Many shades.

Please click here to read my obituary of this great writer, perceptive thinker and truly an aesthete.

Sardarni Malvinder Kaur was an extraordinary achiever, a great leader of people and someone with noteworthy organisational skills…along with these great qualities; she retained a warmth and generosity that impacted those who met her.I count myself to be among those privileged people who happily who orbited around her, basking in the glow of her glory, and feeling the affection that was so natural for her to share with us.

Our association goes back decades. Her son H Kishie Singh, is a dear friend and Sardarni Malvinder Kaur and my parents had a much mutuaal admiration for each other. She stood by me like a rock at my time of need, and I loved to be in her company, often joining Kishie, Neena, Malvika and her for dinner, sometimes with a friend in tow!

From Website

I have no hesitation in asserting that she has placed an indelible mark on my life, and even as she is no more, I remember her for a life lived to the full.

I was my duty to pen down her Obituary that was printed in The Tribune on Friday, October 31, something that I wrote with a heavy heart, thought my fingers found it easy to do the talking–there was so much that I wanted to write about her. Please click here to read about this woman who spanned almost a century, saw the world around her change, she not only adapted, but thrived as new challenges came her way. A remarkable women in every way.