Dear Editor,
Sikhs are known to be brave and they have shown it in fighting wars or other difficult situations. Recently, a young Sikh, Harman Singh, took off his turban to help a child injured in an accident on the road in New Zealand. He is praised for abandoning religious protocol and saving the child. There are many such acts of bravery of Sikhs. My mother’s maternal uncle Sardar Jagdev Singh Sidhu, a policeman, was on holiday in Canada in 1978. He made headlines in Canadian and Indian newspapers. He saw sparks coming out of a boy’s feet and smoke rising from his shoes. The boy was swinging from the wire of a hydro pole and when his feet touched the ground, he fell down. People thought he was dead. But my uncle grabbed a coat from one of bystanders and looped it over the boy and pulled him off the wires with the coat. He had saved the 10-year-old child. He became a hero and City of Kingston Police Force awarded him a bravery certificate. The Kingston Safety Council also rewarded him. Local people invited him to show their children that the people of Punjab are strong.
Opinder Sekhon,
via-e-mail
