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Our turbans made family, friends and
Sikh community proud
Harjinder Singh
 This is a tête-à-tête with
Ravi Singh Kahlon, the
centre-forward of the Canadian hockey team and the inspiration behind
the turban wearing Canadian team.
The decision of wearing a turban was a no brainer for us. The
media did have a great time with it. Some called us selfish for trying
to "stick out" or suggesting that it was some sort of a stunt. This only
made us more defiant. The original story as it appeared in the
mainstream Canadian media misquoted me when it said, "I want to
challenge the identity issue." What I had said was, "This will challenge
the identity issue." I meant in
China and the world. It
turned out that it did so at home as well.
The article also said that I don’t ever intend wearing a
turban. Well I never said that and that is why there are no quotation
marks there. It was an assumption made by the reporter.
Finally although we are on the other side of the world, we
tried our best to stay on top of the stories put about us on the media.
What hurt us most was not the negative attacks from some a section of
the media, but those from within the community.
We have been reading it on several websites. I have not been
keeping track of them but people from home have called and mentioned
that many radio talk shows have had the discussion with many callers
that are Sikh.
I am not in the business of teaching others. I am myself a
student.
When we decided to wear turbans we did not think it would get
any media attention. All we knew was that our family, friends and
community would be proud of us. That was the most important thing.
I am thankful that our teammates were so supportive. Just as
we were proud to be part of the contingent, even they felt proud to be
walking with us.
Harjinder Singh is the creator of Sikhnetwork SMS group and
he has created a Facebook page for the Sikh Canadian Olympians. He may
be contacted at sms.seva@gmail.com
20 August, 2008
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