�鶹��

Available for over a year

Good morning. This week, Army Officer Captain Preet Chandi made history by becoming the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition to the South Pole. Before embarking on her groundbreaking trek, she gave a talk at her local gurdwara in Derby to explain why she was going, and many thought she had in fact said she was travelling to Southall, home to one of the largest Sikh communities in the UK. Nicknamed Polar Preet, she was determined to challenge stereotypes and her aim was, in her own words, to not “just break the glass ceiling” but “to smash it into a million pieces”. Her achievement comes as Sikhs are preparing to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru. Born over three and a half centuries ago, his life was one which defied the status quo. When he was a few weeks old, he was visited by a Sufi saint who brought two pots of sweets, one purchased from a Muslim and one from a Hindu. The mystic offered both pots to the baby to see which faith he would favour the most. The baby reached out to both at the same time, symbolising that he would treat them with equal respect and dignity. He became a Guru at the age of 9, leading the faith when it was under immense threat from the Mughal Empire. His father, the 9th Guru, had been beheaded on the busiest street in Delhi, and many Sikhs were scared to openly recover the body in daylight in case they too suffered a similar fate. The 10th Guru was determined to change the mind-set of his followers, to ensure that sparrows would be brave enough to fight a hawk and win, and that ultimately resulted in the creation of the Khalsa, the inner core of the faith, as a means of challenging those in authority and bring strength to the Sikh community as a whole. That spirit of defiance can be seen to this very day. A year-long set of protests by farmers in India, predominantly led by Sikhs from Punjab, ended in success for the protestors a month ago when a number of agricultural reforms were repealed. Confronting what people expect of you is anything but straightforward. However, having the grit to persevere and go against norms can be transformative and leave a lasting legacy. Whether it be changing the way that an entire faith sees itself, or even travelling to the South Pole instead of Southall, nothing is impossible. It’s a challenge waiting to be overcome.