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| On the wings of “Bole So Nihal” | | | by Nirupama Dutt
THE Malaysian Airlines late-night flight to Kuala Lumpur to Delhi is delayed by good 50 minutes because a number of passengers are still waiting in the long queues. Those on time start drowsing after the long rigmarole at the Indira Gandhi Airport following the July bomb blasts at Mumbai. And then they are suddenly woken up not by the pilot’s announcement but a rather joyous cry of “Bole so nihal, Sat Sri Akal.”
The cry rises from the economy class cabin and resounds all over. The sleepy ones wake up with a smile and two Chinese men facing the pretty air hostess in her floral batik sarong ensemble ask her with a laugh: “What is this?” The lovely girl replies with a smile, “Well, they are remembering their God.”
Yes, these are young Malaysian Sikhs making their way to their home away from home. Sikhs are scattered in abundance all over the globe and “Truly Asia” is no exception. The first Sikhs arrived in Malaysia in the 1870s courtesy the British connection for recruitment in the paramilitary and police units of the old Malaya. In the multiracial Malaysia of today the Sikhs have kept their identity amidst the Malay, Chinese, Tamil and others that form the mixed population.
This is evident from the large number of gurdwaras in the Capital city of Kuala Lumpur. There are as many as 56. A request to visit one of the older gurdwaras has the Malay guide excited and he gives instructions to the driver to take us to the Bengali temple in Jalan Sungei Besi. He is obviously making a mistake and we are quick to correct him: “No, we wish to visit the Punjabi Sikh temple”. The guide smiles and makes us wise: “Well, the local people call the Sikhs Bengalis and thus the gurdwaras are known as Bengali temples”.
The first of the Sikhs of North India who came here embarked on their voyage from the port of Calcutta and the misnomer continues till date. Interestingly, the Chinese feared the stout Sikhs and called them “Munkali Kwai” or “Devils”. But that is all done and past and now these “devils” of yore are well assimilated in modern Malaysia.
The Chinese too seem to have forgotten old prejudices and at the Chinaman-owned Genting Highland Resorts, you find young chinky folks dancing away to the tune of Chadhdi Jawani.
The cry of “Bole so Nihal...” is not heard on the evening flight home even though the Sikh presence is there. This so, perhaps, because one needs to remember one’s God more when travelling to the alien land.
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