Kids Corner

Above: detail from a painting on oil of Sardarni Mahinder Kaur, by Manu Kaur Saluja.

Columnists

The Visit

A Poem by MICHELE GIBSON

 

 

She will show me how to make parshad

And her head will be covered

She will sit to eat with us

And her head will be covered

She will rise in the early hours of the morning

In the quiet, in the dark, consuming scripture

And her head will be covered

She will sing from Babaji's room, with the door ajar

The sound will carry through the house and take me in

And her head will be covered

She will fix the mantle, mat and bowls

And her head will be covered

She will wash by hand, with loving care, the cloth

That wraps the Guru Granth Sahib

And her head will be covered

She will roll the wool for dressing the beard

And her head will be covered

She will sing the nitnem in the car

In the kitchen, in her room

And a hundred times a day

Softly whisper to herself, WaheGuru

And her head will be covered

 

December 10, 2009

Conversation about this article

1: Balraj Singh (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.), December 10, 2009, 1:02 PM.

Oh-h-h-h! You are singing about MY mother, aren't you? You've brought tears to my eyes, and joy to my day!

2: Gurmeet Anand (India), December 10, 2009, 1:03 PM.

Lovely!

3: Tripat Kaur (New Delhi, India), December 10, 2009, 1:08 PM.

Your words have captured my mental image of my mother, exactly as I remember her from when I saw her last - four years ago. Thank you, Michele ... you are twice, no, thrice blessed. Thanks for sharing this sweetness with us.

4: Simranjit Singh (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), December 10, 2009, 3:38 PM.

You have indeed conjured up an image of the universal Sikh mother. You've got me thinking - no wonder we all refer to Mother Nature or, as in the Japji, Maata Dharat - Earth the Mother!

5: Harjinder Singh (Barnala, Punjab), December 11, 2009, 4:26 AM.

Wonderful imagery, and a touching descrption of a Sikh mother. I wish all Sikh mothers were like this one ... then half of the problems that we as Sikhs face today would vanish. "Poota mata ki aasees"

6: Darshan Singh Abbott (Mumbai, India), December 11, 2009, 9:03 AM.

You have reproduced the image of my mother whom I lost on February 13, 1972. You have brought back memories of her reciting the Sukhmani Sahib daily, which brought prosperity and happiness for our entire family and all our near and dear ones. May god bless you.

7: Gurinder Singh Johal (Amritsar, Punjab), December 11, 2009, 10:21 AM.

Well written poem - every Sikh should read it. The chunni has all but disappeared in Punjab more than in any other place. I have been in Kahsmir where many Sikhs live - every Sikh follows the full discipline of the faith ... and the Sikh traditions, including the duppatta.

8: Arvinder Singh Kang (Oxford, MS, U.S.A.), December 12, 2009, 2:36 AM.

Beautiful narration and a portrait of an ideal Sikh mother!

9: Daljeet (United Kingdom), January 21, 2010, 2:59 PM.

So simple, so true. Really well written.

10: Sangat Singh  (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), March 06, 2014, 6:55 PM.

What a beauiful ode to the mother who remains an epitome of sacrifice and unstinted love who has the prettiest child in the world who could do no wrong. "sut apraadh karat hai jayay / jannee cheet na rakhay tayta" [GGS:478.14] - "For all the mistakes a son commits, his mother does not hold any against him in her mind."

Comment on "The Visit"









To help us distinguish between comments submitted by individuals and those automatically entered by software robots, please complete the following.

Please note: your email address will not be shown on the site, this is for contact and follow-up purposes only. All information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sikhchic reserves the right to edit or remove content at any time.