People
Once A Teacher,
Always A Teacher:
Baba Jaimal Singh
GAGAN KAUR TEJA
While most of the teachers start waiting for their retirement towards the fag end of their career claiming that they were “exhausted”, 73-year-old Baba Jaimal Singh continues to be a guiding force for hundreds of his pupils to date.
A retired school teacher, Baba Jaimal Singh is giving free lessons to anyone who is interested in the study of Sikh Scripture, i.e, Shudh Gurbani Paatth. The lessons are given twice a day and the course roughly takes about five months.
Born in Gujranwala village of pre-Partition Punjab on January 4, 1943, Baba Jaimal Singh belonged to a prosperous agricultural family. Since childhood, he was inclined towards studies and after his family settled in Kaithal district of Punjab (now in Haryana, after further divisions of Punjab) after Partition, he decided to take up teaching as his career.
Joining his first job as a Punjabi teacher in Mahendargarh in 1963, after doing his Giani (Bachelor‘s in Punjabi & Gurbani studies), he decided to add to his qualification and went on to complete his Masters in three subjects -- MA Punjabi from Panjab University, MA Political Science from Punjabi University, and MA History from Shimla University.
He was married to Surjeet Kaur, who was a teacher in the Education Department.
However, all this while he realised that not much stress was being laid on the study of Sikh scriptures. Though children were taught Punjabi in schools, reading of these scriptures was different. Therefore, he decided to take free classes for anyone who is interested in learning it.
Taking time out of his busy schedule, he started these classes in 1992. After his retirement in 2003, he started a batch in the morning and another in the evening. However, his retirement or spiritual inclination hasn’t changed him much. Though he smiles, mocks and laughs, he can be as strict as a teacher to make sure his students come out with flying colours.
Despite the fact that the couple has not been blessed with a child of their own, rather than adopting a child or cribbing about one, the couple decided to devote their lives for children and youth and helped over 2,000 people stand on their feet.
All this while, his wife, Surinder Kaur, has been his guiding force and walked shoulder to shoulder for fulfilling this cause. Baba Jaimal Singh has transformed these students into paatthis who are now serving in gurdwaras or conduct paatths in different households.
The couple has also donated their entire property and constituted the Satsang Bhawan Trust that works for the study of Gurbani and the imbibement of the values enunciated by The Gurus.
Today Baba Jaimal Singh continues to give free lessons to anyone who is interested in studying Sikh Scripture. The lessons are given twice a day.
[Courtesy: The Tribune. Edited for sikhchic.com]
September 6, 2016