Gulshan
Current Events
Off to the Ball ...
The Sikh Obama Inaugural Ball, Of course!
by N.C. AIZENMAN
When a Barack Obama campaign volunteer offered to help Gulshan Kaur Gachoke attend the Sikh Inaugural Ball in Washington, her response was: What is an inaugural ball?
Although it has been more than 30 years since Gulshan and her husband left their village in India's Punjab province for Northern California - and 18 years since she became a U.S. citizen - the 63-year-old speaks halting English, doesn't know how to use the Internet and almost never ventures beyond her Fremont neighborhood's Indian shops, lest someone mistake her for a Muslim and insult her.
But after a volunteer, Reena Kaur Johar, who shares Gulshan's Sikh religion, explained that the ball will be the first-ever inaugural gala sponsored by Sikh-Americans, Gulshan eagerly signed on.
"I think the moment is going to be holy, because this man is good," she said.
Indeed, rather than donning one of the red or pink "chunnis" - or head scarves - that Sikh women favor for parties, Gulshan plans to wear saffron, a color normally reserved for important religious ceremonies. And instead of flying from California to Washington, Gulshan and several dozen members of her gurdwara in San Jose will be making the journey by chartered bus, stopping at gurdwaras along the way in the manner of a religious pilgrimage.
Like many of the tens of thousands of Sikh farmers who arrived from Punjab in California in the early 1980s with limited education and even less money, Gulshan and her husband have achieved remarkable economic success. Where once Gulshan worked in motels and sold her jewelry to make ends meet, today she and her husband own their house and have helped one son become a doctor and another a lawyer.
Yet until now, Gulshan's participation in U.S. political life was largely limited to applauding politely - and uncomprehendingly - when candidates stopped by her gurdwara to deliver a speech in rapid-fire English. For a while, she didn't bother voting, convinced that Al Gore's loss to George W. Bush in the disputed 2000 election meant the U.S. voting system was rigged.
Then, in July, Gulshan heard Reena make a presentation about Obama's platform in their native language of Punjabi. Gulshan liked what the Democratic candidate had to say about health care and felt he could be trusted.
But more than anything, she was drawn by the sense that she shared something fundamental in common with the young man whose skin color was so close to her own that Gulshan initially thought he might be Indian.
"He is one of us, you know," she said. "He feels the pain."
She said she hopes Obama's presidency will lead to greater racial harmony across the country. But his election has clearly already made a difference in her own life.
"Now," she said, "I feel I can call this country my home."
[Courtesy: The Washington Post]
January 12, 2009