Columnists
Sikhi Keeps Me On The Straight & Narrow:
Janam Da Firangee,
Sikhi Main Mangee
FATEHPAL SINGH TARNEY
I am a Vietnam War veteran and I get medical help at a U.S. Veterans Administration outpatient clinic in South Florida as well as one in Michigan.
I am very pleased with the care that I receive and I have two wonderful lady physicians: a primary care doctor and a psychiatrist in Florida who, despite the many patients they see, remember me.
I realize that my Sikh saroop may have something to do with this.
Receiving good care from the Veterans Administration (“VA”) was not always the case.
When I first returned from the war, almost 50 years ago, my treatment by VA personnel was not good at all. When I described symptoms of post-traumatic stress, VA people looked at me as though I was from another planet. One person found my description laughable. Moreover, at one VA facility, they actually put color-coded tags on veterans and I got the feeling that we were about to be loaded on freight cars headed for Auschwitz.
This was one of the most demeaning post-war experiences I ever had.
On my last visit to a VA outpatient clinic, a fellow veteran I did not know paid me a compliment, saying to me that aside from my gray beard, I looked like a 20 year old. This, I guess, is one of the benefits of regular exercise.
The exam rooms at VA clinics are adjacent to one another and the partitions are paper thin. One cannot help but hear conversations in the nearby rooms. The physicians are really up against it given that many veterans are unwilling to help themselves in terms of their own health. They chain smoke; do drugs; do not exercise; have bad eating habits; drink to excess, and are in dysfunctional relationships.
Then, they come to the VA and say to the doctors, things like, “Cure me!”
My point here is that all medical issues have social-psychological components that must be taken into account.
When I hear these things, I count my blessings, which come primarily from my Sikh faith: no smoking; no drinking; no drugs; a good exercise regimen; a wonderful vauhti (wife), but I do confess that my diet needs improvement.
Meri vauhti is almost a vegan, whereas I am an omnivore with an emphasis on carnivore and, yes, junk food. One of the many benefits of my gym workouts is to be able to eat junk food with an almost clear conscience.
May 15, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Gurpal Singh (United Kingdom), May 15, 2015, 4:14 PM.
Your Sikhi is a bit like going to the gym then; keeping you fit and healthy. Sounds good to a junk-food addict like myself.
2: Himmat Kaur (Illinois, USA), May 15, 2015, 5:37 PM.
You're correct, Gurpal ji. In this article, Fatehpal Singh talks about the regimen that makes us physically fit. But he doesn't say, or one shouldn't conclude that he suggests, that it is all that he sees in Sikhi. Elsewhere on sikhchic.com, he has written about Sikhi as a gym to which one goes for spiritual fitness, and also to develop an acute civic sense.