Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Creator of the Sikh Messenger and co-founder of the Interfaith Network; first turbaned Lord and regular Thought for the Day contributor.
On the island
Eight records
After all the misery of the war years and a rotten summer in 1946, we suddenly had a glorious summer in 1947. My brother had recovered from pneumonia. My mother who'd been ill, was better. Everything was sunny and wonderful. And we'd do nothing but play cricket in the park, in actually on the golf course, to the annoyance of the golfers all day long. It was a wonderful world, and this song actually shows the spirit of the times, not only within the Sing family, but also in the wider community.
Lord Beginner with the Calypso Rhythm Kings
As you may have gathered, that um I and my brothers were all pretty mad on cricket. I used to remember the years by w which touring team came, forty-eight, uh, Australia, and then it came to the fifty when we came to the West Indies. They came and it was a bit of a shock to the cricketing system because it was all England and Australia. Suddenly you've got this West Indian team with the three W's, Weeks, Waddle and Walcott, and two wonderful spin bowlers. It showed a resurgence of cricket itself and a resurgence of spirit in the West Indies that we are someone.
This is the a mining song, Sixteen Tons. Now, I thought that my father's practising in his own house, it was all a bit boring being a doctor. I wanted to do something much more exciting. And at that time, the mining industry, which had been run down during the war, was now being reactivated. There was a lot of adverts. Mining is the career for you. Do this for anyone who calls themselves a man. And foolishly, I succumbed to it and I went down my first mine. It was a horrible place, but being stubborn, I thought I'm going to carry on with this. And so that became my career.
This is the on the street where you live from my fair lady. It is a very romantic one and we hadn't been married that long, I think, when we first uh heard it. And um my wife loved it, I loved it, and we went on using that song when in the family, when we went away on holiday, singing it in the car and so on.
Avala Nur UpayaFavourite
This is the Avalla Nuruppaya. It's a verse taken from the Gurugranthsa, which is all written in verses. That is our holy scripture. And the verse was actually written by a Muslim. And it's incorporated into the Gurugranthsa because of the Sikh insistence that no one religion has a monopoly of truth. So our holy book contains writings of Hindu and Muslim saints as well as the Sikh Gurus. It was written by a potter by trade, and he compares in this song that the one divine potter created all humanity into vessels of different shapes. How can you say that one is better than the other when all are created by the same one divine potter?
This is walk tall of a Valduniken. On a Saturday evening, the family would always watch the Val Duniken show with his colourful jumpers and the song itself. Walking tall, walking straight, and looking the world in the eyes is about the only way to go. Never look down on people or never get overawed with by people.
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. And um I first heard it through my daughters and it became a family favorite. And it reminds us of There are many things around us that we should value and we tend to value them after they've disappeared, people and things and a way of life. We should look and cherish what we have.
Harry Belafonte and Irving Burgie
This is Island in the Sun by Harry Belafonte. That is something, a song that resonates with me because it's not only a song in which he speaks of his love for his island, but it the film and the song come from a story where a white politician is defeated and the black one comes in, a changing order of things, which with the West Indians, finding something that we are masters of our own destiny for the first time some new experience for them, and I think that that also has an implication for the demise of colonialism.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:37When you do Thought for the Day, are you conscious of representing the Sikh perspective, or simply a spiritual perspective?
I don't think there's much difference between the both, because the Sikh perspective is looking outwards at um the whole commonalities between religions.
Presenter asks
2:03If I were to ask you to take the temperature from within Asian communities in Britain right now, what would you say that temperature is?
It is pretty high. There is a lot of uh concern, particularly over the um rise of extremism. There is concern, and uh all communities feel that they're being targeted.
Presenter asks
9:05How did you learn about the case of the young Sikh boy denied the right to wear his turban in school?
Luke, were you wearing a turban? We were wearing turbans, and it was very surprising that at that time there was a great deal of respect for Sikhs and the turban because of the links with the British Army. Many people did know who Sikhs were. The discrimination came really in the fifties and sixties.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Paper and pens for drawing cartoons
the luxury I spend ages writing and uh get infuriated when I see cartoonists with a few flicks of the pen... So I want to be able to draw draw cartoons and um show my skills in that. So I'd like the paper and pens to do that.
Presenter asks
12:40Was there a sense of absolute expectation that you would follow your father into medicine?
I think that was the expectation, but I think my parents were very uh liberal in their views, very forward thinking. Um many parents would correct someone who's left-handed and say, No, you've got to use your right they wouldn't uh that whatever it is, they took it and uh they were convinced that I'd make something of it, probably more convinced than I was.
Presenter asks
24:04At the time you were told of your appointment to the House of Lords, did you have worries about tokenism?
I did at the actual interview. They said, Do you realize that if we appoint you, you'll be the first at Tobin Seek. And I said, If you want a token seek, don't do it, because I want to be there on merit.
Presenter asks
28:12Is it important to you that the Sikh religion is at the centre of your grandchildren's lives, or do you think it will naturally become diluted?
So far i it's uh not diluted, but I think there's always that danger or possibility uh that it may. I would like them to understand and keep to the ethics of Sikhism. Other the things aren't as important as the ethics, but if they want to change, they should have a good reason for changing, because you shouldn't lose something as we just heard in the song that um you might later cherish.
“Sikhs are all chiefs and not Indians. We all consider ourselves as leaders.”
“Surprisingly, I didn't feel devastated or anything because uh you get used to these ups and downs and challenges”
“If you want a token seek, don't do it, because I want to be there on merit.”
“I'll retire when I fall to bet.”