Why Bollywood Matters

Parenthetically, I add here that in the past four or five years, there has been somewhat of a turn-around, and I have to credit largely Sikhs in the diaspora for the positive direction. I point to the Spinning Wheel Film Festivals that have emerged in the past four years and now are seen in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and other places. At these festivals, movies on and about Sikh life are shown; some are historical documentaries, others are fictionalized stories. They are informative and empowering. I find it fascinating that most of the moviemakers are young Sikhs from outside India, and a great majority are young women.

And that's why it is important to keep close to our hearts the universality and commonality of the message of Sikhi, which reminds us that we are different vessels, molded from the same clay - with the same noses, the same eyes, the same lips.

And that's precisely why the Sikh congregational prayer asks for the betterment of all mankind; not for Whites at the expense of Blacks or Browns; for men and not women; for Sikhs and not non-Sikhs ...