By Dr Jashpal Kaur Bhatt | Malaysia |
My daughter, Manisha and I recently went to Spain and we also included a Paris stopover. So there we were, on a beautiful bright Parisienne morning, to do the obligatory Louvre tour.
As we approached the meeting point for the guided tour, I saw a sight which quite frankly took me pleasantly by surprise! There he was, a Sardarji in his lilac colored turban! Oh my, I thought to myself, this tour is going to be interesting!
As we gathered around, we were introduced to Sidakpreet Singh or ‘Sid’ for short. We were immediately drawn to his charming and engaging manner. He explained that he h a s worked in various jobs in Paris to sustain himself including being a tour guide and doing stand-up comedy. Sid is also multi-lingual as we heard him converse in English, French, Italian and of course, Punjabi!
After the pleasantries of introductions, we started our Louvre tour on a steady feed of Sid’s repartee, jokes and insights on French and European history, and the artistic masterpieces housed in the Louvre. He displayed a wealth of knowledge and gave us a refreshing perspective especially when he infused Sikhism and explained the impact of colonialism on the Louvre’s art collections.
It was heartwarming to see someone breaking stereotypes and representing the Sikh community with such intelligence, and charming the heart of Paris. Sid certainly showed off our Punjabi flair for the gift of the gab to perfection!
Our visit to the Louvre w a s truly memorable and we were incredibly proud to see a fellow Sikh on such a global stage.
You can find Sid at this link.
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