It was a moment of pride, at the same time, an awakening or sorts for many who attended a special concert by the Punjabi Education Centre, Petaling Jaya (PEC, GSPJ) on 3 August 2014.  The atmosphere in University Malaya’s Experimental Theater was exceptionally exciting as it was an uncommon act that was being staged.

Undoubtedly, the evening unfolded to an entertaining 180 minutes of utter fun and vibrancy, depicting the various traditions of the rich Punjabi wedding. The medley of dance, music, singing and dialogues demonstrating the Punjabi culture was brought to live by the students aged between 3-16 years of age, leaving the crowd in awe, parents, teachers and well-wishers, alike.

It was certainly a sight to behold dearly, as young ones embraced an appreciation for the Punjabi culture. At the same time, encouraging others to follow suit by promoting the importance of cultural preservation.

Speaking at the event, State Assemblyman for Bukit Gasing R Rajiv applauded the students, PEC management and Sikh leaders for adopting proactive measures to nurture holistic individuals from young.

“This is the first time that I saw a Punjabi/Sikh wedding. If only it was in English, I would have understood the ceremonies conducted. The kids did a really good job in taking us through the colourful ceremony,” said Mr Simon, the technician on duty.

To-date, more than 2,000 students have pursued Punjabi learning classes at the PEC, Petaling Jaya. Overall, approximately 12,000 individuals have obtained lessons of the Punjabi culture at the 46 Punjabi Education Centres nationwide. The Centres, which operate every Saturday in most places, are commonly based at local Gurdwara premises with funding from the respective Gurdwara Committees, donations and some federal government funding through the Khalsa Diwan Malaysia or directly from State governments.

“The full dress rehearsal this morning was chaotic with the kids, teachers and parents all over the place,” said concert coordinator Dr Surinderpal Kaur of University Malaya. “However, when the concert started, everything miraculously fell in place. The kids performed exceptionally well, beyond our expectations.”

by Jaipreet Kaur

On Sunday, 3rd August the students of Punjabi Education Centre Petaling Jaya performed ‘The Sikh Wedding – Part 2’ (Part 1 was performed a few years ago and was captured on slides before the concert began) at their concert at the University Malaya Experimental Theatre.  Just like a real Sikh wedding, the show took months of preparation and organisation – the bride and groom had to be told what to do, the scripts had to be written, the guests had to be invited. A balance had to be struck between the level of instruction from the older teachers and the ability of the younger students to perform every set task to perfection.

I volunteered as part of the backstage team. Again, many parallels could be drawn between working backstage at this event, and working behind the scenes of a real wedding – it could best be described as an organised mess where everyone knew what the ultimate goal was, but had various different ideas about how it could best be achieved.  During the dress rehearsal, the backstage team managed to divide up the various roles and responsibilities, and just like any good backstage team anywhere in the world, we did our best to make the teachers’ and students’ vision for what ought to happen on stage a reality.

In the end, none of the chaos from backstage was visible to the audience. The students were hugely impressive – the entire performance was in Punjabi, which was an enormous success considering the fact that for the vast majority of them, it was not their first language despite it being their mother tongue. Indeed, many of the children were able to speak better Punjabi than their parents! For such a young group, I was surprised by the high quality of their acting, though I suppose I should not have been, because each and every student on stage had undoubtedly been going to weddings from the time they were old enough to be carried to them, so everything they did on stage came very naturally to them.

All in all, it was an extremely enjoyable performance, and a hugely educational one. Each part of the wedding was described and its significance explained to the audience, and the students played their parts with authenticity and enthusiasm. I hope very much that their parents congratulated them for what they were able to achieve as a result of spending the greater part of so many precious Saturdays at ‘Punjabi School’.

(Jaipreet is pursuing the Bar Course in the UK)

LET’S improve our command of English. That was the underlying idea behind the English Fest rolled out by the Coalition of Malaysian Sikh Organisations (CMSO) in Petaling Jaya in September.

Some 40 students took part in the one-day session, part of CMSO’s English Enrichment Programme initiative to prepare them for higher education and improve their prospects in the job market.

Serving and retired educators made up the team of facilitators led by Satwant Kaur. The others were Matishwar Kaur, Gurdarshan Kaur, Disvimther Kaur, Bachan Kaur, Ravinder Kaur, Thevy Rajaretnam, Dr Sheena Kaur, Maher Vann Singh and Veereen Kaur.

English Fest will also be held in other towns in Malaysia in due course. The next programme, English CAmp on Creative Story Writing, will be held in Petaling Jaya on Nov 9.

See report in STAR METRO.

COMING UP: English Camp on Creative Story Writing (Nov 9, 2014; Petaling Jaya)