Kampung Pandan Mini Samelan

Over the last weekend of June, Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (SNSM) organised a mini samelan in Kampung Pandan. Some friends are I were recruited to get our hands dirty and run the samelan - and we had an awesome time! Most of my friends have been busy in other samelans over the year, however for me this was the first time I was approaching a samelan from an organiser's point. My life-long experience at samelans as a participant was good training for what to expect, therefore it was mostly fun and very little work :)

...

Here are some pictures from our weekend...

Uncle Malkith, our Jathedar, overseeing registration

...

Ice-breakers

The first IPS by Gurmukh Veerji. I missed the first half of the session as we were at a meeting; when we rejoined the sangat they were singing Raam Japo Ji and Veerji told them the story of Prahlaad.

Team briefing (clockwise): Manpreet, Gurreet, Tarsem, Salprith, Sukhsharan, me, Sukhvin, Saranjit, Sukhvin, Rashvinder, Gelinder

...

One of the activities we organised was the Banaa Runway competition - we provided newspapers, bits of coloured paper, ribbons and some other itsy bitsies for the teams to design their own Banaas and parade them.

Some of our younger participants being possesive over their name tags :)

Hard at work Jeshvind was one of the most adorable kids there - he stole all our hearts and all the girls still go 'awwwwwwwwww' whenever we think of him!

The four contestants

I love you Guru Nanak, I love you so truly

I love you Guru Nanak, you're magical to me...

A shot at langgar seva

We ran out of langgar the first night, so while we were with the kids, Gurleen taught Sukhjit how to make rotis - we gave him a lot of hell but they turned out pretty well!

At Nishaan Sahib Selami in the morning

My first IPS - we were assigned to carry out one darbar session with the kids. I was pretty nervous - how on earth do people keep children's attention in the darbar? But I need not have worried - Manpreet is good with kids and has done this before, Sukhjit is spot on with the tabla, our back up was strong and the kids were angels. I think we all enjoyed ourselves!

Bani Puzzle - the kids rearranged various lines from Gurbani (we chose verses they would be familiar with from their nitnem) and discussed their meaning.

Saranjit created a following - don't go Veerji, don't go!

The kids were well worth it :)

Thank you to the sangat of Kampung Pandan for giving us the chance to do this... and to Gurreet, Gurleen, Rupinder and your family - thank god you were there to coordinate everything - we couldn't have done it without you.

Bring on the next samelan - We're ready!