Gurpreet Kaur

Akhandpaht 1 - Day 3 (Bhog/Closing) / Akhandpaht 2 - Day 1 (Arambh/Opening)

Today was the final day for the first Akhandpaht that was set for my cousin sister and my nephew in the morning at 9.00am. (Again I missed the morning because of University ). My cousin sister, brother in law and nephew were all at the Gurdwara by 9.00am to be blessed.

Since we are doing a double back to back Akhandpaht it was important to keep the second one (which was in the happiness for my 21st Birthday) to be opened straight away so the timings do not differ on Sunday for the final closure of the Akhandpaht. (Again since this was in the morning around 10.00/10.30am I missed it as I was at University during the time).

Gladly I finished University early around 2.00pm, which was a relief; I reached back into Southampon by 2.30pm. Where I got ready for Gurdwara again and reached the Gurdwara at 3.30pm.

In the evening my brother came via train from his apartment in Central London from his University. I was so happy to see him !

Another tiring but amazing day!!

Akhandpaht 1 - Day 2

Okay so it was day 2 of the first Akhandpaht today, as I explained yesterday majority of my day today was going to be spent at University again as I was working for the University as an SMA again, and had to attend a few introductory lectures too.

I reached roughly at the same time to the Gurdwara as yesterday, 5.15ish. As soon as I reached the Gurdwara my Bhua (dad’s eldest sister) wished me a happy birthday first along with my mum !! It took my dad up till 8.30pm to realise and wish me (Ha-ha!, Bless him).

Today mum made a lot of barfi, pehreh and besan (Indian sweets) to hand out on Sunday in the happiness of my 21st birthday Akhandpaht.

A few of my family friends also arrived to help out with Seva (selfless service), our job was to put all the Indian sweets into boxes then decorate the boxes with ribbon. We used pink and red ribbon. (It was fun!). We ended up with having a laugh and a joke as my siblings were there too !! & not forgetting the 21 birthday fever I was in (Ha-ha!).

Overall the day was yet again brilliant !

It’s my birthday today! Oh my God! I’m 21!!

The day has been amazing today.

Started off with receiving up to 50 texts over midnight!!

Until early morning my dad was hovering around the kitchen just gathering some last minute stuff to take to the Gurdwara, and he totally forgets it’s my birthday (NO WISH NO NOTHING ), I was quite disappointed really since my dad is the one who usually remembers and is always the first one to wish me. So I didn’t bother telling my dad I waited to see when he would remember.

…nevertheless I went to University in the morning and received gifts from my best mate. I got a brilliant personalised card alongside with a beautiful embroidered A5 sized piece with my name beautifully done with beadwork. (It fit perfectly in my frame). She also gave a birthstone necklace, which was absolutely stunning & (yes there’s more) an engraved pen with a personalised message, was so sweet. Not to forget the pink bag (Ha-ha!) It’s all about the pink bag!! !

Since I was working at the University too, again as an ASK ME assistant my colleagues also wished me , which I later realised it was being spread around the whole department !! Was brilliant though.

My day rounded off with going to the Gurdwara (explaining the rest of the day in a new post).

Akhandpaht 1 - Day 1

Well today was it. The first Akhandpaht has been opened and unfortunately I wasn’t there from the beginning, as University got in the way (I knew it would) but I was helpless and couldn’t do anything about it. Since I was working for the University too as a Student Marketing Assistant (SMA) with “ASK ME”, which is a couple of SMA’s wearing purple ASK ME T-shirts around the University campus to direct the new students (first years) in the right direction and avoid them from getting lost.

I finished at 3.30pm (which wasn’t so bad). I reached back into Southampton at 4.15ish. After I got back from University and jumped into the bath to get ready to go to the Gurdwara.

By 5.15pm I was at the Gurdwara (finally). It was really nice to see that there was a lot of Sangat (congregation) at the Gurdwara especially on a week day. This felt really good.

However I gathered that my cousin sister and my 4 and a half month old nephew (her son) (whom this first Akhandpaht is for) had come during the morning and afternoon and I just missed them by a few minutes.

…Majority of the work was done so I just helped on the minor work that needed to be addressed.

I can gladly say the first day went absolutely fantastic. I just got back a while ago and can’t wait until tomorrow. (Even though I’ll be at University half the day AGAIN ).

YAY! Only 1 day to go until the first Akhandpaht opens.

…and today parents have been busy with preparing for tomorrow at the Gurdwara and shifting the shopping from home to the Gurdwara store room.

Blimey! It was a lot, and mum and dad shifted it all on their own. I was at University all day unfortunately meaning my parents had to do all the hard work on their own (Bless them). My brother isn’t going to come until Friday evening too so he wasn’t there to help either.

I was back from University at 6.00pm as I finished at 5.00pm (the traffic on M275 was appauling, and literally took me a whole 15/20 minute journey to an hour journey ). So it was a little too late to help mum and dad out.

This week is the start to our induction week at Uni. We don’t start any lectures or tutorials until next week, but this doesn’t mean that the induction week isn’t important. This is the reason why I have to go into University this week. Just in case I miss out on anything important. Despite having our first Akhandpaht open (Arambh) this Wednesday.

It felt really strange to see so many students again (I mean it was more than 4 months not seeing students around campus anymore). But the first year students trying to find their way around were absolute flashbacks when I was a first year. Not knowing the way around, getting lost at certain places.

…I remember my first day at University in my first year. How couldn’t I remember? It was my birthday that year 2^nd October 2006. And what a birthday I had. Well we (my friend and I) had an introduction lecture at Park building at 9.00am. Firstly we caught the train to University that day from Southampton Central to Portsmouth & Southsea station, which we reached at 8.30am. Secondly it was tipping with rain and it had been a whole 45 minutes just roaming half of Portsmouth town walking drenched in rain. (What a birthday it was). Finally we found Park building, and then realised it was a literal 2 minute walk from the station to Park building (What the hell?). Ha-Ha! Is quite funny now looking back to it but that day we were humiliated in front of hundreds of students walking in a lecture room late that consisted of up to 200 students just staring at two fools arriving all drenched in rain and late. (Ahh, the good times!).

So I kind of felt sorry for the new students trying to find their way around. Since I been there and experienced it all. Far more worse I would guess, at least today it was a nice bright sunny day with minor winds.

Tomorrow induction week starts!! (Eeek!) It clashes in with the Akhandpaht’s meaning I will be at University for half of the day, depending on my time table. (Not so good).

However I am excited to start University again, as holidays were getting a little boring, but still it’s a huge disappointment with the clash of the Akhandpaht’s.

Oh well we’ll see what happens. Jut hope Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are decent starts and finishes.

After yesterdays shopping at Southall, everything was cramped in the front room. I was trying to clear it all out. But no luck! I hadn’t the least clue on how to shift things around, and if I did start to move them around, mum and dad would tell me to just leave them where they are.

I seriously don’t think that the amount of shopping is even required but then again considering there is two Akhandpaht’s taking place back to back so maybe it is necessary.

…Only 4 days left until the Akhandpahts begin. So hopefully some of the shopping (by Tuesday) will be transferred to the Gurdwara (solving the cramped up front room).

Following on from my previous post.

…Today we went to Slough/Southall again to complete the remaining shopping that was left to do for the “double Akhandpaht”.

We went to my aunty’s house first (Dad’s sister) in Slough to pick her up as she was going to come with us to help us complete the shopping and buy the remaining products that were left to buy. We reached at my aunty’s place by 10.30am.

Approximately at 11.30am we decided to make a move to Southall as we had an appointment with a solicitor, Harjap Singh Bhangal, at the London Immigration Advice & Appeal Service Ltd. Which is situated in Southall on King Street (just off Havelock Road, where the new Gurdwara is built).

The traffic into Southall was horrendous even during weekdays, which is one reason why i despise going to Southall because of the congestion you have to face.

Finally when we actually started to move we parked our car into the Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Havelock Road, parking. At the time the Nishan Sahib was being bathed and changed - was brilliant !!

…After finishing with the solicitor it came up to 1.30pm. After a one and a half hour wait for a 5 minute talk. We needed to reach to “Quality Foods” where we were going to buy the rest of the products we required.

Before we came my mum had made my dad and I write a huge list of what was remaining. My aunt was much more experienced at finding out where we can get the most cheapest but quality worth products. it was QUALITY FOODS vs NATCO CASH & CARRY. Overall NATCO CASH & CARRY won (ha-ha!). However all the products that we knew we couldn’t purchase at NATCO Cash & Carry we bought from Quality Foods.

The bill was a total of £70 at Quality Foods.

After completing the Quality Food’s shopping, my aunt and I went to purchase a “Rumaalaa”. I saw a gorgeous burgundy and gold one for only £15. Which I decided to buy (as my aunt preferred it too )

We then headed off to NATCO Cash & Carry to buy rest of the products. Where the bill only totalled up to £86 saving ourselves on £70. (WELL DONE TO MY AUNTY !!)

I totally hate entering the General Hospital in Southampton. The atmosphere of it all is so depressing.

Well guess where I went today?

…General Hospital (Great!)… I went to drop my mum off to her ward as she had an appointment for a few tests that had to be undertaken, and due to the sizes of the rooms no family was allowed to stay with her. We were just given a time to come back to pick mum up when it was convenient.

Even though we were told to just drop mum off I couldn’t stand just being there.