This B. Tech student aspires to pursue higher studies in Britain. After failing to get admission through different education consultancies, he has come to Gurudwara Sant Baba Nihal Singh Ji Shaheedan in Talhan, Jalandhar, with a toy plane. Singh believes that by offering a toy plane in the gurudwara, his wish of going abroad would be fulfilled.
Singh is not the only youth, who has offered toy plane at the gurudwara for flying abroad. There are hundreds of Punjabi youth, who offer toy planes inscribed with the name of the country they intend to visit at gurudwara. In this NRI bastion, Doaba, of Punjab, you will find people offering toy planes, inscribed with names of international airlines, to gods for flying abroad.
People queue patiently outside this gurudwara to enter the inner sanctum on the first floor, where scores of equally decorative model aero-planes lie in neat rows, each a poignant tale of supplication or fruition. Devotees reverentially place their rainbow-coloured aircraft inside the demarcated enclosure and touching their forehead to the floor in obeisance pray to the Sikh Gurus and Baba Nihal Singh - a simple farmer from the predominantly agricultural belt adjoining Doaba region after whom the century-old Gurudwara is named — to send them abroad speedily.
Surinder of Kapurthala is another youth, who believes offering toy plane here fulfills the wishes of settling abroad. He said his close friend, who is now settled in US, after offering toy plane here received an offer letter from an multinational IT company in California. “My family asked me to offer a toy plane so that my wish also gets fulfilled,” he said.
Many others who had successfully migrated come armed with replica’s of Boeing 777’s and Airbus 300’s that ferried them abroad to express gratitude to the saint who they believe made it all happen. A middle aged man said he wanted to settle in Australia. “I had a work permit for Dubai and wanted to settle in Australia. I offered a toy plane inscribed with Australia and my wish was fulfilled. I have pledged to my saint that I will spend 10 days here to serve the visiting devotees,” he said. After all, there is a power greater than embassy officials and its here, he smilingly added. Lining the narrow, bustling alleyway leading to the temple are a host of shops selling a glittering variety of traditional offerings, of which toy aircraft were the most prominent.
The belief has not only added to the economy of the shopkeepers adjoining to the gurudwara, but also increased the income of gurudwara manifolds. Gurvinder Singh, a shopkeeper outside the gurudwara, said his business had grown manifold after adding toys to his provisional store. Scores of people visit the gurudwara every week to offer toy planes to the saint. Of all 28 Indian provinces, Punjab has possibly the largest number of expatriates, largely Sikhs numbering around three million mostly in the UK, Canada, the US, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Plodding down into the interiors of Doaba, you can find airplane shaped water tanks on the terraces of ancestral houses of NRIs. Even name of the country is written on these water tanks indicating his present country address. Ask any youth here in Doaba and you will find almost all of them aspiring to migrate abroad — either through the official channels or through human traficking. Those who can’t take shelter in belief and offer toy planes to the Gurudwara.
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