Manuscript
Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji ki Fateh
It’s pleasure to be speaking with you all today and I hope the days going well.
My name’s Dr Randeep and I was a student at GNS – having completed both my GCSE’s and A levels there around 2008.
Through the guidance of the school I was able to go on to study medicine at King’s College and graduate as a medical doctor. I’ve now been working as a hospital doctor for the past 6 years or so.
I was recently invited to revisit GNS and meet with headteacher Mr Sidhu – in the role of alumni and it was great to catch up on the continued success of the school and also reflecting on my experience as a student and how much the values of the school continue to help me today (even more so).
Following our discussion we felt it was important to share the key insights from my recent visit.
So as you can imagine the past 2 years working as a hospital doctor have been a complete rollercoaster.
During the time of the first pandemic around Februrary 2020 I was working in intensive care – we began getting the news of the spread of COVID 19 in Italy and the significant impact it was having on both patient’s health and hospital pressures.
Its safe to say the reports were quite unnerving and there was certainly an air of despair and worry.
I remember I was due to return from annual leave just as the hospital admissions in UK really began to pick up and I felt quite stressed out not knowing the risk I was exposing myself to and knowing the pandemic was going to most likely be an uphill battle.
I just laid in the bed the night before and I struggled to sleep – and my mind just tossed and turned – and looking back on it I think this has happened quite a few times but in these circumstances - naturally my mind finds itself in the assembly hall at GNS on a normal morning in the midst of meditation, in the midst ardaas and in the midst of the whole school unified in singing Deh Shiva. Which I think is the most powerful aspect when we all sing together because the blessings are then multiplied.
Slowly line by line the power of Deh Shiva completely soothed my mind “Deh shiva bar mohe shubh karman to kabhoon na daroon” (Oh Lord grant me this boon, that I should never refrain from righteous acts”
And I realised that I’ve been training for this moment, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to have the skillset of a medical doctor in intensive care and it’s my duty to provide care to, provide assistance even in the face of risk and in fact especially in the face of risk.
And that’s just one of the core values of Sikhism and Khalsa – that the school has blessed me with and I continue to practice today.
Another experience I want to share with you comes during the second wave of the pandemic in January 2021 – at this point in time I was working in respiratory high dependency unit and was managing patients who were severely unwell with COVID 19 and were on the borderline of requiring intensive care admission.
The second wave in comparison to the first wave significantly more challenging as a healthcare professional (for lots of reasons) and again I felt that familiar sense of stress returning.
To be honest the ways of Waheguru always continue to amaze me – I came across a painting of Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj – a painting depicting a moment when the Guru is sitting in Macchiwara Jungle in the depths of winter having just been in the battle of chamkaur (where his 2 Sahibzade, 3 of the panj pyare and countless Gursikh became shaheed).
Even with the shaheed of his loved ones and devotees the Guru remained in Chardi kala and shared the importance of nitnam and kirtan in the remembrance of Waheguru especially in the extreme hardships and tough times. Sharing the shabad - Mithar pyare nu haal mureedan da kehna.
And again this was another core value of Sikhi I appreciated from my time at GNS – maintaining this daily discipline of meditation and praise to Waheguru for the real suffering, the real distress is if our connection with Waheguru is lost. So we must maintain that on a daily basis.
Thank you for your time in listening to these experiences – and I would love to hear your thoughts and your experiences in the near future. I look forward to meeting you all.
Please get in touch via email if you want to share anything or have any queries regards to our talk today.
Thank you
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh