Monday, August 31, 2009

Among Young Sikhs, Expressions of Faith Mixing Two Worlds

Many young, well-educated and upwardly mobile Sikhs are meeting with each other and keeping their religion alive in this country. They are doctors, lawyers, bankers, engineers, computer consultants, graduate students and others. About half are the children of immigrants, half are immigrants themselves. All are becoming Americans, but not losing their own culture. - - Donna Poisl

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

Mandeep Singh was having dinner with a friend in Queens several years ago when the subject turned to their common religion, Sikhism. Mr. Singh had grown up in India unquestioningly embracing the faith of his parents. As a college student in Delhi, he attended a gurdwara, or temple, with a congregation well into the hundreds and a paid staff of a dozen, leaving him feeling devout yet somehow peripheral.

By this time, working as a technology consultant in New York, Mr. Singh had a different sensation, not exactly unsettled but acutely curious. So when his friend mentioned that a local Sikh association had a page on Facebook, not exactly the place Mr. Singh was expecting to find religious direction, he eagerly clicked to it.
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