39 years of unflinching, selfless devotion for ‘Guru’s Hukum’

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, November 8

Setting an exceptional example of faith and dedication, a city-based elderly woman, Vinod Joshi, alias Dimpi (67), has been going to Gurdwara Model Town barefoot on a daily basis for the past 39 years. What’s more interesting is that she reaches gurdwara at 1 am sharp and stays there till 6 am. There hasn’t been a single day, not even during the 1988 Punjab floods, when she missed the routine that she started on January 1, 1983.

She says though the age is taking its toll on her, the routine remains unchanged. “Earlier I used to take 10 minutes to walk to gurdwara from my house, now it takes me a little longer due to old age,” she adds. When asked about her inspiration, Dimpi says it was a random decision she took after her father’s demise; and thereafter it was ‘Guru’s Hukum’ and there was no looking back. “During 1988 floods, my mother was not allowing me to step out as there was knee-deep water on the streets. But against her wish, I stepped out that too barefoot, and managed to reach the gurdwara,” she says.

In 1995, her younger sister died and after a few years her mother, too, passed away, and she was left all alone. “I remember how the time spent doing sewa in the gurdwara helped me get out of my loneliness and made me stronger. I am a teacher; I had my own coaching centre. My family’s expenses were being managed from my earnings. I closed the centre a few years ago due to my old-age related issues”, she says, adding that she still has savings with her that she is able to pay her house rent on her own.

Meanwhile, Sahara Sewa Samiti, an NGO, run by city-based couple Kirandeep Singh and Harpreet Kaur, both teachers, honoured Dimpi with a memento and a siropa. The couple also organised an interactive session of Dimpi with children, where she briefed students about Guru Nanak’s teachings and encouraged them to adopt the same in their daily life.

Harpreet Kaur, an arts school incharge at Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women, and her husband Prof Kirandeep Singh, head, Punjab Department at LPU, say their NGO actively organises various activities, including poetry, declamation, poster-making, quizzes, etc., in schools and colleges to motivate children to follow Guru Nanak’s teachings.

“We have covered over 20 schools and colleges. We also organised a Gurmukhi camp at the gurdwaras and showed the movie ‘Nanak Noor Ellahi’ to children,” says Harpreet.