Dastar Bandhi of Preet Mohan Singh in 1954

In many families, when a boy reaches a certain age (usually eleven to sixteen), he is taken to a Gurudwara and there, in the presence of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib and following Ardaas, his first turban will be ceremonially tied on by the Granthi, an elder relation or another Sikh elder. The Granthi will explain the importance of keeping long hair and wearing a turban.This ceremony designates the respect with which the turban is regarded. The Turban is such a crucial article of faith that many Sikhs consider it to be more important than even all the other Ks. Turbans may be of any color, and is tied in many different ways and styles.

        Shivpreet 13 at the time of his turban

After my dad won the bid in an auction for our Jangpura house in 1954, it was decided to have an 'Akhand Path' and invite the whole family to celebrate the big occasion. As everything in the family was common and equal among my Dad Vas Dev Singh and uncle Inder Jit Singh, they also decided to include the Dastar Bandhi of me and one year younger cousin Roop (Tarlochan Singh) at the ceremony.

Accordingly, invitations were sent to all relatives in Patiala, Delhi, Simla and Amritsar well advance in time to join the facilitations on account of new house in Brand New India. To meet the sudden demand of refugees from Pakistan, the Government started development of Model Towns in all North Indian states.

In Delhi all our near family members were able to get allotted houses in rehabilitation Colonies like Lajpat Nagar, Nizammuddin, Janpura Extension,  Rajinder Nagar, Kalka Ji and Tilak Nagar. My Dad however could not get any as he temporarily settled in Panipat getting a job as Rationing Inspector and my uncle in the Financial Commissioners office, Simla. My mother was keen to be near to her sisters in Dalhi. Hence my father with the help of his old friend Jaswant Singh grabbed this opportunity to participate in the auction. While everybody else got it for Rupees 5000 direct from the government that too in installments, while my Dad had to shell out Rs 20000 owing to auction mode of procedure.

Once a while my Mom used to open her stock of clothes to clean and replace everything back into that big metal trunk beautifully painted green. This trunk had been gifted by her parents in the dowry and had amazing secret places to hide valuables and jewelry. This trunk was very descretly placed in a dark room inside our major living room. We had to take a lamp to work in that room even in broad day light, till my Dad engineered his mind to open a hole of 2 ft by 2 ft in the roof to work as a Sunroof. He also installed two iron rods to avoid any mis-step by humans to fall into the hole down to the dark room below. When the sudden rains came, we the kids will be given panic calls to go up the stairs immediately. A iron sheet meant for covering the same will be placed on the hole to escape the onslaught of sudden Monsoon/winter rains.

Run, run and run was the war cry often from our Mom to all my sisters and me to rush to cover the hole quickly as soon as the rains were about to come. Our sister Bobi was usually first to respond, followed by Ambu, Bhagwant and finally me who was lazy and bossy. Tipi always remained a toddler shirking school and studies both. We used to call this hole as 'Manghh'(a 2 ft Square). One winter day, we forgot to cover the hole and it rained really heavily and the rain water fell on the bundle of quilts in the dark room resulting in serious demage to them. It was hard to dry them in cold and wet weather. 

My puppy Moti fell down through this hole and broke his leg and ultimately died. I never forgave this hole till I got a big soft dog and christened it 'Pearl' which I posses it till date who will never die. The idea was to give a company to Shilpy so that she does not miss her dog Tintin left back with her parents. But this did not work as she is hardcore animal lover and likes the real ones. She now proudly posses a parrot called Tweety who is supposed to have life span of 80 years plus as being a yellow headed Amazon specie.

                   Pearl

And in this trunk our Mom will show us her dowry Sarees and other valuables and some money tucked in one corner. This trunk usually remained locked all the times. One piece of pink silken long cloth used as a turban was taken out and re-wrapped every time. She told us that this was gifted by my grandmother's parents in Shikarpur to my Dad for his Dastar Bandhi. But I never saw my Dad wearing this pink turban on him. She was very discreetly keeping it secured to be used on me at the time of my Dastar Bandhi. I felt elated every time I saw that pink cloth

So I was determined to use a pink color turban on Shivpreet Dastar Bandhi. Harvinder agreed and got pink silk cloth from USA specially herself for the purpose.

After the priest had tied the pink cloth turban on me in the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, I went straight to my one of my much older cousin on my mothers side as he was a hero to me. I requested him to re-tie a good turban on me. Incidentally I married his daughter as arranged among the family. And Harvinder as a bride joined us in the same house.

After the Dastar Bandhi, Enunchs came to dance & sing with Gurbani to start with. They were the same set of people who came at the time of my wedding, Shivpreet birth and Shivpreet wedding and at Gobind's birth. At the time of Gobind, the demand was too high asking only imported items besides money in lakhs. Harvinder and me very happily and graciously  gave them gifts of kind and money to their satisfaction. 

But at the time of my Dastar Bandhi, they caught hold of my Dad and lifted him in their laps and danced with him in spinning circles. In spite of their best efforts they could not grab my uncle who managed to slip to my Aunt house in the neighborhood. While they danced with my Dad and searched for uncle the whole rest of the clan burst into mountain of laughter in loud cheers which echoes in my ears even today.