An introduction by Kirpal Singh Nijher
I have had the good fortune to know Karanveer and his family for a number of years. It takes everything you have as a parent to bring up a child in an environment, where there are extremely few who look like you. I have seen Karanveer in his formative years as he has been regularly attending Camp Khanda, a week long summer camp for Sikh children. My interaction with Karanveer has been somewhat more than other children since I have worked with his father on important Sikh issues for a long time and followed his various achievements. Starting in 2014 Karanveer has been nominated to be a Sikh youth counselor at the summer camp because he has shown excellent leadership skills with a strong foundation in his faith.
I have three children and seven grandchildren of my own and keenly understand all the issues laid out in this book. As my own children were growing up in a tiny town in upstate New York in the 70s and 80s we had our set of challenges as my children were the only kids of the Sikh faith in township and lived at least 100 miles away from the nearest city with any other visible Sikhs. Fortunately my wife was a high school teacher and I was a professional engineer, so we had the foresight to be able to tackle many issues proactively in order to make the academic environment within the school conducive to learning rather than a place of anxiety due to bullying. With tremendous effort and the Almighty’s grace all my kids pulled through to become physicians and good practicing Sikhs and phenomenal Americans. Both my sons were Eagle Scouts. My older son Dr. Navinderdeep Singh Nijher was one of the first ER interns to volunteer at Ground Zero during the immediate aftermath of the terrible 9/11. Even he was bullied by other adults at Ground Zero, while he gave everything he had while trying to save others selflessly.
So I truly understand the need for this book. If I had this book when my children were growing up, I am convinced that many more Sikh children would have had the tools to tackle bullying and learnt ways to deal with it more effectively and most definitely improving any chances of long term trauma caused by bullying.
I cannot thank Karanveer enough to bring out this ground breaking, solution oriented book which should be a must read by children starting from Middle School to High School; parents; teachers; counselors; bullying specialists; administrators, legislators and the general public. If everyone who is involved, i.e., the bullied and the bully acquired something positive from this book, the school would be a far better place for learning, because that is the primary reason for children to go there.
I want to congratulate Karanveer for the outstanding work he has done to bring out this fantastic book, in order to help his peers and thousands of others who suffer through bullying, daily.
Kirpal Singh Nijher, B.S.(Engg), MBA
Founding Member – Global Sikh Council
Past Chair of the American Sikh Council
Current member of the Boy Scouts Task Force – American Sikh Council
www.americansikhcouncil.org
Director – Camp Fatehgarh
https://www.campfatehgarh.org/
