The Fresno Bee: Family Gets New Mission:
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Valarie Kaur
Apr 6, 2005, 3:47:27 AM4/6/05
to rebuild...@googlegroups.com
Dear Friends,
The Fresno Bee has published a wonderful follow-up story on my dad's
trip and the impact it has had on our family. The text is below, but
you can email me for the colorful PDF version or see:
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/10248463p-11059956c.html
This experience has turned out to inspire greater plans. More soon on
the next steps...
Valarie
-------------------
Family gets a new mission
Clovis man's trip to aid tsunami victims inspires changes.
By Diana Marcum / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Monday, April 4, 2005, 6:40 AM)
The thing about adventure is one never knows where it will lead.
When Clovis resident Judge Singh Brar returned this weekend from a
10-week trip helping tsunami victims on the island of Great Nicobar
hundreds of miles off the coast of India, he came back with more than
stories to tell.
He came back with a new life in mind. New purpose.
While he was away, his wife, Dolly, and two grown children Valarie
Kaur Brar, 24, and Sanjeev Singh Brar, 22, also had been re-evaluating
their family's priorities.
That first night back was a rare occasion for the four to be together
because Valarie, a first-year divinity student at Harvard University,
lives in Boston and Sanjeev studies astrophysics at University of
California at Berkeley.
They didn't look at pictures from Brar's trip.
They only later discussed the hardships and wonders he'd seen, the odd
twists that his journey had taken.
That night they talked about their future.
"The first thing on all of our minds was 'Do we want to change our
direction?''' said Judge Singh Brar, 53.
For years the children have worried about their parents. They are
taxed and stressed all the time from running their engineering
contracting business. The office is in their home and the phone rings
constantly.
But to Judge and Dolly, their purpose had been clear.
"They got into schools I never dreamed of. We had to make enough money
to provide them with every opportunity," he said.
But now, as a family, they are saying enough to the constant financial
pressure. The children told their parents that they can take care of
themselves. Valarie has a scholarship. Sanjeev is almost finished with
school.
As a family they are going to redirect their energy to helping people
on a far-off island, long after the immediate devastation of the
tsunami has passed.
It started when nothing on Judge Singh Brar's trip went quite as
planned. He thought he was going to use his skills as a contractor to
rebuild a sawmill and 70 homes destroyed by the giant wave.
Instead, Brar, who used to ask his children for help getting on the
Internet, started a computer lab. He also is trying to found an export
business for the islanders and is setting up a sponsorship program to
help island children further their education.
Great Nicobar, a remote island that's the most southern tip of India,
is home to a military runway and a space research center. Native
groups who have had little contact with the outside world live in the
mountainous interior.
All the land is owned by the Indian government except some given to
Punjabi settlers around Campbell Bay. Brar's group, United Sikhs,
couldn't get government permission to rebuild the settlers' houses.
The government says they will take care of it.
The assistant commissioner, the governmental authority on the island,
was a stickler for the rules. Brar had to write a letter to get
permission for everything, even buying 5 liters of gasoline. He spent
much of every day writing letters.
In the meantime, the entire island seemed to have dropped about six
feet. The pier was broken into two. Farms and homes were destroyed.
About 35 people died. Brar looked for other ways to offer aid. He
helped rebuild the local Sikh temple, where his team handed out food
and supplies bought by the United Sikhs. The whole time the island
children followed him around. Few spoke English, even though it's
required in Indian schools. Teachers don't want to come to the remote
island.
"Not speaking English is like a jail sentence. They can never leave
the island and find a job," Brar said.
Then, while trying to find a way to get on the Internet, Brar went to
the space research center and made friends with John Robert Babu, who
works there. Babu had been running a small computer class for the
children in his free time, but his personal computers were destroyed
in the wave. Babu told Brar there was space on the research center's
satellite link to put a computer lab online if only someone could find
a way to make it happen.
Brar went to the mainland and bought 10 computers that the island
children are already using. Babu is now making 7,000 rupees, or $125 a
month, to run the center. Brar has written the Indian government to
ask for permission to tie into their satellite Internet, until they
can raise about $15,000 to buy their own dish.
Brar and his family are envisioning a satellite link and a projector
for remote teaching, so the children on the island can learn English
and study other subjects from teachers far away. People could then
sponsor children to go away to study when they got older.
On Brar's first night back, his family talked about how they could
support such a plan. Sanjeev Brar wondered whether they might be able
to fund a foundation by exporting musical instruments from the island.
"Instead of just bringing them technology, we could export a product
of human ingenuity that's just as valuable, maybe more so," he said.
The Brar family knows, after seeing the unexpected twists that the
adventure has already taken, that there's no telling where things
could go from here.
"It's such a dynamic exchange," said Valarie Brar. "Because of my
parents' hard work, I didn't have to study something lucrative. I
didn't have to be an investment banker, I was free to study social
justice. My brother has always loved music.
"Now, in turn, our passions are influencing their new plans."
On the island of Great Nicobar, Brar made many friends. They came to
his aid when he needed them.
Because of the military connection and native people, the government
allows only native Indians to go to Great Nicobar. Even after a
tsunami hits.
Brar's father came from Punjab to Clovis in 1913. When the assistant
commissioner discovered Brar, who had passed as a native, was
American, he ordered him and the rest of the team to leave before the
computer lab and other work was finished.
More than 150 islanders organized a march to the man's office and
demanded the relief group be allowed to stay.
Now, Brar intends to keep being a friend to the island.
"It's the end of the first adventure," he said. "But it's a beginning
of shifting our priorities here at home from making money to doing
humanitarian work."
HOW TO HELP
* To donate to the computer center on Great Nicobar island or find out
more about sponsoring a child, call Valarie Kaur Brar at (650)
269-2792.
* To read reports and view photographs: http:// rebuild-nicobar.blogspot.com.
--
Valarie Kaur
Graduate Student
Harvard Divinity School
VK...@hds.harvard.edu
The Fresno Bee has published a wonderful follow-up story on my dad's
trip and the impact it has had on our family. The text is below, but
you can email me for the colorful PDF version or see:
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/10248463p-11059956c.html
This experience has turned out to inspire greater plans. More soon on
the next steps...
Valarie
-------------------
Family gets a new mission
Clovis man's trip to aid tsunami victims inspires changes.
By Diana Marcum / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Monday, April 4, 2005, 6:40 AM)
The thing about adventure is one never knows where it will lead.
When Clovis resident Judge Singh Brar returned this weekend from a
10-week trip helping tsunami victims on the island of Great Nicobar
hundreds of miles off the coast of India, he came back with more than
stories to tell.
He came back with a new life in mind. New purpose.
While he was away, his wife, Dolly, and two grown children Valarie
Kaur Brar, 24, and Sanjeev Singh Brar, 22, also had been re-evaluating
their family's priorities.
That first night back was a rare occasion for the four to be together
because Valarie, a first-year divinity student at Harvard University,
lives in Boston and Sanjeev studies astrophysics at University of
California at Berkeley.
They didn't look at pictures from Brar's trip.
They only later discussed the hardships and wonders he'd seen, the odd
twists that his journey had taken.
That night they talked about their future.
"The first thing on all of our minds was 'Do we want to change our
direction?''' said Judge Singh Brar, 53.
For years the children have worried about their parents. They are
taxed and stressed all the time from running their engineering
contracting business. The office is in their home and the phone rings
constantly.
But to Judge and Dolly, their purpose had been clear.
"They got into schools I never dreamed of. We had to make enough money
to provide them with every opportunity," he said.
But now, as a family, they are saying enough to the constant financial
pressure. The children told their parents that they can take care of
themselves. Valarie has a scholarship. Sanjeev is almost finished with
school.
As a family they are going to redirect their energy to helping people
on a far-off island, long after the immediate devastation of the
tsunami has passed.
It started when nothing on Judge Singh Brar's trip went quite as
planned. He thought he was going to use his skills as a contractor to
rebuild a sawmill and 70 homes destroyed by the giant wave.
Instead, Brar, who used to ask his children for help getting on the
Internet, started a computer lab. He also is trying to found an export
business for the islanders and is setting up a sponsorship program to
help island children further their education.
Great Nicobar, a remote island that's the most southern tip of India,
is home to a military runway and a space research center. Native
groups who have had little contact with the outside world live in the
mountainous interior.
All the land is owned by the Indian government except some given to
Punjabi settlers around Campbell Bay. Brar's group, United Sikhs,
couldn't get government permission to rebuild the settlers' houses.
The government says they will take care of it.
The assistant commissioner, the governmental authority on the island,
was a stickler for the rules. Brar had to write a letter to get
permission for everything, even buying 5 liters of gasoline. He spent
much of every day writing letters.
In the meantime, the entire island seemed to have dropped about six
feet. The pier was broken into two. Farms and homes were destroyed.
About 35 people died. Brar looked for other ways to offer aid. He
helped rebuild the local Sikh temple, where his team handed out food
and supplies bought by the United Sikhs. The whole time the island
children followed him around. Few spoke English, even though it's
required in Indian schools. Teachers don't want to come to the remote
island.
"Not speaking English is like a jail sentence. They can never leave
the island and find a job," Brar said.
Then, while trying to find a way to get on the Internet, Brar went to
the space research center and made friends with John Robert Babu, who
works there. Babu had been running a small computer class for the
children in his free time, but his personal computers were destroyed
in the wave. Babu told Brar there was space on the research center's
satellite link to put a computer lab online if only someone could find
a way to make it happen.
Brar went to the mainland and bought 10 computers that the island
children are already using. Babu is now making 7,000 rupees, or $125 a
month, to run the center. Brar has written the Indian government to
ask for permission to tie into their satellite Internet, until they
can raise about $15,000 to buy their own dish.
Brar and his family are envisioning a satellite link and a projector
for remote teaching, so the children on the island can learn English
and study other subjects from teachers far away. People could then
sponsor children to go away to study when they got older.
On Brar's first night back, his family talked about how they could
support such a plan. Sanjeev Brar wondered whether they might be able
to fund a foundation by exporting musical instruments from the island.
"Instead of just bringing them technology, we could export a product
of human ingenuity that's just as valuable, maybe more so," he said.
The Brar family knows, after seeing the unexpected twists that the
adventure has already taken, that there's no telling where things
could go from here.
"It's such a dynamic exchange," said Valarie Brar. "Because of my
parents' hard work, I didn't have to study something lucrative. I
didn't have to be an investment banker, I was free to study social
justice. My brother has always loved music.
"Now, in turn, our passions are influencing their new plans."
On the island of Great Nicobar, Brar made many friends. They came to
his aid when he needed them.
Because of the military connection and native people, the government
allows only native Indians to go to Great Nicobar. Even after a
tsunami hits.
Brar's father came from Punjab to Clovis in 1913. When the assistant
commissioner discovered Brar, who had passed as a native, was
American, he ordered him and the rest of the team to leave before the
computer lab and other work was finished.
More than 150 islanders organized a march to the man's office and
demanded the relief group be allowed to stay.
Now, Brar intends to keep being a friend to the island.
"It's the end of the first adventure," he said. "But it's a beginning
of shifting our priorities here at home from making money to doing
humanitarian work."
HOW TO HELP
* To donate to the computer center on Great Nicobar island or find out
more about sponsoring a child, call Valarie Kaur Brar at (650)
269-2792.
* To read reports and view photographs: http:// rebuild-nicobar.blogspot.com.
--
Valarie Kaur
Graduate Student
Harvard Divinity School
VK...@hds.harvard.edu
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