Ross St. Elections Today

Ross St. Gurdvara, the oldest and biggest (in terms of membership) Gurdvara (temple) in North America holds their committee elections today.

This was a B I G E V E N T back when I was growing up. Losing the elections (legitimately or not is another question) was a crushing blow to thousands of people, every 2 years.

Can things be different tonight? I doubt it... but we'll see.

Back in 1997, there was a big "split" created in the community, over something really petty, and relatively insignificant. (Until it was considered an issue in Amritsar). The small issue acted as a spark that split the community into 2 factions (There's actually many more but those are within the larger split). The people who run the Gurdvara/Temple today are largely secular. They're admittedly not very religious. A tiny (less than 1% I'd guess) percentage of them are actually baptized. The head of their other Major temple (Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey) is a drunk driver and just an all together sorry excuse for "President" of the Gurdvara.

It would be so nice to be able to go to Ross St. again... I went there every Sunday, my entire life, up until I was 10 or 11. And it would be so sweet if "our" side wins. The "fundamentalist" side (although they're not very fundamentalist either) isn't perfect, but they seem to genuinely "care" for SOME religious principles. There'd be massive celebration if they actually pulled it off tonight.

And it'd be a pretty cool birthday present too.

UPDATE: Yeah, they lost.