My perspective on the Sikh Camps in the United States
Simran Grover
Growing up in Denver, Colorado I was never exposed to many Sikh families, especially not many that had children that were my age. My parents and my paternal grandmother were instrumental in teaching me to become a Sikh girl. The summer before my junior year in high school, my brother and I were given the opportunity to attend a Sikh camp in Maryland. My cousins on the east coast were to also join us. A group of eight people was quickly established.
The camp was great fun and a delightful experience. I had never seen so many Sikh children in one place at the same time; especially not in Denver, let alone in the U.S. Throughout the day, there would be path, classes, games, and other enjoyable activities.
Besides all of the superficial aspects to a camp, I felt that there was more being brewed than what met the eye. Unfortunately, I don’t know if it is advantageous or disadvantageous. To begin, it is definitely a great place to meet new people. But that can quickly become a maze for teenagers; “He is so cute” “I saw her looking at you” “Then what did you say?” “We decided to meet up…” etc. etc. Camps are a great way to keep Sikh children involved with other Sikh children especially for parents who think long term. But, is that truly the reason behind the camp?
My expectation of the camp was to leave understanding my religion more, to speak Punjabi more fluently, to learn Sikh history, to learn new shabads, and to correct flaws in my ideologies, among other things. But I felt that, by the end of the week, I was more interested in how many screen names I could compile, and that does not solve my purpose at all. The camp’s board was great in trying to teach us about our religion, no doubt about that; we were encouraged to study a booklet to learn about Sikh history, I learned about Sikh principles when preparing a speech for the speech contest. We had a great lecture of the myths of Sikhi, to mention a few. Because I experienced my first Sikh camp at age sixteen, I was more interested in being a teenager than being Sikh.
I would advise anyone, to send their children to camps early in life, so the complexity of teenage life doesn’t get the best of them. I truly believe that the goal of camps is to teach children Sikhi, not to play matchmaker. This goal would be better appreciated by children of younger age, in my opinion. The society that we live in encourages dating, and India is also now going in that direction. India used to be ‘hush hush’ about these topics and the say of parents, is the say of the house. That conservative perspective is soon dwindling away and that is affecting Indian children in India and in the U.S.A.
The next summer I started interning and was unable to attend camp. The summer after that was the same story and the summer after that as well. I only landed up attending that one camp. Soon there is no time because careers are the number one priority. Because of that, I urge sending children to camps at a ripe age. Camps are a great experience, and you do learn a lot; but there is more effective learning done when the children are young.
