An early start today at Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, East Park Road, where BBC World Service is broadcasting live. The World Today is running a feature in which presenter Kumla Dumar is travelling up the M1, stopping off at cities and towns on the way and considering issues to do with identity - encompassing a variety of aspects such as culture, language, faith, values, loyalties, parochialism and nationality. Their first stop was Luton, next is Leeds and today they're in Leicester (with some recorded inserts glancing eastward to Peterborough).
Knowing that Guru Nanak called the time before dawn "the ambrosial hour" and that it has a special sweetness and significance in the devotional life of Sikhs, I eschew the easy option of going by taxi and resolve to walk from home to the Gurdwara. I reckon it should take about an hour to do so, tweeting merrily as I go, along with the dawn chorus. But the curse of Googde Maps strikes again and I arrive with only a few minutes to spare before we go live on air. We start at 0600 (although BBC World Service abides by Greenwich Mean Time, so the programme is going out at 0500 GMT). Already seated around the small table in the vestibule of the Gurdwara are Kumla, his producer, Mr M. S. Sangha (President of Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara - to the right of me in the photo below) and Cllr Manjula Sood (Deputy Lord Mayor of Leicester and Chair of the Council of Faiths).
The main part of the show is broadcast live from London and it cuts to us every few minutes. In our first segment, Kumla announces that he's on a quest to investigate the meaning of Englishness. Then he points the mike at me to ask my opinion. Well he's come to the right guy to answer that question, obviously!
Manjula and I feel obliged to challenge the assumption that as the fortunes of one of the city's communities (whether defined by faith, culture, language, heritage, geographical origin or something as basic as the colour of their skin) rise, it means the fortunes of another inevitably sink. That's certainly not the way it happens in Leicester. We've never been hostage to the crazy world of political correctness, where Christmas is replaced by "Winterval" (I could go on, but surely you, faithful reader, will know your own examples). It is possible and practical for all to rise together. As Leicester's celebrations of Diwali, Eid or Vaisakhi have grown year by year, so there is also greater prominence given to Christmas and Easter (see later blog entries today for more on public celebration of Easter). Leicester just had its first ever St Patrick's Day parade and in a couple of weeks there's a St George's festival lasting several days (nothing much for St Andrew yet though). I mention a few of these when I'm asked to comment on an insert of three young white women recorded at a bingo session, saying that there's nothing for the white community in Leicester, that they're forgotten and neglected in favour of more recent arrivals and incomers.
By the end of the first hour of the show, we've attracted a small crowd round our table. As worshippers begin to arrive at the gurdwara in number and the main door behind us is left open, it becomes rather chilly. We're offered cups of sweet milky tea to keep warm. I got up very early to come here today, leaving home to walk halfway across the city before dawn. Guru Nanak's writings describe the time before sunrise as "the ambrosial hour" and Sikhs are urged to rise early, pray and listen to the hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib at this special time each day. I wanted to get in the spirit and be a wee bit more attuned to this place rather than rushing here by taxi. It was lovely to hear the dawn chorus on the way here, with very little traffic to drown it out. I haven't eaten anything yet, so pick up a piece of pakora from one of the plates left for us on the table. We're not on air at this moment, the show has cut back to London for the news on the hour. Something spicy goes down the wrong way and all of sudden I have hiccups! I haven't had hiccups since I was 12 and here they are, when I'm about to go live on the World Service - broadcasting to the entire planet! Thankfully, a few gulps of tea and panic's over as the hiccups subside.
At seven, we're joined by Barry Naylor, Urban Canon at Leicester Cathedral, who speaks about some of the innovative work being done there. A little later, Baz Kanabar (from the Cooke e-learning Foundation) arrives to talk about teaching English language and Citizenship to adult learners in the city. The show also features an interview with one Sikh who gives all his time in service to the gurdwara as a Seva Dar. He describes a typical day in the life of the gurdwara and gives an introduction to its varied services.
Kumla puts me on air four times in all, Manjula a few times more. She is asked to speak about her own story arc in Leicester, of how she rose to become first Asian female Lord Mayor of any English city (even if she's not given sufficient time to do it justice for those of us who have heard her tell it before). I'm there till eight, when I make way for the first in a new wave of guests for the last half hour on air.
Involvement with the media is a mixed blessing. On the upside, they give you and your cause a prominence that it would be impossible to achieve on your own. It's a good thing to have one's profile raised - if that's a good thing for one's profile. On the downside, the media may approach you with assumptions and preconceptions (even prejudices) about who you are, what you're doing and how the rest of the world looks upon you. On the whole, it's a good thing Manjula and I were able to get this opportunity to talk about the diverse nature of Leicester, even if we weren't able to say much about the Council of Faiths itself. We're glad that Barry Naylor was with us; while not a member of the Council of Faiths himself, Barry is certainly one of our most supportive fellow travellers. Since this occasion was all about diversity, I'll sign off this entry by saying that it's always instructive (in the words of Robert Burns) "to see ourselves as others see us!" Mind you, if folk see me like I am in the photo below, I don't know what they'd make of me. Am I having a stroke there or something?
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