INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY FEATURE ON LEICESTER

Peter Popham's article about Leicester is published today in the Independent on Sunday's New Review magazine. His piece is entitled "We're all in this together: How Leicester became a model of multiculturalism (even if that was never the plan)". You can go straight to it and read the whole piece for yourself (and comments by readers) by clicking on the title of the article above.

The Independent on Sunday is not the easiest newspaper to find in Wigston. After trying out quite a few shops, I get my hands on the last two copies in the Co-Op Food Store in Bell Street. But when I get them home, there's no New Review with either of them! I take them back for a refund and start searching again, rather late in the day. Thankfully, there are two more copies in the Tesco filling station. *Phew!*

The article is illustrated with photos of Surinder Pal Rhai (President of the Leicestershire Council of Gurdwaras), Cllr Manjula Sood (Assistant City Mayor and Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Jawaahir Daahir (Chair of Somali Development Services). The one of Manjula is particularly good, standing magisterially in the Council Chamber.

I'm a bit surprised that none of the people to whom I introduced Peter on his first visit to Leicester don't appear in the article. But he has included many good interview subjects with good quotes from all of them. On reflection, I think that Peter probably treated that first visit as an initial reccie and got down to business when he returned (with a photographer) a few days later.

I'm happy with this - and look forward with anticipation to how it's received by other people in the city.

TRIBUTES PAID TO TEMPLE PRESIDENT

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Tributes paid to temple president

by Peter Warzynski

One of the country's longest-running Sikh temple presidents has died while on holiday in India.

Omparkash Chand, 63, was in the Punjab visiting family and buying religious ornaments for the Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara, in Harrison Road, Leicester – where he had been president since 1997.

Colleagues said they believed he may have been the longest-serving head of a Sikh temple in the world.

Mr Chand died in his sleep on June 7 and was brought back to Leicester last Saturday.

However, a post-mortem examination could not determine a cause of death.

Tributes have poured in for the community leader, who lived in Scraptoft with his wife and son. Mr Chand's brother, Kamaljit Mahi, 53, said the family was shocked at the sudden death of the temple president.

"The post-mortem couldn't find a cause of death, but they've taken some tissue samples to see if they can determine what happened.
"It's a big shock and across the family we're all trying to help each other," he said.

"He was a good-natured person and will be sadly missed, not just by the Sikh community – but by Christians and Hindus. He did a lot of work with other people."

Friend and fellow temple member Dev Diwana said: "We believe he is the longest consecutive running president of a Sikh temple in the UK, if not the world.

"That's one of the most impressive things about him. He served the Sikh community with an open heart and he was a great man – he was a picture of calm.

"He'd only been in India for a few days before he died, but he had no health issues which anyone knew of."

Surinderpal Singh Rai, of Leicestershire Council of Gurdwaras, said: "Omprakash Chand was a very dear friend of mine.

"He tirelessly served the Sikh community for well over 40 years and the newly-built Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara is a testimony to this.

"He will be dearly missed."

Mr Chand's funeral is tomorrow.

His body will arrive at the Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara, at 11.15am, before leaving for Gilroes Cemetery at 11.45am.

It will arrive at the cemetery, in Groby Road, at about 12.15pm.