Khalsa Aid first came to my attention during the first COVID-19 lockdown when they turned up with meals at hospitals to feed hard-pressed NHS heroes. ‘They’ are a UK (Sikh) based humanitarian relief organisation who have, to quote their twitter handle, been “serving humanity since 1999”. And yesterday, they did it again.
Since time immemorial, or time immoral in the case of the King of Hate Nigel Farage and his loathsome entourage of racists and xenophobes, people who don’t look like us are bad. If they enjoy certain customs, worship different Gods, dress differently and, above all, have dark skin we don’t need people like that. Why further poison our impurity? But then along comes Khalsa Aid, preparing and delivering hot food for many hundreds of truckers, stranded and abandoned in gridlock at Dover.
I saw pictures of people preparing the food and it moved me in different ways. I was humbled by their generosity, the acts of kindness to total strangers who they would almost certainly never meet again. Yes, I did shed a tear when I saw Khalsa volunteers being driven to the lorry parks with a full police escort and I confess to salivating at the food which looked absolutely delicious. I hope the drivers enjoyed every mouthful. Given the absence of government in the chaos, it was wonderful that it was a bunch of Sikhs who ‘took back control’.
It’s good that in the darkness, we have discovered some light. Our broken country, divided by hate and intolerance, can still show love and compassion. And it’s a wonderful irony that the love providers were the type of people that the purveyors of hate always tell us aren’t welcome in our country. Give me Khalsa Aid over Farage and Johnson any day of the week.
