Honorary Lieutenant Jarnail Singh Chima, who is now 85 years old, hails from a distinguished military family. His grandfather, Honorary Lieutenant Ram Singh Bahadur of the village Badduwal Punjab enlisted with the 15th Sikhs, a regiment of the British Army in 1887. In 1911 Ram Singh was given the honour of being appointed Aid De Camp to the King on the occasion of King George's Durbar in Delhi. During World War 1 Ram Singh saw action with the Indian Expeditionary Forces in France ( 1914 -15) and Mesopotomia (1916 - 18). In 1916, as part of the 82nd Punjabis, Ram Singh was promoted to Subadar-Major (Major) and saw action in the capture of Baghdad - the first enemy capital city to fall in the Great War. Ram Singh entered into the Order of British India (OBI) in 1917 for his distinguished service. Ram Singh's brothers Sham Singh and Inder Singh also served in the First World War with distinction. Jarnail Singh works with the Surrey-based indian Ex-Servicemen Association to help veterans with their military pensions and the general welfare of their families and properties back in India. Jarnail Singh's grandchildren now attend schools in Surrey.
On March 11th, Dr Henry announced that outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people would be allowed- yay just in time for spring break! Another stipulation of the announcement was that gatherings should stick to the same group - that sounds like a good reason for the Excelsior club to get together and get out there to exercise some of the pandemic blues away. Some of us got together initially for a walk which became a talk and decided that a 'walk & talk' could revolve around sharing stories about our favourite Asian Supergirls from the publication "Stories For South Asian Super Girls" by Raj Kaur Khaira, which features a powerful combination of inspiring biographies and striking artwork by South Asian female artists. A powerful theme of never giving up resonates throughout the pages, and so by focusing on those heroines that are born in Canada , the USA and the UK we have decided to home in the biographies of the following: Anjali Sud, Farrah Storr, M.I.A (Mathangi Alrulpragasam), Hannah Simone, Jhumpa Lahiri , Jameela Jamil, Kalpana Chawla, Lilly Singh, Shaina Azad, and Sana Amanat.
Stay tuned for some other brainstorms that are bound to arise from the discovery South Asian girls can be superheroes too! |