Patna Sahib Gurdwara decorated with lights ahead of Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti. Picture by Sachin

Patna, Jan. 6: Gurdial Singh, an NRI Sikh from France, who has been fighting against French government’s ban on turban there, landed in Patna today with his wife.

The city, as he saw it enroute Jaiprakash Narayan Airport to the Patna city area, impressed him little.

He noticed the city is congested and its roads too narrow for heavy traffic. But once he entered the premises of Patna Sahib Gurdwara all one could read on his face was contentment.

He had come to visit the gurdwara, a popular Sikh shrine for the Guru Purab festivities, which marks the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, tenth and the last guru of the Sikhs.

Devotees like Gurdial are all over the place and the large campus of the gurdwara is beaming with activities these days.

“The famous shrine of the Sikhs is gearing up for the 344th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, tenth and the last guru of the Sikhs. Sikh devotees from far off places and many from abroad have started arriving at the gurdwara for the three-day-long festivities, which will start on Sunday,” said Avtar Singh, manager of the gurdwara committee.

Festivities take the form of worship and include reading the Akhand Paath, singing kirtan and parading in commemorative processions. The gurdwara has also been organising 24-hour long langar for thousands everyday.

The gurdwara at Patna Sahib was built in remembrance of the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs on December 22, 1666 and like many historical gurdwara’s in India and Pakistan, this too was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the first king of the Sikh empire on the banks of river Ganga in Patna.

“Guru Gobind Singh also spent his early years here before moving to Anandpur. Besides being the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, Patna was also honoured by visits from Guru Nanak as well as Guru Tegh Bahadur. This place is of high value for the Sikhs,” Avtar Singh added.

Thousands of people have already descended down in the capital for the festivities and are putting up at various hotels and dharamshalas.

Incidentally, about 83 NRI Sikhs who had been travelling to all the Sikh shrines in the country by a luxury train, Shaan-e-Khalsa, also flew in Patna on Wednesday from Mumbai, where they boarded the train and visited the gurdwara today.

“The visit to this place has made our pilgrimage complete. I feel so content after coming here,” said Bachan Singh Gill, a businessman from the US, who had come to the city with his African-American wife Patricia Gill.