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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

For some, this tragedy will not fade away


At the Sikh Temple in Spokane Valley, Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Babaji), his wife, Jaswant Kaur Aujla, and VJ Pavani pack over 100 boxes of donated clothes for the survivors of the tsunami. The temple has also collected more than $20,000 in donations. Babaji said that people who have never been to the temple have been dropping off donations. 
 (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
Rebecca Nappi The Spokesman-Review

The tsunami story is already fading. I feel it. We are an attention deficit disorder society. And so we will soon settle back to “reality TV.” The photos are beginning to look similar – refugees crowding around relief trucks, eyes frantic, hands outstretched.

But you continue to care when you see VJ Pavani, a native of India, pause at the computer in her Spokane Valley home. Her eyes fill with tears when she thinks of the tsunami mothers stretching their arms up, desperate.

“For any human being, begging is humiliating,” she says. “Every human being wants to be self-sufficient. But they have nothing, everything washed away.”

VJ, a column regular, is relieved because none of her relatives died in the tsunami, though several live in the devastated zones along the Indian Ocean. But she has been as restless as a caged animal since the tsunami. She is half a world away from home, and she feels helpless.

In her computer room, you see the fliers she created last week asking for tsunami-relief donations. She took the flier to Office Depot in the Valley and asked if the manager might print 150 for free. The manager responded, “How about 500?”

VJ has spent most of the week at the Sikh Temple in the Valley at 1420 N. Barker Road. Though she is Hindu, she considers the temple’s spiritual master, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, her mentor. He’s a man everyone calls Babaji. VJ and Babaji, plus several others from the Sikh community, have been gathering at the temple each day. They sort and box clothing donations. They keep meticulous track of the money that is coming in at a good clip; Indians and non-Indians have donated almost $21,000.

Babaji is a gentle, soft-spoken man. But he was not shy while making the rounds last week of the dozen or so Sikh-owned gas stations in the Spokane area. Most of the owners contributed $500 each. Babaji then said, “God has given you this opportunity, so give $500 more.” They all did. The donations will be sent to the Prime Minister Relief Fund of India.

“We always find excuses not to do something,” VJ says. “But now people should find excuses to do something.”

Both Babaji and VJ grew up in inland cities: Babaji in north India, VJ in the south. But Babaji and VJ have both traveled to the communities along the Indian Ocean. Picture golden sand, crystal-clear water and miles of beach, they say. Picture Miami Beach or Malibu. Indians hold meetings in these resort areas because of their beauty and open space. Fishing villages prosper there, as well as slums built close to the ocean because India has not yet zoned seashores for the rich, as we have here. Some of the resorts, the fishing villages, the slums simply disappeared.

Babaji can choose from six channels of India’s news, thanks to the satellite TV in his home, next door to the temple. Even if you don’t understand Hindi, you understand that these channels are reporting this tragedy from every angle. India’s tennis champs will donate tournament earnings for the relief effort. In one village, children attend class outside because the school is now a refugee center. It would be nonstop reporting this way here, too, if thousands had washed away in Miami or Malibu.

One positive result is that Inland Northwest folks who had never heard of the Sikhs or their temple have ventured there, driving SUVs filled with clothes – most of them nice clothes. VJ and Babaji have no idea how to ultimately ship 100 boxes of clothes to tsunami survivors. But knowing them, they will find a way.

In the meantime, they are sorting, packing and folding clothes. The simple actions become silent prayers. In the Sikh faith, if your prayers are not answered as you wish, Babaji says, you accept what has happened as God’s will. In VJ’s Hindu faith, karma teaches that everything happens for a reason. “Maybe this will unite the whole world,” she says.

It is a hope, but VJ’s eyes remain sad. And Babaji’s eyes look tired. This sorrow is one of 150,000 reasons the tsunami story should not disappear soon. It needs more time, much more, to unite the whole world.