A Sister’s Love Memories of Bhai Jinda

A Sister's Love: Bibi Balvinder Kaur
 

From a very young age Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda was always kept as the favourite child of the family. He was the youngest out of all of us. Bhai Jinda was very active but his body was weak. When Bhai Jinda joined the Khalistan Commando Force, none of us knew our younger brother had decided to walk on this path. It was only when he was about to visit Pakistan that we came to know he had joined the movement. Before leaving for Pakistan Bhai Jinda came to our house and met us with much love in his heart. Bhai Jinda loved everyone very much.

It was at this point when I understood my brother was going on this side of life. When he returned from Pakistan he met everyone in the family apart from me. I didn’t get to meet my brother and this made me upset and I felt very alone.

The Border Security Force used to come to our house and monitor it. In my mind though I was always thinking, why didn’t my brother come and meet me when he saw everyone else? It seemed like one day when he got up he completely forgot the road home. This happened after Bhai Jinda delivered justice to General Vaidya.

One time Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda, Bhai Satnam Singh Bawa and his Singhni were all travelling together. They were quite close to our house. My brother told Bhai Satnam Singh Bawa and his Singhni that, ‘my sister’s house is very close. Let us go there and we will see what happens when we reach.’

They came close to the house and stood from a distance as they thought the BSF might see them. After checking it was clear, Bawa’s Singhni came to get me. When she told me that she had come with my brother I was so happy that I didn’t know what to do.

With Bawa’s Singhni I went and saw my brother. He was standing with his hands in his pockets. The BSF check post was quite close but they hadn’t realised that my brother had come home. When I met my brother this time I found out that he was carrying cyanide with him.

When Bhai Jinda was caught for the first time in Gujrat he was kept in Ahmedabad jail. Here he was tortured very badly, but after a while he managed to escape. When he came back to Punjab on foot, I didn’t get a chance to see him.

The next time I saw him I put my hands on his legs. When I did this I could feel something. My brother looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Bhenji no one knows how this tastes, don’t worry about it, it’s nothing.’

I felt that after this meeting I would not see my brother alive again. But Maharaj’s hukam is his hukam and as it turns out my brother could not use his cyanide or his weapons to kill himself.

I met him many times after this. No matter what I would always go and see my brother. I saw him so often so I have no regrets now.

Maharaj did his kirpa and kept my brother on this path of Guru Sahib. Waheguru gave me a lot of courage. I used to ask Bhai Jinda everything about the movement, about him etc.

He didn’t keep anything from me. My brother was very brave, he was never scared. After he had started to walk this path even his body became strong.

One time in Delhi, I went to meet him to tie a rakhri on his hand. My Brother didn’t want me to tie this as he thought what does a mere string mean? I knew already that he would always protect me so I didn’t have to tie this string on him.

At this time one of our relatives was with us. They started laughing and told my brother that he should buy me a washing machine. My brother smiled and said, ‘No, my sister doesn’t need that as Waheguru has given her very strong arms.’

One time he bought me something for 800 rupees.

My brother used to tell us very little about the Singhs he would go with. He always wanted to keep everyone happy. Whenever we would see him, he would always tell us some jokes.

Bhai Jinda would only talk about a few people, like Bhai Bittu and one or two others. He used to keep most of these things secret and would talk about other things to us. If something bad would happen, my brother would never tell us. He would always be smiling.

When Bhai Jinda was caught by the police he never revealed anything about the Singhs he was with. Bhai Jinda knew most of the Singhs in the high command, but he bore all the torture and never revealed anything.

At home we used to wonder what type of person he was. My brothers and I used to think that he was our brother, but every time we would see him and talk to him, we got the feeling that he was a living shaheed.

We wanted to worship this sikh of the guru, he was such an amazing soul. Now it wasn’t a matter of him being our brother, it was a matter of him being a son of the panth.
Even while having this thought in my head, I still used to get upset and I used to cry a lot. I knew everything my brother was doing was for the chardeekala of the panth, but I used to get upset when I would hear about him being shot or tortured. I used to wonder, why this happened to my beloved brother, who loved everyone.

Sometimes, even now I can picture him leaving our house on the bus, smiling, full of love.

Taken from ikonkaar.blogspot.com