India Is Really Unique - Here Is A Temple For People To Help Settle Down Abroad!

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Hawai jahaaz Gurudwara (Airplane Temple, Daoba, Punjab). I wonder why the two peacocks are there on both sides of the plane! Some reason should be there!

I came across this news now...this seems to be a very old temple, but had not heard about this until now!

Yes, I know that 90% of the youngsters nowadays want to go abroad for studies first and settle down there later! My two sons had gone abroad, one is settled down there and one has come back.  Most of the children feel that the job satisfaction is a rare thing here.  But I see that many youngsters are getting good jobs here nowadays and love to be with friends and relatives living near to their family and so come back home. Though this fraction is not much, yet! Mostly girls love to stay/come back here in many cases, to be near their family.  Some girls who have not tasted the difficulties of running a home there without domestic help etc., which we are not used to, from childhood, still dream of 'living abroad'.   I have met some people who had lived there in the US and the UK, come back with families in a group, after some years, stay in an area together, make themselves comfortable with all the facilities they had over there plus the domestic helps and live happily.  Their friendships continue here too.  They get jobs in good companies here with their experience, some continue to work for the same companies here and seems to be happy, living here now.  The grown up children take some time to settle down though! Some families feel that living abroad is best since the nagging problems from relatives will be less! They can tolerate them once in two, three years for a month or so!

I have read that mostly the Punjabis and Gujarathis dream of going to the US and Europe in our country than the youngsters of other States.  I remember my son's school principal saying that a huge group of their school students are in California, for many decades now! They never feel that they are out of India, she said!  My son seems to be happy, living there!

Now, let me come to the topic of this post now!  This Hawaai Jahaaz Gurudwara, in Punjab, is famous for devotees visiting them to pray for their dream of settling down abroad!  We have got temples here for every wish...whether it is for getting good marks in school/colleges, for getting good life partner, for any ailments, for having a child (sometimes male child!), for building a small or dream house, for getting good jobs, etc. etc.  Once we get our wishes to our satisfaction, we go to the concerned temple and offer money or do mundan, etc.  But, this temple is unique! Here, people donate small planes and pray that they should fly abroad soon...get visa without problem, mainly!

This Sikh temple for Baba Nihal Singh is a very old temple/gurudwara and this tradition is followed by many for many years now.  This village, Daoba's families have many youngsters living abroad and this makes people believe in this tradition!

Here is the excerpt from the article:

The gurudwara is most famous among Punjabi youths, who are anxious to immigrate to places like the UK, United States, and Canada, and believe that a prayer can help them significantly speed up their visa and other procedures. Satwinder Singh, a 21-year-old college graduate from a nearby village, says, “I have just put in my application for a visa to go to the UK and am here to ensure my passage by making an offering of an aeroplane.” Surinder Kaur, another devotee, says, “My son was trying hard to go to Canada but was denied a visa. A friend suggested we offer the replica of an aeroplane at the gurudwara and it worked and he is now in Toronto.” So popular has this temple become that it is referred to as the “Hawai Jahaz Gurudwara” (Airplane temple). Several hundreds of airplane models are offered here and the temple often runs out of space to house them all. The shrine management has now come up with the solution of distributing the toys to children. “At least the children can play with them. We cannot stop people from offering them. In the end what matters is the faith with which you pray,”says head priest Bhai Manjit Singh.

I loved the last line in this article: No wonder this temple is believed to possess a power even greater than that of  immigration officials.

Don't you think that our country is really unique?!



Picture and article courtesy HERE


EDITED TO ADD ON 30.4.13: My blogger friend Mr.SG has given information about a  VISA temple near Hyderabad, in the comment section! Here is the link of the visa temple! This temple has no hundi, doesn't accept money or no VIP treatments for any visitor.  This is unique, indeed!