Category / Life

by Sukh Chugh

You F*&#ing Arab

Got yelled at by a random person today. “You F*&#ing Arab” – His words chased after me as I kept running further and further away. I was on a run at the beach. The perfect day to get my legs back after taking a 4 month break.

The runner’s path sits right alongside the biker’s trail here in Redondo. I saw him, up ahead, walking my way so I veered into the bike lane to get past him. But he broke too, and entered the bike lane. I looked up and he was coming right at me. No, he was coming right for me. His eyes were dead-locked towards me and he kept veering more and more into my path. As we came within an arm’s stretch he just started yelling: “Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea”. I felt the saliva from his screams land on my arm as I brushed past him. Sweat was beading off his face. I outmaneuvered him but he kept yelling, “F*&# you Arab”.

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by Sukh Chugh

Best Kirtan Service Ever

Okay, I know you aren’t supposed to have a favorite Kirtan service at a Gurudwara – they are all supposed to be special in their own ways, but still, today’s service impacted me in a unique way.

First off, it was my first time inside a Gurudwara since the August 5th shooting at Oak Creek Gurudwara in Wisconsin. (Actually, it was my first time back in a Gurudwara in over 4 months). I’m not sure why it took me so long to attend. Part of me has longed for the solace of the sangat and the sweet melody of the kirtan all week. Yet, part of me needed to come to terms with the despair that I was still feeling.

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by Sukh Chugh

Blades of a fan

I’ve done some shit in my life. Some good, some bad.  Some people I may have helped, some people I’ve definitely hurt. Made some friends, some enemies. I’ve improved, deteriorated, loved, feared, laughed, danced, fought.  Gave everything up for a while, took it all in later.  Some people disappeared, others hung around. Some things I’m proud of, like that day when we all came together to rest under a blue canopy while rain fell all around us. I didn’t make it rain, but I did help put up the canopy, and we all came together as one.

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by Sukh Chugh

The Silent Rose

At the airport, as my eyes took in the words of a melancholy novel, I sat next to a couple that didn’t speak to each other during an entire meal. It wasn’t a hostile quiet, like two people deepening a divide between them, this was a softer quiet, like two people relishing in the idea that they had another to be quiet with. I never glanced directly at them but they must have become aware of my attention as their noiselessness quickly became palpable like a thick air hovering around them. Each movement they made: a grasp at a cup or the bite of a sandwich, seemed to occur with the utmost concentration and precision, as if quieting their actions would somehow make them more invisible when it fact it only made them more apparent. Their silence standing up against the noise of the world.

by Sukh Chugh

Nowhere

I saw my own thoughts
suddenly men didn’t seem so evil
they just seemed stuck
everybody wants to do right
but how do you give up a dollar when the man next to you is grabbing two
i stood next to a man with nothing and gave it all up too
it felt good for a minute
but the scenery changed
and so did my truth
now i’m trying to make something
just so i can spit it back at the world
like that would mean something
still don’t know why we do it
filling empty holes with empty souls
i write like i got a choice in it
but i was brought here
moments, people, places all flowing like a plan
well, i’m here
what kind of place is this exactly?
i look around and see nowhere.