August

Granthi (Sikh Religious Official) and Tool Maker | Lodi, NJ Raghuvinder Singh was born in Rajasthan, India and has lived in New Jersey for the last decade with his wife and two children. His father, Baba Punjab Singh, was shot in the face at the Oak Creek, Wisconsin Gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) during the 2012 mass shooting that took six Sikh lives.

His father remains paralyzed and unable to speak, and Raghuvinder travels to Oak Creek regularly to take care of his father, who communicates through blinking his eyes. In college, Raghuvinder focused on Sikh studies, and he has worked as a gurdwara granthi (Sikh religious official) and taught gatka (Sikh martial art). If you ask his wife, she would say he talks a lot, laughs a lot and lives in Chardi Kala (eternal optimism).

Raghuvinder and his father remind us of the strength and resilience of the Sikh community in the face of horrific violence.