Founder & CEO

Born on 16 September 1969 in Punjab, India, I was 11 when my parents moved to Slough. I was a nightmare as a kid, yet not just my family but the entire village raised me like a prince. Both my parents were religious and they tried to bring me up with the true values of Sikhism. And here I am, trying to help the real needy as much as I can. People say I have a compassionate soul, though I beg to differ. I’d rather say I am a regular human with a desire to serve the humanity as selflessly as possible. The UK has been my home since my childhood, yet I am still in love with my village and Punjab.

It was in 1999 that I started working as an aid worker, when the TV was flushed with images of people of Kosovo fight for small pieces of breads. I was struck with the idea of taking the concept of langar to regions of the world that needed it the most with the hope that it will help to rekindle people’s trust in humanity. We started small, under the banner of Khalsa Aid and the images on TV compelled us to take food to those who needed it the most: our very first mission. We celebrated Baisakhi there, a festival that involves a lot of food. No one of the whole convoy ever had done such a thing; tearful smiles on both the sides became rampant. Today we have branches all over the world.

Many things at many places happened, but when we mobilised a whole group of people to help the people of Somerset after heavy rain and high winds which caused immense damage to property and land, we came in the media limelight. How I see it is that all the limelight brought us a lot more donations from different countries, which was a huge motivation to expand Khalsa Aid’s wings. In 2015, when we went to help the Nepal earthquake victims and injured, we returned with bags full of love. In 2016, we assisted motorists stranded in the Dover traffic chaos by delivering 6,000 water bottles. It was present in the Andaman after the tsunami in 2004, in Haiti in 2010 and in Kashmir after the floods of 2014. It has also worked with Yazidi survivors of Islamic State persecution, refugees fleeing the violence of the Syrian civil war in Lebanon and Greece and with victims of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria. In 2018, we were in Kerala and later in Assam providing relief to flood victims; we have just spent a long period with flood victims in Punjab too. Being a Sikh, a Punjabi, my heart aches to think of all those who have lost their dear ones in anti-Sikh riots and the aftermath of it. The state, ever since history, has faced and lost a lot. Feeling them, we have set-up monthly aid to many people.

I am often asked what keeps me and the Aid motivated; well, it simply is love and compassion that we receive from all around. When a well-fed Syrian child smiles at us, when an Indian mother who has lost his son shares her pain with us, when a Mosul girl packs her schoolbag, when even one in Iraq drops his gun, Khalsa Aid gets motivated. In fact, I still remember meeting a young widow who asked the attendees not to bring flowers at her husband’s funeral but donate to the Aid. Will that not motivate us?

It is with this kind of motivation that Khalsa Aid has evolved into a large international NGO that does relief work around the world.