Her suit – Inclusion to the exclusion of bigotry and prejudice; diversity is not a perversity. It’s her shtick. It’s fully Sikh.
Her suit becomes a suite in Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa’s two toned tome, FULLY SIKH. Two toned coz it’s a memoir with a menu, an autobiteography with recipes.
Subtitled – even though it’s written in English – subtitled Hot Chips and Turmeric Stains, FULLY SIKH is part recipe book with please try this at home meal suggestions, part prose and part poetry book.
If poetry gives you conniptions call it rap or slam, whatever turns your reading crank.
Fully Sikh, fully Australian, the verse is universal, take this stanza from Two Hands for example, an anthem of empathy:
I might be the wordsmith
But with your applause
Action this poetry and find your cause
Join this kuri from Perth
On a mission to leave this earth
Better than she found it
At her birth.
FULLY SIKH is loaded with stanzas that take a stand against bigots, bullies and bogans who vilify VIVE LA DIFFÉRENCE. Here’s proof:
so bring on the slurs and curs and scars and burrs
shut the gate on the hate state
I’m not the one who’s the freak, I’m fully Sikh!
Sikh faith is generally identified and recognised by unshorn hair and turbans, in the belief that there is a practical and spiritual purpose for every hair on our body. Follically challenging, huh!
Sukhjit vindicates and validates our myriad differences, the benefits of multiculturalism, and targets the persistent, lazy Orstrayan racial stereotyping.
FULLY SIKH (hot chips and turmeric stains) by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is published by Upswell.
