For the Vaisakhi weekend, Sarbat shall be meeting up in Southall to mark the auspicious occasion of the birth of the Khalsa Panth.
The details are:
- Date – 14th April 2012
- Time – 4pm onwards
- Location – Southall, West London
We shall be visiting the Gurdwara, followed by refreshments and dinner nearby in one of the many restaurants.
For more details, please call us on the Sarbat Helpline on the day of the Sarbat Social. The phone will be manned from 1pm on the day itself (i.e. Saturday 14th April)
The next Sarbat Social will be on Saturday March 10th in central London:
- Time – 5.30pm onwards
- Venue – Basement of Costa Coffee, 39 Old Compton Street, London W1d 5JT
We shall be having dinner afterwards somewhere nearby.
Please join us if you can!
The Sarbat phoneline will be open from 1pm that afternoon, so you can find out where we are at any point that evening. Our telephone number is 07869 429610.
Here are the dates for the upcoming meetings:
- Saturday 10th March (Soho)
- Saturday 14th April (Vaisakhi in West London)
- Saturday 23rd June (Vauxhall)
- Saturday 7th July (London Pride)
- Saturday 1st September (Brighton Pride) and Sunday 2nd September (London Mela)
Hope to see you all at some point over the coming months!
This month’s Sarbat Social will be getting us all in the festive mood by taking a trip to see Ida Barr’s Bingo at the Arts Theatre London.
Here are the details:
- Date – Sunday 11th December
- Venue – Costa Coffee on Old Compton Street, W1D 5JX
- Time – 3pm to 4.30pm
If you wanr to meet us at the theatre instead, the details are:
- Venue – Arts Theatre London, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB
- Time – 5pm start
You can buy your tickets at:
http://www.lovetheatre.com/artstheatre/dates/2398/Ida-Barrs-Festive-Bingo
For more information about the show, visit http://www.artstheatrewestend.co.uk/category/shows/winter
Hope to see you then, and don’t forget the tinsel and mistletoe!
In order to mark Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday gurpurb, we shall be having our Sarbat Social in Shepherd’s Bush.
- Date – Saturday 19th November 2011
- Time – 6pm to 6.30pm
- Meeting Point – Costa Coffee, 72 Uxbridge Road, London W12 8LP
We shall then move on to Shepherd’s Bush Gurdwara, possibly followed by a trip to the cinema or dinner at Westfields (depending on the general consensus).
Please join us to mark the occasion, and we look foward to seeing you there.
If you are unable to make it to the meeting point and wish to join us later in the evening, please feel free to call the Sarbat hotline (it will be switched on from 1pm on the day) – 07869 429610.
Gurpurb di lakh lakh vidai hovey.
The next few Sarbat Socials will be:
- Saturday 19th November 2011 - Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurb meeting
- Sunday 11th December 2011 - Sarbat’s Christmas dinner
- Saturday 14th January 2012 - discussing Sarbat’s aims and objectives for 2012
Further information regarding times and locations will be posted on the website in the coming weeks.
As always, if you have any queries, please email us at info@sarbat.net
The next Sarbat Social will be on Sunday 9th October in central London.
The details are as follows:
- Date – 9th October 2011
- Time – 3pm onwards
- Venue – basement of Costa Coffee, 39 Old Compton Street, Soho, London W1D 5JT
We shall be going for dinner at about 5.30pm, so please join us if you can. If you need to contact us on the day, please call us on 07869 429610 to find our location. The phone will be manned from 2pm onwards on the day. For further information, email us at info@sarbat.net.
Hope to see you all there!
September’s Sarbat Social will take us to the London Mela, which is one of the biggest South Asian festivals in Europe.
Date – Sunday 4th September
Time – 2pm onwards, meeting at the Classical Stage
Venue – Gunnersbury Park, W3
If you are running late, or wish to join us later, please ring us on 07869 429610 to find our location. The phone will be manned from 1pm onwards on the day. For further information, email us at info@sarbat.net.
Hope to see you all there.
Sarbat is proud to announce that it will have a presence at UK Black Pride 2011 on Saturday 20th August 2011 from 12pm onwards at Torrington Square, London WC1E 7JL.
UK Black Pride is the biggest ethnic minority LGBT event in Europe.
For more information about the event, visit http://www.ukblackpride.org.uk/
Tickets are £11 each (£10 + £1 booking fee).
Please join us there for food, fun and (hopefully) sunshine!
- Date – 12th August 2011
- Time – 7pm
- Venue – Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG
- Meeting Point – Foyer to the Gallery
August’s Sarbat Social will be a trip to the first major exhibition on Sikhism for the last decade. The exhibition, GT1588, is a celebration of the history of the Golden Temple and includes rare and never-before-seen exhibits including some of the very first photographs of the Golden Temple.
The tour will start at 7pm sharp, so please be on time. We shall be having dinner nearby after the tour.
The exhibition will also look at the contributions made to the Golden Temple by Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and many others. As such, this Sarbat Social is open to everyone, Sikh and non-Sikh alike.
The exhibition closes on 25th September 2011, so if you cannot make it to the Sarbat Social this month, please feel free to visit GT1588 when you can. For more info about the exhibition, visit http://goldentemple1588.com/resource/exhibitions/
For more info, please email info@sarbat.net, or call 07869 429610
Sarbat is proud to announce that it shall be participating as a walking group in its first ever Pride Parade on Saturday 2nd July 2011 in Central London.
Date – 2nd July 2011
Meeting Point – outside Great Portland Street tube between 11am and 11.30am
Dress code – Plain white/light coloured t-shirt or traditional top, jeans, pink dupatta, turquoise blue turban (the turban and dupatta materials will be provided by ourselves). Please note that the dress code is not mandatory, but the more people who are wearing matching outfits, the better we will look as a group and the more that we can show our unity in numbers.
The Parade participants shall have assembled at Portland Place by 12.30pm.
The Parade commences at the north end of Regent Street at 1.15pm, and it shall finish by 4pm at Northumberland Ave.
We will be handing out flyers and leaflets during the course of the Parade.
If you are running late, or can only join the Parade once it has started, please call Sarbat on 07869 429610 on the day of Pride and we will be able to tell you where to join us.
If you have any queries, please email us at pride@sarbat.net.
Together, we can show that we exist and that we are proud of our identity, Sikh and gay alike.
This month’s Sarbat Social will be taking place in Shepherd’s Bush. The details for the meeting are:
- Date – Saturday 18th June 2011
- Time – 1pm onwards
- Venue – Starbucks Coffee, 62 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, London, W12 8LP
We shall be discussing our preparations for London Pride 2011, as well as the recent discussion on the Sikh Channel about homosexuality and homophobia.
Hope to see you then.
This evening (25th May 2011) saw a discussion take place on the Sikh Channel in the UK on their ‘Sikh Ethics’ strand on the issue of homophobia and homosexuality within the Sikh community. The reaction from callers to the show was quite strong and unprecedented, and according to the presenters of the strand, the calls were so extreme in their language and content that none of them could be broadcast on the show itself.
Sarbat would like to commend the Sikh Channel for raising the issue. Whilst our views on the topic are perhaps obvious, we welcome any and all opportunities for discussions to take place in a respectful manner, even with individuals who believe that Sikhi does not or cannot condone or tolerate homosexuality.
We at Sarbat hope that there will be further opportunities to have such reasoned discussions.
Thank you so much to everybody who attended the party at First Out Cafe on Saturday. It was a resounding success, and we certainly made an impression with the usual punters at the venue, even managing to get some of them to join in with deftly executed bhangra moves!
We at Sarbat have had an impressive first 12 months of Sarbat Socials in London, and we want our success to be replicated all over the world, from Auckland to Amritsar. If you are interested in setting up Sarbat Socials in your own locality, please email us at info@sarbat.net for more information and assistance.
Waheguru di kirpa de naal, the next 12 months shall be just as momentous as the previous year.
The Sarbat Social for Vaisakhi was a resounding success, with 16 members attending the talk at the British Museum. Thanks again to Parmjit Singh, the guest speaker at the exhibition. The Fortress Turban exhibition is continuing until this Sunday (17th April 2011), so please go to see it if you can.
The last 12 months of Sarbat Socials have been amazing, and it has been down to the support received from our members all around the world. We have had over 50 people attend our meetings since our inception, and we have managed to raise the profile of LGBT Sikhs as well as provide appropriate support to those in need.
In order to thank everyone for their ongoing involvement and support, we will be having a belated birthday party for Sarbat on 21st May 2011. Please make it if you can. Click here for more information.
We will be meeting at 3pm at The Stag in Victoria for a late lunch followed by the play. If you are interested in staying to watch the play with us, please buy your tickets beforehand as they may sell out fairly quickly. The play starts at 6pm.
Tickets are £15 each, and further information can be found at http://www.abovethestag.com/
Here’s the trailer to the film, if you have never seen it – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkckipExC2o
The February 2011 Sarbat Social saw a number of future initiatives being discussed. These included our presence at London Pride and Brighton Pride this summer, improving the publicity for the website and social/support group online and otherwise, and raising the awareness of LGBT Sikhs generally. Details of the initiatives will be posted on the website in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for more information.
The next Sarbat Socials will be taking place on 20th March 2011 and 9th April 2011.
Our first Sarbat Social took place in April 2010, and this April will mark our first anniversary. We have events planned in April and May to commemorate this landmark, including a birthday party at a venue in Soho (to be confirmed).
Sarbat depends on the support of you, its members. Without you, Sarbat would not be the success it is. Thank you.
The first Sarbat Social of 2011 will be in Shepherd’s Bush, and it will be a trip to the cinema to see a Punjabi influenced Bollywood film. The film in question is Yamla Pagla Deewana, and it stars Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol.
The details of the meeting are:
- Date – 16.01.11
- Time – 1.30pm onwards
- Venue – Costa Coffee, 72 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush W12 8LP
- Nearest Tube/Mainline Station - Shepherd’s Bush
The film is showing at 2.55pm at the Vue Cinema in West 12 Shopping Centre. Please turn up at 1.30pm so that we can buy the tickets at least 1 hour before the film starts. If you are running late on the day but wish to have a ticket for the film, please call or text us on 07869 429610.
We will have dinner afterwards nearby.
If you wish to find out more about the Sarbat Social, or about Sarbat generally, please feel free to email us at info@sarbat.net or call us on 07869 429610.
November’s Sarbat Social marked Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday gurpurb by a visit to the Gurdwara in Shepherd’s Bush, followed by langar. The meeting was a success as always, and we had about a dozen members in attendance. If you are interested in attending any future meetings, please email us at info@sarbat.net or call us on 07869 429610.
Sarbat’s first event outside of London will be held in Birmingham on the second weekend of December.
The details for the weekend are as follows:
Saturday 11th December
- 2.30pm SHARP - meet in foyer of Arc Apartments, The Arcadian Centre, 2nd Floor, Hurst Street, Birmingham B5 4TD for room allocations (if staying in the reserved accommodation)
-3.30pm to 4.30pm – Visit to a gurdwara and partaking of langar (for details of which gurdwara, please email info@sarbat.net or text/call 07869 429610)
- 4.30pm to 5.30pm – Exploring Soho Road and Punjabi quarter of Birmingham
- 6pm to 7.30pm – Return to Arc Apartments
- 7.30pm to 8.30pm – Formal Meeting for Sarbat Weekender – discussion will be ‘What is a Sikh?’ (for venue details, call or text us on 07869 429610)
- 8.30pm to 10pm - Dinner (for venue details, call or text us on 07869 429610)
- 10pm onwards – Bars/club in or around Hurst Street
Sunday 12th December
- 11am to 1pm – Brunch in the Arcadian Centre
- 1pm onwards – shopping/chilling/visiting friends or family (whatever you want)
- 4pm – Return to London from Birmingham
If you are interested in staying with us at the Arcadian Centre, please email us at info@sarbat.net for more information about costs – it should be about £35 for the night.
Return tickets from London to Birmingham will cost £19.50 (although there may be engineering works being carried on the line, so there may be a replacement bus service).
If you need a lift from London, some Sarbat members have volunteered to take people in their cars. Please email info@sarbat.net for more info.
Please feel free to attend all, some, or just one of the events organised for the Sarbat Weekender. Future Sarbat Weekenders will include Brighton and Manchester.