Punga: Difference between revisions
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'''Paanga''' or '''Punga''' or '''Panja''': | '''Paanga''' or '''Punga''' or '''Panja''': | ||
Sardarji jokes anger me, along with any joke told at the expense of some other group, tribe, caste, status or sect, even religion, of the person telling the joke. Growing up in the southern US where I can only remember Sikhs being portrayed in ''Gunga Din'' and one old Shirley Temple movie (in the 1950s, both positive portrayals), I was surprised at 60 to hear my first "Sardarji 'joke', told by a Muslim friend, given I had never known there was such a thing. So today I was slightly miffed to see a story in Dawn News that began with one. | Sardarji jokes anger me, along with any joke told at the expense of some other group, tribe, caste, status or sect, even religion, of the person telling the joke. Growing up in the southern US where I can only remember Sikhs being portrayed in ''Gunga Din'' and one old Shirley Temple movie (in the 1950s, both positive portrayals), I was surprised and annoyed, at 60 ans, to hear my first "Sardarji 'joke', told by a Muslim friend, given I had never known there was such a thing. So today I was slightly miffed to see a story in Dawn News that began with one. | ||
The so called joke 'joke' was recounted in a news article written during the "Lawyers' long march (2009) in Pakistan titled ''A presidential ‘punga’ '' | The so called joke 'joke' was recounted in a news article written during the "Lawyers' long march (2009) in Pakistan titled ''A presidential ‘punga’ '' | ||
Revision as of 05:46, 21 June 2009
Paanga or Punga or Panja:
Sardarji jokes anger me, along with any joke told at the expense of some other group, tribe, caste, status or sect, even religion, of the person telling the joke. Growing up in the southern US where I can only remember Sikhs being portrayed in Gunga Din and one old Shirley Temple movie (in the 1950s, both positive portrayals), I was surprised and annoyed, at 60 ans, to hear my first "Sardarji 'joke', told by a Muslim friend, given I had never known there was such a thing. So today I was slightly miffed to see a story in Dawn News that began with one.
The so called joke 'joke' was recounted in a news article written during the "Lawyers' long march (2009) in Pakistan titled A presidential ‘punga’ The story in Dawn News.[1] concerns the word 'punga'. My wife had noticed the word Punga in the margin and asked me what punga meant. I had no idea and clicked on the link.
To my surprise it started with a stupid, so called Sardarji joke. Apparently even though most Sikhs were forced to leave their ancestral homes with what little they could carry (those that weren't murdered during the pogrom, known as the Partition) it seems that such jokes, at another's expense, still linger across the border from Amritsar more than half a century later.
Definition
‘Punga’ is not an easy Punjabi word to translate, but it roughly means to provoke somebody without good reason.
One of the more beloved stories of Guru Nanak makes use of the word Punga, and the site where that bit of history happened, has today been turned into one of the most revered shrines in all of Sikhi. Today when many Sikh families have been forced to seek shelter in the walls of Gurdwara Panja Sahib, after having been driven from their homes, the place where Guru Nanak's handprint is still to be seen smashed into a boulder (still on display) is still serving, as all Gurdwaras around the world are intended to serve, not just as a place for worship used now and then that sits empty most of the time, but a place of safety, a place where the hungry and starving, can always find food served freely, by families and the men, women and children who still continue the Seva that Guru Nanak began so many years ago. A serai for travelers and a Langar for the hungry--a place for fellowship!
Category: words
