The Derby Chat Show – Mo Suleman
I appeared on Radio Derby Sound earlier this week.
You can hear about it all in the link below.
“Hear Kal’s moving story of coping with the death of his father by suicide and how it led to his interest in History. Plus awesome music from the 80s and 90s”
#khalscast 2
Amar Singh Virdi – Video Message to Raman.
Derbyshire Life Magazine – July 2020
#khalcast 1
My First Twitter Live #khalcast 1
Pear Tree Ram – Collection.
Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa recites from his Pear Tree Ram – Collection. As well as discussing the current Black Lives Matter movement and racism he has himself experienced.
University of Leicester – Alumnus
Paki.
My Poem ‘Paki’ from the Pear Tree Rambler – Collection was featured in the Derby Telegraph today. This video explains why I wrote it.
Derby man shares personal life experiences of racism growing up and living in Normanton.
He talks about the racism he faced growing up in Derby.
16 JUN 2020
A Derby school worker has revealed how he grew up having to cope with racism.
Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa, a science technician at Littleover Community School, says he was pilloried for having a traditional Sikh “top knot” hairstyle – but then when he cut it off, says he felt he lost his sense of identity.
He has also spoken about living in Normanton and how some “blinkered” people thought because of that, he would be associated with crime.
Kalwinder says writing about his experiences have helped him cope – and he has penned a stinging rebuke to the racists and bullies in the shape of a poem called “Paki”.
Kalwinder speaks about various experiences including racism, growing up in Normanton, his heroes and coping with the death of his father and feels the lockdown has helped him to engage with more people and can help others to cope with any of the same experiences.
“Paki”
Man with beard and brown skin.
“Mr Khan”, they laugh and grin.
Silly little fools without a clue.
Laughing at me is laughing at you.
Show some respect an observe our faces.
We’re all pakis to ignorant racists
The 40-year-old said: “My poetry allows me to identify topics that are relevant and I feel a lot of my listeners can relate to them.
“I spent 28 years of my life living in Normanton, and the stigma that is attached to living in the area is something I have experienced first hand.
“I experienced racism from a young age, I was called names and because I wore a top knot due to my religion, people would often call me a girl and even though it was a symbol of my faith, I had a lot of resentment to my culture.
“I then decided to cut my hair when I was 15 and lost a sense of my identity, I tried to fit in but people would not identify me as being a Sikh and would be called other horrible names.
“Growing up, racism has evolved, there have been instances where I have gone for job interviews or told people which area I live in and they instantly assume I am bad or I’m involved in criminal activity.
“This is wrong and I know so many others like me have experienced this, I want people to talk and share their problems so we can help and encourage positivity and help people steer away from mental health issues.
“During lockdown, I have been doing Facebook Lives and they are going really well, I talk about identity, religion and history and connect it back to my home city of Derby.
“I am proud of where I come from and my poetry reflects that, especially with what is currently happening in the world with the Black Lives Matter protests, I am happy people are speaking up and identifying what’s happening in the world.”
nor MAN ton – Thoughts.
Pear Tree Rampart – Collection.
Pear Tree Rampage – Collection.
Punjabi Alphabet Activity Book
Pear Tree Rambler – Collection.
Alice Wheeldon.
This is Alice Wheeldon of Pear Tree.
Steve Wetton.
This is my friend and old Teacher from Pear Tree Junior School. He’s 81 now.
Mr Steve Wetton.
Gian Singh VC.
I used my new pencil to draw Gian Singh VC.
I’ll get better.
Bereavement Room Podcast
Sikh Derby man Kalwinder joins Callsuma in the Bereavement Room to talk about his father who died by suicide in 2006. We reflect on his experiences of being impacted by suicide, poetry as a source of expression and support and the triggers of loss following the recent global pandemic, COVID-19. In this episode we also talk openly about the challenges faced working with mainstream charities and what this means in trying to reach wider communities. You can reach out to Kal on twitter – @khalsir
This episode is dedicated to our Grandfathers and Fathers.
Thank you for listening.
Writing to recover – Opening Up Cricket.
Are We Dreaming?
Have you heard ‘Are We Dreaming?’ by Khalsir on #SoundCloud?
Corona Virus – Derby Radio Derby
Hear me speaking on the @BBCDerby Satvinder Rana Aaj Kal Media Show with Shabaz Arshad discussing the Corona Virus Pandemic and it’s effect on the people of Derby #GurdwaraClosures #COVID19
18:44 Onwards.
(22/03/2020)
Home Away From Homeland – Derby
“I just wanted to recognise my great heroes and heroines in life”
Author Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa‘s Derby collection is an A to Z of iconic Derby figures in the form of poetry and illustrations.
It includes a football legend, breakdancing star and has a link to James Bond classic Octopussy – and we spoke to Kalwinder to find out all about it.
Can I Help You?
Derby Sketching Club
A portrait sitting at the Derby Sketching Club.
It was a great honour to be invited to have my portrait sketched/painted at the Derby Sketching Club.
The members of the club are a fantastic and talented bunch of artists.
The Derby Sketching Club is a members’ club now meeting in Littleover, Derby, England. It was founded in 1887, and still meets today, providing members with facilities so they and others can work and share their interest in painting and sketching.[1] Early members included F. Booty, Alfred John Keene, William Swindell, George Thompson, Charles Terry and Frank Timms.
Ernest Townsend, R. W. Bardill, Harold Gresley and J. P. Wale.
TownsEnd by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa
#Derby #Nazi #RollsRoyce #PearTreeRampage #Poetry
X-Hibition & Ad-Hibition by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa.
#Derby #Derbyshire #Art #Poetry
DERBY
The Kindle and Paperback version of my latest release ‘Derby’ has been released.
Kindle £1.99
Paperback £4.99
Derby by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa.
In this collection of poems each letter of the alphabet is dedicated to an iconic figure in the history of Derby.
#Derby #Derbyshire #Poetry #Alphabet
nor MAN ton
Coming Soon
nor MAN ton
by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa
DERBY
Coming Soon
DERBY
by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa
BBC Upload
Thank You to BBC Upload for sharing my poem.
A tribute to the legendary ‘The King of Rome’
INTERVIEW
Home Away From Homeland
Thank You to Aran Dhillon and Home Away From Homeland for allowing me to share my experiences.
“Ever since his death I’ve been trying to come to terms with what happened”
Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa – who lost his father to suicide – has written two books about the death of his dad, along with poems about mental health.
He courageously shares his story with us and discusses the stigma surrounding mental health in the South Asian community.
Kalwinder’s Story – Papyrus.
Commemorating your late loved one’s birthday.
Men’s Mental Health – BBC Asian Network
I appeared on BBC Asian Network yesterday with Monty Panesar talking about how easy is it to get Asian men to talk about their emotions?
BBC Radio Derby – Donna Alos.
I was on BBC Radio Derby today on the Donna Alos Breakfast Show.
‘Surviving bereavement by suicide’
1hr47m Onwards
LISTEN
BBC Radio Leicester – Ady Dayman.
I was on BBC Radio Leicester this morning with Ady Dayman.
You can hear me talking about my experiences of being bereaved by suicide from 2hr6m50s onwards.
Free Download
Two of my Poetry collections are available to download on Kindle for FREE for the next few days.
Pear Tree Rambler
Little Pear Tree Ram
DOWNLOAD
‘There is a light at the end of tunnel’
Author opens up about dealing with dad’s suicide.
‘My dad spent his whole life helping people but he didn’t have the outlet he needed’
Kalwinder Singh was 26 years old when his dad Mohinder took his own life.
The news came just months after Mohinder’s brother and Kal’s uncle died by suicide after battling depression for years.
Struggling with the heartbreaking news, Kal thought he would never be happy again.
But, 14 years on, he is sharing the story of his grief to help others through similar trauma and give people hope.
The now 40-year-old has written a two-part book about his dad’s life, history and his own grieving process.
“When it happened I just couldn’t get my head around it,” Kal said.
“I thought I would never be happy again but now after all this time I have hindsight and I have learned a lot.”
He hopes that by sharing his story, he will help others.
Leicester Mercury
24 SEP 2019
Derby Walk of Fame 2019
The first ten Derby stars to have their names etched into the stars in the city were:
Alice Wheeldon Derby’s most famous suffragist and a fervent anti-First World War campaigner
Bess of Hardwick, England’s richest Elizabethan woman after Queen Elizabeth I used her considerable wealth to help Derby poor and needy
Brian Clough and Peter Taylor the top management duo that took Derby football from obscurity to national fame
Sir John Hurt in recognition of his sterling contribution to the arts as an accomplished actor
Joseph Wright globally recognised English landscape and portrait painter and the first to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution
Louis Martin, the Jamaican-born sportsman who became Britain’s greatest-ever Olympic weightlifter
Philip Noel-Baker, a former MP for Derby, credited with saving the 1948 Olympic Games for Britain
Charles Rolls the pioneer aviator and Henry Royce the engineer and designer who formed Rolls-Royce which sets the global standard for excellence in automotive and aviation technology
The newest additions to the Made in Derby Walk of Fame are:
Adam Peaty, Olympic champion breaststroke swimmer who won the Gold medal at the Olympic Games at Rio in 2016, which earned him the Freedom of the City of Derby later that year
Marion Adnams, English painter, printmaker and draughtswoman, best known for her surrealist paintings
Bird Brothers – Frank, Thomas and Reginald, Derby born bakers, founders of the Bird’s Bakery chain
Karam Singh, Solo world champion break dancer from Normanton
Jack O’Connell, British TV and film actor well known for his roles in Skins and Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut Unbroken
Lara Croft, Archaeologist video game and film heroine created in Derby
Liam Sharp, Marvel and DC comic book artist, famous for drawing Spiderman and Wonder Women comics
John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, who prepared of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus
Steve Bloomer, Derby County football legend who signed to the club as a professional footballer in April 1892
Florence Nightingale, heroine of the Crimean War and the major founder of the modern profession of nursing
Surviving Bereavement by Suicide
On World Suicide Prevention Day we are presenting a short video on the experience of Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa who was bereaved by his father’s suicide.
The video is introduced by Dr Gurpreet Kaur, Chartered Clinical Psychologist (@DrKaurTherapy), who asks for the video to be shared with people in your immediate family networks who are less likely to access social media.
The video covers the following areas:
The term ‘committing suicide’
Is suicide selfish
What might have helped his father
The experience of grief
Does grief end
Community reactions
What do we (the community) need to get better at?
Moving forward
Crisis line numbers
Sikh community contact points
Contact for Dr Gurpreet Kaur
As this video is about a young man who lost his father, please do share it predominantly with male figures in your life, such as your father, grandfather, uncles, brothers, sons and friends. Suicide prevention can only happen if we all become more adept at discussing mental health difficulties and struggles openly. By doing so, we will also create avenues for people to understand that there is a pathway towards hope and healing.
Thank you to Kalwinder for bravely sharing his experiences. If you would like to learn more about his work please visit his website: www.khalsir.com or follow him on various social media channels: @KhalSir.
If you have any queries or would like to share your mental health experiences please email info@drkaurtherapy.com.
The Heera Foundation
On November 2nd I’ll be running a workshop at the 2019 Heera Foundation Conference:
Protecting Minds
‘Surviving bereavement by suicide’
I will be sharing my experiences in relation to the loss of my father by suicide and how I managed to cope with my grief.
The Colour of Madness: One Year On
On 1 September 2018, we published The Colour of Madness, an anthology exploring Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) mental health in the UK. The book featured the art, poetry, stories, and essays of over fifty contributors*.
Far from being a one-off publication, The Colour of Madness has taken on a life of its own. We have given talks, spoken on panels, and run workshops at universities, festivals, marketing agencies, council events, and more. Edinburgh University students took our stories from the page to the stage, and our contributors have been making waves across the country. Our book is now in the hands of so many people we admire, from Jackie Kay, to Sharmaine Lovegrove, to Reni Eddo-Lodge. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve all been up to!
Departure Lounge
The Dream – A Football Story
Hidden Project – Red Saunders, Derby Tableaux
“I really enjoyed dressing up for the Derby Lock-Out scene. I look forward to seeing the final version at the Derby Silk Mill when it unveiled in the Summer of 2020. A great honour to be involved”
Red Saunders is a professional photographer who combines his photographic practice with cultural, artistic, musical, and political activism. The aim of Red’s Hidden Project, through re-imagining those events, is to reproduce important historic scenes involving the dissenters, revolutionaries, radicals and non-conformists who have so often been hidden from history.
Derby’s history can be understood through its people, place and energy. Three historic and globally significant moments for the city will be recreated by Red Saunders in a series of three photographic tableaux for the new Museum of Making:
- Derby as the receptacle for a global flow of knowledge and the birthplace of the Enlightenment in the 18th Century.
- An expression of working class solidarity and resistance in the first Factory Lock-Out of 1833-34.
- The region’s technical advancements that created new ways of understanding and living in the world from 1880 onwards.
This is an once-in-a-lifetime experience to produce a new artwork, both featuring and created for the people of Derbyshire. We’re looking for people of all ages, ethnic groups, genders and abilities who are living and working in the region to get involved and be part of Red’s Derby People Histories tableaux.
Little Pear Tree Ram
Little Pear Tree Ram is Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa’s rambling love letter of sorts and thoughts to the city of Derby and it’s wonderful folk.
A collected children’s edition of poetry and prose, which follows the life of a Derby boy. Touching upon identity, community, culture and many other things that define and strengthen the man that he has become.
The 30 poems in this collection are collected together from Pear Tree Rambler, Pear Tree Rampage, Pear Tree Rampart, Pear Tree Ram and 3 extra poems.
Suitable for all children.
KINDLE £0.99
Paperback £2.99
Pear Tree Ram – The Collected Edition
Pear Tree Ram is Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa’s rambling love letter of sorts and thoughts to the city of Derby and it’s wonderful folk.
A collected edition of poetry and prose, which follows the life of a Derby boy. Touching upon identity, community, culture and many other things that define and strengthen the man that he has become.
The 90 poems in this edition are collected together from Pear Tree Rambler, Pear Tree Rampage, Pear Tree Rampart and 16 extra poems.
WARNING: May contain words that some people find offensive.
Pear Tree Ram
Pear Tree Rambler
Pear Tree Rampage
Pear Tree Rampart
The Pear Tree Ram
My 3 Pear Tree Poetry Collections.
Pear Tree Rambler, Pear Tree Rampage & Pear Tree Rampart.
Pear Tree Punjabi and Pear Tree Ram (Collected).
Pear Tree Rampart – April 1st
Pear Tree Rampart is Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa’s rambling love letter of sorts and thoughts to the city of Derby and it’s wonderful folk.
A third collection of poetry and prose, which follows the life of a Derby boy. Touching upon identity, community, culture and many other things that define and strengthen the man that he has become.
WARNING: May contain words that some people find offensive.
£0.99 Kindle
£2.99 Paperback
LINK
Writer’s touching poem about 100-year-old killed in Derby after surviving Nazis
A writer has written a touching poem about 100-year-old Zofija Kaczan, who survived the Nazis only to be robbed and killed in Derby.
Smith of Derby
Harrison Clock Visit
This morning, volunteers from the Derby Museum of Making arrived for a tour of the clock works. After a short introduction from Managing Director Bob Betts, which touched on the history of the family company and its commitment to the future of clockmaking, Bob handed over to Customer Service Manager, Tony Charlesworth, who led the nine visitors on a tour of the factory.
Of particular note was the Harrison Clock. Tony outlined how Smith of Derby apprentices had been responsible for the dismantling, restoring and reassembly of the clock, and how the clock was back to full working order and ready for reinstallation in the Museum of Making at some point before its reopening in 2020.
Among the visitors was Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa, author and teacher and long-term resident of Derby. “I’ve grown up in Derby”, he said, “and now work here and it’s exciting to see Smith of Derby, a company synonymous with Derby itself, continuing the work they have done for generations. Clocks give you a (sense of) time and a place, clocks themselves and the memory of them can take you back in time. It’s sad when you see a clock somewhere and it’s stopped, as soon as a clock dies it’s not the same. Time is a beautiful thing and horology and it’s great to see your work here at Smith of Derby and how you are evolving and restoring clocks and keeping them alive.”
Joining Tony on the tour was also Nick Whitworth, 6th Generation of Smith Family, who enjoyed being reminded of what unusual and interesting company Smiths is when seen through new eyes. Nick remarked how “it’s great to be amongst those who are perhaps encountering the work we do for the first time. They asked lots of questions and were inquisitive and wanted to know how clocks worked and why they were the way they were. Of course, those of us connected with the company are proud of the work we do, the traditional and the cutting-edge, but it’s nice to share this feeling with others and to see that our work is prompting an enthusiastic response.”
