I am Dr.Balwant Singh, I am a surgeon, serving as a senior resident in the department of neurosurgery at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital located at Dilshad Garden, New Delhi.
Through this letter I would like to share with everyone the role that The Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib and it’s Akal Academy has played in transforming me from a boy belonging to a below poverty line Hindu family into a Doctor and a Sikh.
I originally hail from Kanpur, U.P. , at the time when I was very young, my father used to run a small time band house; our financial condition was extremely poor, his income was not enough to provide for my schooling. Luckily, at that time Baba Iqbal Singh Ji came into our lives, he took me to Baru Sahib and facilitated for my studies at half the fees.
From there, my journey towards becoming a doctor started. I completed my entire schooling from Akal Academy Baru Sahib in the year 2000. In the year 2002 I applied for M.B.B.S in U.P’s Santosh Medical College; by 2008 I finished my course and in the year 2009 I got selected for MS (Master of Surgery) in U.P’s Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College at Gorakhpur.
With the grace of almighty and the blessings of Baru Sahib’s BabaJi, I successfully completed my MS in 2012 and there upon received the opportunity to practice at Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital located in Dilshad Garden, as a Senior Resident in their department of neurosurgery.
The years that I spent at Baru Sahib were the most inspiring years of my life, for they entirely transmuted my personality, my way of thinking & looking at things. The spirituality of that place and the divine aura of the great people like Babaji, Dr. Davinder Singh VeerJi deeply influenced me towards taking up the path of Sikhi, as a result – I got Baptized into Sikh religion. In my family, though my parents are still hindus, but they follow and live by the practices of Sikh religion, ‘Nitnem-Path’ is an integral part of our family’s routine.
Almost all my cousins too were studying alongside me at the Akal Academy Baru Sahib and their lives too are no less inspired. Amongst our favorite teachers, the most motivating and inspiring personalities that we still remember are Dr. Venkatesh, out Maths teachers and Mr. Anthony Sir, who taught us history.
During this entire course, with Almighty’s will, I got married in the year 2011; then I was blessed with a daughter, who is now ready to join her school and we are all set-prepared to send her to Baru Sahib for there is no place on earth that can match the standards of academics alongside discipline and serenity that prevail in the Divine Valley of Peace.
To fellow people, other students & friends, I would like to share the one thing that I have always told my brothers, who are all transformed into Sikhs by God’s graces – no matter what religion or faith you follow, just ensure you follow it from deep within your heart and live up to it fully. With these words, I, Dr. Balwant Singh, would bid farewell to everyone and wish all the best to the Baru Sahib authorities and its members for a speedy achievement in all their endeavors of serving humanity, especially their ongoing project of “Guru Ki Kashi – Akal University” at Talwandi Sabo, Damdama Sahib. Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji ki Fateh.