A pearl in the ocean

A couple of weeks ago, the British Sikh Doctors Organisation and Imperial Sikh Society worked together to put on an outstanding meet and greet event with Sikhs from all around London, a few charities and talks on a variety of topics, culminating in the screening of the new-to-the-UK movie: Ocean of Pearls. Director Sarab Singh Neelam, a doctor living in Michigan, originally had the idea based on countless real life experiences of migrants throughout the world. Ocean of Pearls won multiple awards at various film festivals: Best Feature Film at the Detroit Film Festival in 2009 and the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Choice Award at the 2008 Los Angeles Pacific Film Festival, to name a few.

The story follows Amrit Singh (Abtahi), whose family moved to Toronto, Canada, and is largely involved in the Sikh community developing there. Amrit shows himself to be a hardworking doctor and practising Sikh, though he never really understands why his family left “the old country” to be in Canada, yet still follows the old ways. I’m sure many of you, even those who aren’t Sikh, know what it is like to be in a foreign country and can relate to the experiences shown.

Amrit is approached with an excellent job opportunity in Detroit with millions of dollars of funding for leading a team in his research, if he can impress the board of directors. He soon realises though, that if he really wants to achieve his goals and get the money he needs, he will need to be “flexible” and adaptable, even going so far as to compromise his ethics and his identity. During one tearful scene, Amrit cuts his hair, shedding the turban image and devoting himself to get that job. Meanwhile, his family and girlfriend notice how aloof he has become and though Amrit keeps it a secret, soon he reveals that he cut his hair in a heated debate with his father. How does his life go on from there? Does he meet his ends and achieve the top job? You’ll have to watch and find out.

However, what is important is that while there appears to be a Pursuit of Happyness theme in terms of Amrit and his profession, there is a much deeper and more significant message: should outsiders compromise there identity to realize their dreams? Many of our Imperial College London colleagues are foreign students and know how intimidating it can be being in a strange new country, where people ridicule us for our looks, our accent or our beliefs. It does seem so much easier to give in and be like everyone else. For Amrit, the choice to remove his hair was made so he could present a recognisable face to not just his board of directors, but to the subconsciously xenophobic community he finds himself in.

Is this the way forward? For each of us, we have to make the choice and that means deciding whether we will follow our dreams to the end, regardless of what we may have to give up, or remaining steadfast in our beliefs, despite the setbacks, despite the bullying, despite the racism that threatens us. Amrit’s father says during the film that during a period of Sikh history, there was a bounty on every Sikh head and anybody known to be a Sikh was instantly put to death. Despite this, the Sikhs did not cut their hair or shirk away; they proudly wore their turbans and denounced the injustice, fighting against terrible odds. I’m sure a lot of you have seen the film 300? The odds were stacked even higher against them.

I know I’ve talked a lot about Sikhs in this, but it really applies to everyone. Whether you are oriental, African American or European, female or male, disabled or suffer from illness, I’m sure that we’ve all experienced prejudice in our lives, but we all have the right to be treated fairly and equally. We all have things which make us who we are and you just wouldn’t be you without them. However, we must make sure that when chasing that £10m dollar contract, we do not lose sight of our ideals, our history, our identity.

Ultimately, the choice lies with you.