Interview with Gurpal & Rupjit Kaur

Please tell us a little bit about yourselves to begin with including your hobbies, interests, your school and memberships?

Well what can one say about themselves, especially if it's only a little bit! Lol...well, as you already know we're twins (hehe), we both went to school together, had the same friends, were in the same class and practically got the same grades! We both enjoy singing, playing instruments, but there are a few differences: Gurpal (Rupjit pointing towards Gurpal!) enjoys art and crafts and Rupjit loves and really emphasizing on the word loves... Drama. So, you could say, there's never a dull moment at home!

Being twins, you seem to have a really special and happy relationship. How have you found growing up together, almost identitical to each other? Do you find you have the same interests and tastes as each other?

Yes we're identical...but for some reason some people can tell us apart (wonder what we're doing wrong?!) lol..but thought we would just fill you in that we may be twins, but no we can not feel each other's pain (people always want to know that for some reason). We do hang out a lot together so we suppose you could say we have this “special” bond. Growing up...lol...do you really want to know?..lol...we had so much fun!!! We were really naughty, especially in primary school, but we're not going to say what we used to get up to..hehehe, we even had tops saying ‘Double Trouble' warning people to watch out for us...lol...We have loads in common (we could be here for a while though) but to cut things short, we enjoy having a laugh, we love our pizza and we like to compete against each other in table tennis to see who wins lol...

Have you ever swapped places to take an exam or something for each other?! Have you found it a problem for people to tell you apart? Does your family ever get confused?!
 
Well we have never swapped places to take an exam for each other because that would have been pointless; we would have ended up with the same exam results! But we do answer each other's phone calls pretending to be the other twin (lol) because we sound the same, but only over the phone. Some people can tell us apart after a while, and some just can't, it can get annoying when you keep getting told off for something you haven't done; our family do get confused when they're talking to the back of our heads!!! Sometimes when our parents just glance at us or if one of us will say something really silly for some reason they will just assume its Gurpal and I would be like ‘hawwwww!!!!'

How did you first come into Sikhi? What influenced you? What interested you? What was your starting point, if you had one?

We got into Sikhi because of our lovely parents. We used to sit together as a family and recite our paath, it felt really good because our family was our sangat and we are eternally grateful for that. We were really interested in learning the baja and tabla then as we got older we started going to gurdwara to learn paath - just the beauty of the shabads amazed us.

We loved going to the Gurdwara because, I don't think we realized at the time, but we enjoyed just being around sangat “Suyanbhuv subhang sarabda sarab jugtay God's light is automatic, He is beautiful and is ever present in all living beings.” We were very happy kids and Sikhi played an important part in our life, we don't think we could ever imagine our life without Sikhi.

Many people have different experiences of how they came into Sikhi. Which way do you think is the best way to influence and encourage youth to learn more about their faith?

Everyone finds their own way into Sikhi, there is no best way. Encouraging youth to go to Sikhi camps and taking part in other Sikhi events can be influential and they will be in sangat even if they do not realize it themselves. We remember when we first starting helping out at camps there was such a buzz in the atmosphere because 24/7 you're with amazing people who are doing simran and seva, and you can just feel the energy - even without sleep you could run on that energy for a while! We think more workshops would be good too, which get the youth involved, and even if gurdwaras had a weekly, or monthly youth forum where the youth can discuss absolutely any issues - it would be a way of them realizing that there is always good sangat around if they have any problems. Also, maybe if the youth were allowed more responsibilities and freedom in organizing events, or just participating in seva within the gurdwara, it would help them realize how good it feels to give something back.

Last year, a lot of sangat came to know about the “Acappella Jatha”. What is acappella and what gave you the idea to start singing keertan in such a way?

Lol...We didn't actually name ourselves the ‘Acapella jatha' , a bhaji came up with that name because we started singing without any instruments and Acapella means “One or more vocalists performing without an accompaniment”. This style of keertan came about when all us sisters were just hanging out together at home doing simran and then one of our sister started singing and then one by one we all started adding our own harmonies in, it was well wicked, we were singing acappella style.

Who is in your keertan jatha and is there any specific role each person has?

We are not a ‘jatha', we are just five sisters who love singing, and we enjoy doing keertan and simran in any kind of style. We do not have specific roles- we just sing whichever harmony suits our voice. Rupjit likes to pretend she can sing opera therefore she usually sings the high notes whereas Gurpal is known as the boom box, lol , she can sing low but can still sing pretty high too„mahhh man spoilt for choice! lol

You have amazing voices. How long have you been learning keertan? What instruments can you play?

Our voices are nothing compared to other keertani's voices- wow theirs is just like out of this world! We have been learning keertan since we were about 5 years old, lol, we can even remember our first shabad ‘ja ka meet sajan keh' on the baja and slowly slowly our collection of instruments has grown and we do ‘try' to play them well.

Who or what has been your main source of inspiration, past and present?

At the end of the day it has to be Vaheguru. If it wasn't for Vaheguru's kirpa we would probably never have done any of the things we have done now, will be doing and will carry on doing.

You both were part of organizing, one of the first ever Red Nose Day Sikh events in the UK. Tell us more about this event and how you become to be a part of the organization?

We have to say ‘A BIG UP TO RAJVINDER PENJI', lol...none of this would have been possible without her, with Guru ji's kirpa she came up with this idea and she just felt this need to fulfill this seva. We tried to help her out as much as we could and with Vaheguru's help we raised enough money for charity. The money went to Comic Relief, which is a well known charity that helps people worldwide. We got this great chance to do this mahaan seva through my sister and it shows that girls can take more of an active role in organizing events.

Year 2005 ended on a very high note with multiple events going on up and down the country, but the highlight for many was the Jap108 programme which you were quite actively involved in. How did you go on to be involved in this and what did it involve?

We enjoyed every second of the Jap 108 programme; it was so uplifting to see younger and older generations taking an active part in this seva and doing rohls and everyone turned up on time as well!

A wonderful bhaji introduced us to this project and we even had the privilege of taking part in it last year when it took place in Birmingham - little did we know that we would be organizing the next one! He handed this project down to us because he wants more singhnia to get out there and organize events and it all started off from there. Jap 108 was all about doing Jap Ji Sahib paaths (you could do as many as you wanted to) and it involved the sangat greatly. We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the sangat who took part and supported us, and SIKHSANGAT and EKTAONE for advertising the programme on their site! So THANK YOU! Vaheguru!

Twins, thank you so much for reluctantly agreeing to give us this interview. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Lol haven't we spoken enough? We really believe we did not deserve to be Youth Of The Month; we have not done anything yet! There are plenty of chardeekala Sikhs out there who deserve this more than us. I thank Waheguru every day for everything he has given us …lol… even for all these sisters we have! Waheguru has helped us in this age of kuljug; to move away from the darkness towards his light. Last of all before we disappear… Double Trouble would just like to say: Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fateh!
 

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer the above questions,
and we hope you can continue to carry the torch of Sikhi and inspire others alike.