“Sat Sri Akal children!
Wah! It’s a Sunday today. No school so storytime.
Come! Come! , I can see you kids have had a good run up from Gurudwara sahib,” said Daarji, folding his newspaper and placing it on the coffee table.
He looked up, “Suno bacheyo! Where are Bunty and Baani”?
Turning around he glanced out of the window.
“Daarji, they are walking back so slowly with Bebe Ji,” replied Simran.
“That stands to reason my dear. They are not as old as the three of you and our Bebe is getting to be older.|” replied Daarji with a gentle smile.
Soon, a kind of pandemonium had broken out. Hektor and Zach were excitedly barking, Bebe had come. It seems she was trying to quieten them to sit still if they wanted a weekly little dollop of ‘Prashad’.
Babe’s, Sunday visit to Gurudwara sahib was kind of ritualistic as well as a social communion with the small but well-knit village community.
In Punjabi, we call it Bhai-Chara…
It is a kind of happy meet-up of the neighbourhood, and the Gurudwara conveniently doubles as the best clubhouse. On the grace of God
, tea and biscuits usually do the rounds.
Back at Link Road, Babe’s silent kitchen call had the desired effect and the children came speeding down the corridor. The freshly baked cake was sitting on the cake-doily, and a chilled lemonade jug was on the outside table with a white linen table cloth. Quick as they had gone, children were back with Daarji for the story.
Then, do you know what Happy did?
The devious little monkey smuggled a piece of cake for Daarji. It so happens, that Bebe ran a tight ban on being indulgent with Daarji's sweet tooth. It was always this or that. On this day ‘Prashad’ had already filled the gap.
So no Cake!
In meanwhile, Daarji had settled down in his comfort zone.
However a quiet tug on his sleeve caught his attention, and he peered over the reading glasses and quirked an eyebrow and wordlessly Happy passed the plate…Not only was it efficiently finished, but each and every tell-tale crumb was also diligently picked away by the tiny hands that fallen around.
What a sight Bebe missed.
“Yes, that is good. Very good”, thanked Daarji wiping his 'much' and hands on the napkin.
Now, where were we“? He said, thoughtfully nudging his memory.
“Punjab after The Aryans”, reminded the kids almost in unison as they flopped around him.
However, during ancient times, this ‘Land of the five rivers ‘was perhaps formally not known as Punjab. After the disappearance of Indus Valley Civilisation, this Land of Five Rivers was forgotten for hundreds of years.
Times must have been bad. How bad! Perhaps we cannot even begin to imagine.
Years slipped by and our beloved land suffered. Our forefathers endured not one but many invaders over the centuries.
This saga continued. By and by Punjab stood as sentinel …like a defence shield for all of India.
And it does till today
And thus the Soul of the Warrior is born.
As the steel is tempered in fire, God probably used hard times to temper his people so that this wandering tribe became the fighting arm of India.
And remains so till date...
Now, children listen carefully, these events will make you understand how we became a warrior community, willing to fight the invading armies.
First came the Persians, they captured the extreme North-west of India. The Persian kings Cyrus and Darius came for the ever-prized Indus Valley....and they stayed for about 150 years.
Do you know that Cyrus the Great had forged the largest Empire in ancient history?
It spanned three continents.
The Persians, in turn, were conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great.
He swept through the country as far as the Beas River, where he defeated King Porus had an army of 200 elephants.
However, by now the Greeks were tired and homesick and dejected, thus Alexander returned home leaving behind garrisons just to keep the trade routes open.
Then came the Huns.
The Huns were nomadic warriors who had later terrorized much of Europe and the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. They were impressive horsemen best known for their astounding military achievements.
It was around 500 years AD, that the Huns under Toraman poured in once again through the Hindukush passes. They were the notorious warlike tribes, from Central Asia.
They were ever so barbaric and cruel.
Toraman conquered Punjab and surrounding areas.
And for thirty years north-western India was ruled by Hun Kings.
It was around then, came the dawn of the Islamic era. Now it was the Arabic Turks who swept down the Khyber Pass and hit like a storm.
Led by Mahmud of Ghazni, they raided just about every other year for 26 years straight. They made the Turkish cities richer and richer with our wealth… but what did they leave behind them?
Our plundered villages and ruined cities.
After Mohammed Ghazni, there was a lull.
A kind of an uneasy calm...
But then again, nothing was over and done with!
Arabs knew all along of the tales that travelled thru the ages. They never forgot that India was still there.
The Golden bird …or as they say…. sone ki chidiya, with all its riches.
They returned under Mohammed of Ghori, although this time they came to stay. Thus began India’s first dynastic rule of The Delhi Sultanate.
So could it be time for quiet and peace?
Definitely not.
Once again, this was not all; there were more invasions to come.
Possibly more bloody, and even more brutal.
Soon there was a new threat that came from the North - The Mongols.
The extent to which Punjab suffered as a result of Mongol attacks from the 13th century onwards cannot be imagined.
Once
again the mountain passes were breached and the Mongols swept across the Khyber
Pass, and down onto the plains of the lush fertile river valley that was our
Punjab. 
But then, they were not interested in staying in this country. They were just an invading horde….
They were only here to plunder and wreak havoc and mayhem.
There were at least ten devastating invasions and innumerable raids.
Like a swarm of locusts, they would come and disappear
Till they were finally defeated.
The the final blow came when Timurlane, a descendent of Genghis Khan ransacked the entire countryside of Punjab. He massacred many of its people.
There was chaos and turmoil everywhere.
There was so much suffering all around.
Women were widowed, small children orphaned and young girls were abducted by them.
This was tragic, for they were carried away, back to their land as war booty and slave bazaars central Asia….
Most of them never to return again.
A series of these invasions culminated with Babar the first of the Mughal …
Again a descendant of Genghis Khan.
By now we have reached the second half of the Fifteenth century and early sixteenth Century
This was the century space shared by Guru Nanak and Babar, on the 'Land of Rivers'.
Babur was born in 1489 in the Timurid Empire, which is now in Uzbekistan
Guri Nanak was born on the 15th of April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī, which was part of Delhi Sultanate.
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