By a reporter
LOS ANGELES: Dr Harvinder Singh Sahota is world-famous cardiologist practising in Southern California. His invention of Perfusion Angioplasty Balloon is being used all over the world. He introduced the procedure of Angioplasty in India, Mexico, Moscow and Ukraine. It was Dr Sahota’s dream to honour his mother who looked after him when he was one week old and was sick with double pneumonia. So much so he was declared dead at one stage. And with the grace of God and with the prayers and care of his mother he recovered.
It was during this time that his father declared, “That if my this son survives I will make him a doctor so that he will help others with their health suffering.”
This donations will establish the Sikh Chair in the name of Dr Sahota’s mother Bibi Dhan Kaur Sahota. The Chair is for teaching the Sikh Religion which is the fifth largest religion in the world.
The Signing Ceremony was held on the August 12th 2015. The chair will be teaching all aspects of the Sikh Religion. It will cover Sikhism from (1469 to 2015 and onwards). The First Sikh Guru Nanak Dev Ji was born in 1469. In all, there are Ten Gurus (teachers). Sikhs believe in the holy Guru Granth Sahib which is the center of teachings.
The Chair will hire Tenure Professor of Sikhism, who will arrange lectures and cultural programms. There will be graduate and undergraduate courses in Sikhism. Sikh festivals will also be celebrated.The students will visits Sikh temples as part of the study program. At some stage there will be collaboration with Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. Student and teacher exchanges and visits will be part of the collaboration. The professor of Sikhism will do research and publish books and scholarly articles related to Sikhism. The professor will also organize student interest and take them to the places of historical significance.Later, the chair holder will also develop online courses in Sikh Studies.
Dr Sahota and his family are very thankful to UCI for giving this opportunity, especially to Dean (Humanity) Georges Van Den Abbeele and Senior Director (Development) Nicole Balsamo.
