A young Sikh man has been rewarded for removing his turban to help save a six-year old boy’s life.
The Sikh man who earned international praise for breaking strict religious protocol in removing his turban to help treat a young boy who was struck by a car has been rewarded for his kindness.
Indian student Harman Singh, 22, received new furniture for his sparse Auckland apartment after a news story showed he had only plastic furniture.
An overwhelmed Mr Singh told One News the new lounge suite, bed and coffee table was “the biggest surprise of my life”.
Watch the special moment here:
He said his father, who passed away last year, would be very proud of him.
Four days earlier, Mr Singh visited injured boy Daejon Pahia in hospital, with a balloon and card in hand.
‘I am just so happy to see him – he is such a very brave guy,’ Mr Singh told Daily Mail Australia.
Mamamia previously wrote:
There is an image that is going around the world. An image of a selfless act. A beautiful moment where a man is said to have “put religion aside” all to help save the life of a six-year old boy.
It is an image we all need to see.
The man, 22-year old Harman Singh, an Indian student studying in New Zealand, rushed to the aid of a young child who had been hit by a car on his way to school in South Auckland.
Mr Singh quickly removed his turban to help stem the bleeding from the boy’s head.
“I wasn’t thinking about the turban, I was thinking about the accident and I just thought, ‘He needs something on his head because he’s bleeding.’ That’s my job – to help,” Mr Singh told The NZ Herald.
“I think anyone else would have done the same as me.”
The boy, six-year old Daejon Pahia had been struck by a four-wheel drive as he crossed the road just before 9am on Friday, suffering a serious head wound.
Harman Singh rushed from his nearby home when he heard the noise.
A passerby, Gagan Dhillon who witnessed the terrible accident took this image.
Gagan Dhillon said, “There was enough help as there was, but being a Sikh myself, I know what type of respect the turban has. People just don’t take it off – people die over it.”
“I saw him [Mr Singh] with no head covering and thought, ‘That’s strange’. But then I saw one hand was underneath the boy’s head supporting it and his siropao [turban] was stopping the bleeding.
“He didn’t care that his head was uncovered in public – he just wanted to help this little boy.”
Daejon’s mother, Shiralee told The NZ Herald she wanted to thank the young man who helped save her son’s life.
“I just really want to thank him because I know it’s against his religion to take that kind of stuff off so I just really want to thank him because if it wasn’t for him my son wouldn’t be here,” she said.
‘Great symbol of – we are all human beings. We have our individual beliefs, but at the end of the day to care for one another is key,’
Another ‘This is why I have high respect for the Sikhism faith. Awesome job mate!,’
And more ‘Humanity before religion. Nice one buddy,’
On twitter too:
Mr Singh said he was only doing what was right.
“Total strangers are asking to be friends on Facebook and thousands of people have said ‘Well done’. I was only doing what I had to and trying to be a decent member of the community.”
The Sikh media association has also praised Mr Singh, though adding it was incorrect to say he put religion aside. A representative wrote on their Facebook page.
“Whilst the story of how this Sikh went out of his way to help an injured child is a beautiful story and nicely covered by nzherald.co.nz , it is entirely inaccurate to say he “put religion aside” to do it. A Sikh is taught to do whatever they can to help someone, especially in the kind of situation seen in the linked article. This is seen in the use of the DuMalla style of turban during war times. DuMalla can be transcribed as meaning “two turbans”. One reason this style of turban was worn by warrior Sikhs was to have extra material to use for treatment of wounds and to give to women who may have had clothes ripped in attacks after villages were ransacked. This Sikh did not “put aside religion” to help, he was simply doing what generations of Sikhs have done for centuries.”
Meanwhile Daejon is recovering in hospital with a fractured skull, 12 deep head wounds and a lacerated kidney. His mother said he was having trouble coming to terms with the accident.
“He doesn’t want anybody to talk about it. We tried to talk to him about it but he just turns away, he doesn’t want to hear about it.” She told The NZ Herald.
“It’s going to be up to him and how [his condition] becomes every day; the doctors said it will be a slow recovery.”
We wish him a very speedy recovery.
Top Comments
It's an odd world we live in where an act like this gets so much praise. For any normal person, when confronted with someone bleeding profusely is to use what you have to stop the bleeding. I have previously taken my shirt off to do that for someone after an accident. If I wore a turban, it would have been the first thing off.
Personally if he hadn't taken it off to help the young boy I would have been shocked.
This mans religion is the reason he took off his turban to help a child, he wasn't putting his religion aside he was practicing it.