Cornelis Harjinder Singh Heule was born in 1947 in Roermond in the Netherlands as Cornelis Heule. He is known as Harjinder Singh, name given to him when he became an initiated Sikh in 1996.
He followed primary school in his hometown and the first half of his secondary in Heerlen. Harjinder Singh then moved to Amstelveen (near Amsterdam) where he finished secondary school.
Harjinder went to University in Amsterdam, but he got caught up in the student movement. He worked for about 25 years in the travel industry, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and in Dublin, Ireland. In 1996 Harjinder Singh went to Punjab, India where he stayed for four years.
In the first 2½ years of his stay in Punjab he studied Sikhí and its history, and made himself useful in the Harmandar Sahib complex in Amritsar. The last 1½ year in Punjab he stayed mostly in Chandigarh, where he did voluntary work (seva) for the Institute of Sikh Studies.
In 2000, he came to West London, UK where he lived until June 2010. He did not have a ‘job’ but was involved in a number of different organizations as a volunteer and as ‘Faith and Cultural Diversity consultant’.
Harjinder Singh was a member of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy team at Heathrow Airport and at Richmond upon Thames College and was involved in a number of Sikh lobby groups and advisory groups to the Police. Mr Singh did diversity training for the Slough Racial Equality Council (REC), and was the National Development Officer of Faith & Belief in Further Education.
On June 17 2010 Harjinder Singh moved to Sint Truiden in the Dutch speaking Belgian province of Limburg, where he is trying to make himself useful by using his language skills. Harjinder Singh at present is assisting Sikh families from Afghanistan with their Asylum case in Belgium. He is providing all necessary assistance to one Afghan Sikh family in particular, who are threatened with deportation to Kabul, Afghanistan.
He does still write his weekly column (The Man In Blue).
He is sixty-five, happy and busy doing seva for the Panth.
Harjinder Singh – Man in Blue 1947 Blog http://maninblue1947.wordpress.com/category/man-in-blue-columns
Harjinder Singh – Man in Blue’s Photographs http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/
Very Inspiring video. Harjinder Singh is very genuine person. God Bless Him.
Make him Ambassador for sikhi…………………..Plzzzzzz
This video of Harjinder Singh ji should be watched by YOUNG SIKH youth all over the WORLD who are cutting beard and hair and ashamed to wear TURBAN as a sign of SIKHI.
SIKHI Education in PUNJAB is very vital if we want to save sikhi in INDIA.
Perhaps Sikhs abroad could help in setting up schools in villages for