Sikh Meets World – Details, episodes & analysis

Victoria Virasingh was born and raised in Arlington, VA, and is the daughter of immigrants from Ecuador and Punjabi Sikhs. She earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Stanford University on a full scholarship. After completing her education, she worked for Senator Diane Feinstein and then pursued a career in technology at Palantir where she founded and led the Future of Work team. She returned to her home in Arlington to focus on community building, local politics, and working with nonprofits. In this episode, she shares her experience growing up in America, what led her to run for congress, and her hopes for restoring the American Dream.

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Omi is an accomplished actor who has worked in both film and television in the United States and abroad. He has had roles on hit TV shows including, “The Office,” “Arrested Development,” and “Bones.” He is best known by Bollywood fans for his performances in “3 Idiots,” “The Desert Rose,” and “American Aliens.” 

We talked with him about his experience growing up in the high desert of California and his acting career. We discuss his time on “The Office” as the only Sikh character and he also shares his dream of documenting the story of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Sikh and Asian American Congressman.

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Ravi Bhalla, is an American civil rights lawyer, politician, and the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. Prior to becoming mayor, he served in the city council of Hoboken, New Jersey since 2009. On November 7, 2017, he was elected New Jersey's first Sikh mayor, as well as the first elected mayor in the United States who is a Sikh and wears a turban.

In this wide ranging interview, we discuss Mayor Bhalla's childhood, why he pursued politics and public service, his various initiatives as Mayor for the city of Hoboken, and his advice on how to get into politics.

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Although lesser known than his contemporaries, Dalip Singh Saund and Bhagat Singh Thind, Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah has had an extremely interesting and impactful life and career. Not only was he a successful dentist in Malibu, California but he was also the City Commissioner of Los Angeles and the campaign manager behind the election of the first Sikh, Indian, and Asian man to the U.S. Congress. 

Sikh Meets World sat down with him over the course of a few interviews to get an inside look at his life story and why he believes Sikhs in America are now able to make a bigger impact than ever before. A wide-ranging conversation that crisscrosses between his life and his advice, Dr. Marwah shows us how nothing is impossible.

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A prominent voice for the Sikh-American community both in the United States and abroad, Dr. Rajwant Singh plans to use all of the remaining time on causes that will positively impact the world for Sikhs and others. Having acted as a bridge between the Sikh community and the White House for over two decades, Dr. Rajwant wants to leverage his platform to help direct Sikh philanthropy and create a society where Guru Nanak’s wisdom is shared with everyone.

We discuss his story as an activist, the trials and tribulations he’s faced, and what he aspires for the Sikh community globally. Not only is he the Co-Founder of the National Sikh Campaign but he also chairs and heads several other efforts that he discusses in detail on the podcast. 

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Attorney General Grewal is the highest-ranking Sikh public official in the United States since Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, also the first Asian American Congressman, who served in the late 1950s.

In the hour-long interview, the Attorney General shares his childhood struggles with bullying & harassment, his motivation for pursuing public service and law enforcement, and his unlikely path to the heights of New Jersey politics. Attorney General Grewal also details his policy agenda for the state of New Jersey on items such as public corruption and police-community relations, and his thoughts on the state of our turbulent federal politics. 

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Outside of equality and the turban, Sikhs are most known for their prowess in battle. In this episode, we chat with a real-life warrior, Arjan Singh Bhullar, who is an Olympic freestyle wrestler and the first Sikh fighter signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)— the premier mix martial arts (MMA) promotion in the world. According to MMA World Ranking, Arjan is currently ranked #21 in the heavyweight division and recently fought in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Sikh Meets World caught up with him before that fight to chat about his life story, how his family came to Surrey, British Columbia in Canada, his experience as an Olympian, and what about wrestling spurred him to his chosen career path. We also hear his plan to use his platform to raise awareness of the Sikh faith and help the UFC break into the Indian market. 

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As the first Sikh elected to a State Senate, Manka Dhingra is on well on her way to a successful political career in her hometown of Redmond, Washington in the suburbs of Seattle. In the 2nd edition of Sikh Meets World, we talk with the recently-elected State Senator to understand her American story and what drove her into public office. 

Manka details how she immigrated at an early age to her time finding love at U.C. Berkeley. We touch on how she ended up starting a nonprofit as well becoming a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, and how her monumental election win changed how policy is being made currently in Washington State. Moreover, she shares her experience with Sikhism and how it has taught her the values she now upholds in her life and career. 

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Released after the sixth anniversary of the Oak Creek, Wisconsin Gurdwara shooting, the first episode of Sikh Meets World sits down with Pardeep Singh Kaleka, whose father was shot and killed in the hate-fueled attack, and Arno Michaelis, the former white supremacist who created the racist, skinhead organization which Michael Wade Page, the attacker, belonged to and believed in. 

Pradeep shares his family’s story in America, his struggles after the shooting, and how he has tried to make an impact since. Arno offers an earnest look into the mindset of a man who went to White Supremacy to find refuge in his youth, how he was able to justify those actions, and what eventually pulled him out of it. Most importantly, we look at how their two divergent paths have come together at this point in time to write their new book, The Gift of Our Wounds.

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Ben Rekhi is an award-winning Sikh filmmaker from northern California. From working with the Coen brothers to producing Hindi horror films, he has made a name for himself in the film industry. His notable past work includes Waterborne (2005) and The Ashram (2018), and most recently, he directed Watch List (2019) in Manila, a crime thriller set in the drug underworld during the time of Rodrigo Duterte's extrajudicial killings. The film was nominated for a Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Ben has recently turned to documentaries including his recent film, The Reunited States. The documentary is born from his passion to bridge divides and share the lives of people who were challenging biases. He hopes viewers will walk away from the film knowing that “we all have a role to play in bringing our country back together.” Ben continues to look for opportunities to heal our nation and world through the power of storytelling.  

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