My very first encounter with a religion apart from my own which is Hinduism was during an organized school trip to different shrines. First we visited the Guru Nanak Sikh temple near pangani. I was overwhelmed by the fact that the Gurus of the temple warmly welcomed us. They briefly told us what we would see inside the temple. It sounded very familiar to that of a Hindu temple. We were then kindly instructed to remove our shoes and to cover our heads with a piece of cloth to symbolize a turban which is a must wear for the men once inside the house of God. I did admire this, as Hindus must remove their shoes too as a sign of respect to the Gods. We entered a huge hall and the men were told to sit, with our legs crossed, on the right while the women on the left. This I did not understand because I was told that in the Sikh religion all men and women are regarded to be equal as they are children of the Gods. I asked one of my Sikh friends but he too did not understand the concept behind that but guessed it would help the gurus address either to the men or women while giving holy lectures. I was left hanging with that thought.
             One of the leading Gurus of the temple briefly lectured us on their beliefs. He said that there were ten chief Gurus that were the medium of God and that each one of them was gifted with special abilities such as the eighth guru that could heal the people of their diseases. Guru Nanak Devji was the sole founder of Sikhism, after which the rest of the gurus followed and excelled the religion to now which is the fifth largest religion in the world. This was impressive to me because Sikhism is only about five hundred years old, and the fact that this religion has become wide spread amongst us all. The guru went on to say that a true Sikh must have the following, long hair, a steel bangle, a comb, a sword, and astoundingly a pair of shorts. I giggled with my colleges about the shorts, as I never expect it. He then sa...