On April 7, the Sikh Student Association trekked up the hills behind campus with orange paint to give the Poly ‘P’ a new makeover. This repainting celebrates the Sikh holiday of Vaisakhi, one of the most significant dates in the Sikh calendar.
“We wanted to paint the P orange to give a visual message,” Harvir Kalkat, president of the Sikh Student Association said. “To have conversations and share our identity with the campus.”
Vaisakhi is a holiday which falls on April 13 and celebrates the day when the tenth guru (teacher) of the tradition codified the tenets of the Sikh faith.
“This day established the code of conduct and the tenets as to how a Sikh behaves with the attire that you see today — a turban, the metal bracelet: the kara, and the kirpan which is a small dagger kept along the waist — all of those things kind of became codified on this day,” Kalkat said. “[And] the Khalsa, which is the community of Sikhs that we know today, was established.”
The Poly ‘P’ stands out starkly against the green hills, freshly painted with a coat of orange. Orange, Harvir said, is a significant color in the Sikh faith which is worn in Gurdwaras (Sikh temples).
The Sikh Student Association (SSA) has been established on campus since the spring of 2023. For many members, painting the P for Vaisakhi signifies the presence of community in their college town.
Simran Grewal is a biomedical engineering junior and the event coordinator for SSA. For Grewal, painting the P represents the presence of Sikh students on campus, and can help current and touring students find community.
“Because we have such a small population here in SLO, it’s really hard to be known and I guess this helps us to show everyone we are here,” Grewal said. “We are building a community here for people to join us and feel welcome.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Grewal said that Vaisakhi was a holiday she spent with family, going to a local Gurdwara to celebrate and pray with her community. Additionally, she would attend a nagar kirtan, a community event of devotional singing in which the Guru Granith Sahib (Sikh religious scripture) is read aloud with a parade progression.
San Luis Obispo, a town with a small Sikh population, doesn’t have as many opportunities for such large Sikh community events. With the nearest Gurdwara over two hours away, holidays are celebrated by members of the SSA together.
“All we really have is each other,” Grewal said. “We celebrate by coming together and praying.”
Jarnail Sanghera, an electrical engineering sophomore and club member, said that holidays like Vaisakhi are different in college than in his community back home.
“It’s a little different here,” Sanghera said. “But with this new club, I think it’s starting to feel a little more like home.”
This year, Vaisakhi can be known to the wider campus community by the symbolic orange paint above the school. Kalkat hopes this will become a tradition at Cal Poly to provide acknowledgement of the Sikh community on campus.
“We hope that it can just kind of become a tradition,” Kalkat said. “When people see it this year, of course, maybe you know they’re gonna see an orange P and not think much of it. But slowly over the years, maybe this will develop into a known Cal Poly tradition.”