Best gift for Independence Day: M’sian Pipe Band
Published on: Wednesday, August 21, 2019
By: Bernama
SEPANG: The Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band, who were crowned the winner of the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland on Saturday, described the group’s success as the best prize for the country in conjunction with the 62nd Independence Day on Aug 31.
Sri Dasmesh – named after the 10th Guru of the Sikhs and the only Malaysian pipe band at the event-was formed in 1986 by Sukdev Singh, a commercial pilot and director of an international school by the same name, with his brother Harvinder Singh.
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Its spokesman, ‘Drum Sergeant’ Tripert Singh Khalsa said the achievement was sweeter as Malaysia was the only group from Southeast Asia to emerge victorious since the tournament was first organised 30 years ago.
“It was an indescribable feeling when our name was announced as the winner and the Jalur Gemilang national flag was raised.
“We are proud to see the flag on the main stage. This is our best gift in conjunction with the country’s Independence Day,” he told reporters shortly after arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here.
The group, who entered the same competition in 2015, won the overall title and was placed first in the ‘drumming’ and ‘best parade’ categories, despite the challenge from 13 countries taking part in the world series organised by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.
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Apart from Malaysia, among the other teams in the competition that gathered 8,000 participants in the two-day tournament that ended Aug 17 at Glasgow Green were from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States, Austria, Australia, Switzerland, Spain, Eire, Belgium, England, Northern Island and host Scotland.
Tripert said the success proved that Malaysians were capable of making a name in the world as long as everything was done with all their heart and willingness to learn from past failures.
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He said after failing in the 2015 edition, they began to train and allocated some of their expenses to get specialist tutors in the field from Australia.
“From there, we learned about music, its theory and related matters as well as intensive training two hours a day, three times a week and conducted our own home-study and sent training videos to tutors.
“In the end, our sacrifices were rewarded when we emerged champions because it is not easy to defeat other countries, especially Scotland,” he said, adding that he also praised the 32 members of the group who were willing to sacrifice their time and energy for the country.
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