A

B

Snatam Kaur is a white-american Sikh from the U.S. She wears all-white, flowing robes and a white turban. At home, we refer to her affectionately as “Snatam”. I hope this is not disrespectful. I really don’t know much about Sikhism, but I believe the genre of her music is called “Gurbani Kirtan” as it is largely based on recitations of what seem like religious mantras or prayers, sometimes in an Indian language (Punjabi?). Without understanding the texts, or the relationship of “White Sikhs” (a small, exotic phenomenon) to the large, indigenous Sikh religion, I hear her music as extremely chill new-age pop.

For a several years, Guru Ram Das Lullaby was the overall most played track on my computer.

C

The first Snatam song I heard was The Sun Shines on Everyone. Someone was writing in a blog about their favorite songs (not unlike what I’m doing here). They wrote that it made them cry the first time they heard it, hearing the children’s voices. That track appears on an album Feeling Good Today! that Snatam made for children. I began playing the album at home while Hannah was pregnant with Ramona. Sidera and Theda responded to the bright, positive sounds and lyrics (“I am happy. I am good.”).

Neither Hannah nor I are normally inclined towards new age things, but we had had success with positive mantras and self-hypnosis when Hannah was pregnant with Theda. The first birth was difficult, ending in a Caesarian surgery.

Hypnobabies

Song that seemed to have a magical effect on are daughters, making them drop to sleep even as tiny babies.

Sleeping powder, salt

Ramona’s blessing. The guru’s blessed her. the other two girls had Mormon blessings.

Ramona began to take on the guru names in the song as a kind of personal mythology.

D

E