At the outset I confess that I have no answers to the questions I am about to pose. I really haven't a clue and would like nothing better than a discussion that stirs the pot a little; who knows some hypotheses might emerge.

It had been brewing in my mind for a while but emerged into clarity only last week in a conversation with Baldev Singh and the Khanujas at Albany.

We were at a Sikh wedding in a small town where the Sikh community is small but vibrant. In some of the rituals and functions the community appeared as if frozen in time and culture, but that is not from where this column takes its life. It was the appearance of many young, and some not so young Sikhs - many dressed formally - sporting patkas instead of the traditional turbans. I hasten to add that they were not all little school-age young lads. I am talking about young professionals. Some had earned doctoral degrees; others were young technocrats and professionals, at the high end of the earning scale. Their suits were definitely more expensive than mine; their shirts and ties were monogrammed. They knew and understood fashion. And their long hair - the keshas which are an article of faith for a Sikh - were clearly intact and unshorn.

Many of my generation looked askance at the young men. One Sikh angrily muttered that these young people should either wear turbans or get rid of their keshas. I wondered about that. I suggest a cooler, more nuanced look at the matter.

I look at the conventional style of turbans sported by Sikhs worldwide. There are a few, only minor variations on the theme - the style in East Africa is somewhat different but only slightly so. Our turban is radically different from what you see in Islamic culture. But I refer here to the urbanized Sikh turban. In the villages a more informal rounder turban in the traditional style is worn by the Sikhs. I see some urbanized young people also wearing it, more so in North America than in India itself.

Historically, the turban signified dignity and was often not allowed to the common people by the Islamic rulers of India. Within Hinduism a distinction clearly existed in that only the so-called high caste men wore turbans, the low castes were never allowed to do so. Even now, at least when they are getting married, most high caste Hindu males don a turban, even if only for an hour. In their daily lives, most Hindus never ever see a turban; their wardrobes would have none, except rarely a ceremonial one. They gave up that privilege and right during Islamic domination of India and then in aping the western model of a male. Many, perhaps a minority, of Muslims still wear a turban, but it is usually wrapped over a kulla or a skullcap.

Sikhs have an important article of faith - the unshorn long hair - that were, throughout Sikh history, protected by a turban. Some Sikhs even contend that the keski or a small turban is the article of faith and not the long hair per se. But then they further add that implied in the keski is the long hair, a head covering without the hair being meaningless. But this is not an issue that I wish to explore at this point.

Though not directly connected to this matter, another oft-seen practice baffles me. I see a large number of so called Sunday Sikhs who do not maintain the long unshorn keshas come to the gurdwara wearing a turban - which promptly comes off as they step into their cars at the conclusion of the gurdwara service. I am sure we have all seen young Sikhs who sport a one-day growth of beard, wearing a turban to get married. Then they reappear at the evening reception freshly shaved and minus the turban. Within the gurdwara service a hat or cap remains rare. Walking about town I also see a growing number of young Sikhs who wear their long unshorn air in a ponytail and thus without hat, patka or turban of any kind.

I realize that the style of the turban has perhaps changed somewhat over time. This becomes clear from an examination of old paintings and photographs of Sikhs in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But they always wrapped their turbans; certainly not a scarf tied on the head, not even a preformed turban and never a hat.

A patka is indeed just a scarf even though it can be quite useful and sufficient, such as at play or in a gym. But much as I would not walk into a formal gathering in my tennis shorts or jogging shoes, wouldn't a patka be just as inappropriate at a wedding, worn by a man wearing a suit and a tie? I raise the question in full awareness of the fact that a patka looks out of place to me, but perhaps is no more odd than my turban is and was to many Americans who had never seen one when I came to the United states over 40 years ago.

Perhaps many young Sikhs are not adept at tying a turban. (That is perhaps no different from the fact that I am still grossly clumsy in getting a bow-tie together from scratch for a formal) I know one young Sikh professional who lives independently of his parents about 30 miles away. Every two weeks or so the father visits his and ties three or four turbans for him that the son can use, somewhat like a hat, until the father returns. I think it is high time the son learned; it is a skill that can be mastered, being about as difficult as learning to tie one's shoelaces.

We all know of Sikhs - the crème de la crème of our community - who tie several turbans in one day and save them for future use as hats over the next several weeks. I know a former general of the Indian army who had special hatboxes designed to carry his turbans intact. I should add that I also know of Sikh generals who tied their turbans every day and took pride in doing so. A turban in a hatbox is a hat, albeit starched and constructed differently from the usual hat. Traditional Sikhs frowned upon such practice and, I feel, rightly so.

Until very recently Sikhs had strongly shunned any hats - that is until the appearance of Bishen Singh Bedi. An extremely talented cricketer in India about 30 years ago, Bedi played cricket all over the world wearing a visored golf or tennis cap over a patka. He was a much-admired role model for many young Sikhs and the rest, as they say, is history. Ultimately, a hat would hide the Sikhs' individuality and, if for no other reason, would be a self-defeating practice. Although Sikhism exhorts its followers to live their lives such that their external form and internal lives are consistent, hiding their Sikh presence is never an acceptable way. I should strongly underscore here that hiding his Sikh identity was never the intent of Bishen Singh Bedi; he always appeared proud of his Sikhi. Similarly when I see a keshadhari Sikh working in a warehouse with a helmet or a golf cap, I can understand his special needs. Clearly though what is even more trend setting for young India-based Sikhs remains the Hindi movie industry. In Bollywood any picturization of Sikhs is usually of patka-clad men.

I do not know if Guru Nanak ever wore a selhi topi, which would be a hat, but it would not be pertinent to the issue here. I also wonder what kind of a headdress Guru Gobind Singh wore as he sped through Macchiwara and was mistaken for a Muslim Peer by the pursuing soldiers. None of the artistic renditions of that event show him with a turban. I hasten to add that all such renditions of that happening are a product of artistic imagination with considerable license. No documentary evidence of his disguise as peer exists.

But even these speculations about the Gurus are of no import whatsoever and if such issues were raised now they would be best termed red herrings. What matters here is that for over 300 years, turbans have been and become as much a part of Sikh tradition and Sikh code of conduct as the keshas that they protect. As equal partners in the experience of being Sikh, in the past few years, many young Sikh women in North America have also opted for a turban or keski - Cynthia Mahmood and Stacy Brady have documented this trend with great sensitivity in a recent monograph. A hat is historically inappropriate on a Sikh's head and even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recognizes this; most armies in the world are also beginning to see the logic of the Sikh stance on turbans. Patkas are indeed right in the gym and related activities. Even though styles change, the traditional Sikh turban remains unique.

What I would like is a conversation and a dialogue. These are questions that many Sikhs encounter and think about every day. How do Sikh young men and women view them? Let's see if we can work our way towards some clarity and understanding.