Support the work
When you know what was passed to you, and you know the next generation needs it, the hard part is that they aren’t always ready to receive it. Maastarji exists to make them ready: stories, letters and worksheets a child will actually sit with.
Everything here is free, and it stays free whether or not anyone ever gives. No paywall, no email gate, no ads. Supporting doesn’t unlock anything. It funds the time to make more.
What support actually pays for
Time, mostly. Nearly all of the cost is hours: shaping each story, worksheet and game until a child will actually sit with it. I use AI to help make the material engaging. That part is quick; what comes after it is not.
Checking it against Sikh teaching. Everything is reviewed before it goes up, to make sure it’s true to Sikh teaching. Every Gurbani quote is checked by hand against the source: the Gurmukhi, the transliteration, the meaning and the Ang. Nothing is published on trust.
What might come later. Hosting costs very little today. If Maastarji ever adds something like a place to follow your child’s progress, that will need real infrastructure. Support is what would let it be built without charging for it.
If you set aside daswand and choose to put some of it here, it goes straight back into free resources for every family. Where your daswand goes is yours to decide — many families give it to their gurdwara, and that is exactly as it should be.
If you’d like to give
It runs through the newsletter, Maastarji Letters, on Substack. A paying reader gets exactly the same letter as a free reader, because the writing is free too. Prices show in your own currency.
- US$5 per month Monthly — switch to Monthly on the Substack page. Open →
- US$50 per year Annual — pre-selected when the page opens. Open →
- You decide above US$50 a year Founding Member — type your own amount. Open →
- There’s no one-time button. Substack only takes subscriptions. For a single gift: choose Annual or Founding, then turn off renewal in your Substack settings whenever you like. You’re charged once, and nothing more.
- Founding Member just means “choose your own amount.” It’s the closest thing here to a donation, and it buys you nothing extra.
- You can also give a subscription as a gift — in honour of a grandparent, or for your child’s Punjabi teacher.
As a thank-you rather than a perk: every supporter gets a yearly letter on where the support went, and Founding members get a personal note from me.
Other ways that help just as much
- Tell one other parent. Reach is what we’re short of, not material. One forwarded link does more than most things. Share Maastarji → Send on WhatsApp
- Print the worksheets for your gurdwara or Punjabi class. They’re free to copy and share. Take what you need →
- Subscribe free. A weekly letter for Sikh parents raising kids far from Punjab, plus new printables as they land. Just subscribe, free →
Dedicate a book, or pay it forward
As a Founding member, you can support the books in one of two ways:
- Dedicate a book that’s already here. Your words appear on that book’s page, for every family who reads it.
- Pay it forward. Your support goes towards the next book for Sikh kids — the time it takes to write it, illustrate it, and check every Gurbani line by hand. If you’d like, that book can carry your dedication when it’s published.
Either way, every book stays free for every family.
- Become a Founding member (suggested US$120 a year). Renewing each year keeps the next books coming; if you’d rather give once, you can turn off renewal in your Substack settings.
- To dedicate, email [email protected] with the book you’d like (or “the next one”) and your words — for example, “In loving memory of Sardar Kartar Singh ji (Dada ji), from his grandchildren.” Paying it forward without a dedication? That’s it — no email needed.
- I read every dedication myself, reply, and let you know when it’s live.
One dedication per book, and it stays.
A word about your child’s privacy
A dedication is public: search engines index it, and anyone can save or print the page, so it can’t be fully taken back. A first name, a surname and a school together are enough for a stranger to find a child. So for children we use first names only, with no family surnames, schools, cities or birth dates. Kaur or Singh is always welcome — it’s part of a Sikh name, not a family surname. “For Harleen, on her fifth birthday” keeps all the love and none of the risk.
A dedication in memory of someone can use their full name. You can ask me to change or remove a dedication at any time.
Thank you for reading this far — and if you close the tab now having given nothing, you’re still exactly who this was made for.
— Gursharn
Made by Sikh parents and teachers, for our kids.