Multi-tal­ented con­tent strate­gist, brand builder and smart par­ent­ing guide, the young au­thor amazes at the huge pos­si­bil­i­ties of the Sikh Lan­gar be­com­ing the great so­cial lev­eller in to­day’s world -torn with ha­tred and strife amongst peo­ples and na­tions. Dwelling on her per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence of par­tak­ing lan­gar, she salutes the pre­cept and prac­tice of Lan­gar and its im­pact, as ob­served by Sikhs dur­ing the re­cently con­cluded In­ter­na­tional Lan­gar Week. 

Reli­gions have made or marred na­tions. There have been in­stances when re­li­gion has been a re­lief to the sores of life as well as in­ci­dents when re­li­gion has caused sores in life. 

While I am lib­eral minded and do not bear flags for a par­tic­u­lar re­li­gion,  I am an avid Sikh.  Much like a true Sikh,  I don’t preach it’s val­ues, I prac­tice them and I be­lieve that all re­li­gions have the same essence. And it’s not vanilla. It’s God-se-milna. On a spir­i­tual con­nect ba­sis.

Let’s raise a toast to Sikhi’s amaz­ing tra­di­tion of hos­pi­tal­ity and ac­cep­tance with a snip­pet on the lan­gar or com­mu­nity meal ser­vice that is one of the high­est forms of sewa Gur­d­waras prop­a­gate. 

“The Lan­gar is one form of sewa that is thor­oughly self­less.”

Take part in a lan­gar at least once in your life­time.

Sit­ting on that mat or car­pet and stretch­ing your palms out to get the cha­p­atis called par­shada makes you hum­ble. It gives you a fresh per­spec­tive to liv­ing and food.  Don’t we all live to earn and then use the lat­ter for eat­ing well? The lan­gar makes you think if snob­bish com­pe­ti­tion is ac­tu­ally worth a dime.  

Af­ter all it’s mostly about rice and cha­p­ati in life. Piz­zas and pas­tas are oc­ca­sional guests.

 

The clam­our of uten­sils and the sync of rush-rush serv­ing by the se­wadars make you spare a thought about who you share the mat with.  There will be hun­dreds,  thou­sands or lakhs of peo­ple from all walks of life. And a lan­gar will make you care the least.  Eat­ing at a lan­gar makes you prej­u­dice-free for at least a few min­utes. Ab­sorb­ing this into life would only be bliss.

“I find so­lace in know­ing that a hearty meal is all mine from God him­self. I feel lucky to be Sikh to see that for one neg­a­tive per­son, there are five pos­i­tive per­sons look­ing to make the world a hap­pier place.”

When Guru Nanak started the com­mu­nity kitchen con­cept in 1500 CE, per­haps he saw how a time such as the pre­sent would arise.

A time where peo­ple would be di­vided on the ba­sis of every­thing pos­si­ble. At such times, the Sikh lan­gar serves as a re­minder that prej­u­dice and dis­crim­i­na­tion don’t fill stom­achs. It kills hearts. If Sikhs were to be prej­u­diced, they would not make lan­gar for Ro­hingya Mus­lims.  They would not cook for a lakh peo­ple (Golden Tem­ple Am­rit­sar Lan­gar sta­tis­tics) vol­un­tar­ily and wash eaten-from plates. 

The Lan­gar is one form of sewa that is thor­oughly self­less.

I have eaten lan­gars at my neigh­bor­hood Gu­rud­wara …

…and it taught me that in­stead of find­ing anger when some aunt –bua chooses to talk me down or some lady who mocks my sense of fash­ion, I find so­lace in know­ing that a hearty meal is all mine from God him­self. I feel lucky to be Sikh to see that for one neg­a­tive per­son, there are five pos­i­tive per­sons look­ing to make the world a hap­pier place, if not bet­ter. 

I have had lan­gars at our Takht Har­man­dar Sahib, pop­u­larly known as the Golden Tem­ple…

…and there I was amazed at how well or­ga­nized huge meals can get with some ded­i­ca­tion and grit. It’s amaz­ing how the small­est farm­ers and the biggest in­vestors con­tribute their bit to the lan­gar kitchen. The lan­gar there is mag­i­cal. It makes you feel detoxed as you hear Gur­bani and lick up warm kheer.

I have had lan­gars at other Takhts…

…and seen how the di­a­mond wear­ing and thread-wear­ing peo­ple for­get their back­grounds and smack in the yummy lentils –Daal and sa­vor the sweet rice dishes. There is some­thing oddly sat­is­fy­ing and unit­ing about lan­gars. It makes you feel that food per­haps is the best uni­fier. And God’s way of show­ing that hu­man­ity can ac­tu­ally be bal­anced on scales of equal­ity is this lan­gar. 

As we cel­e­brated In­ter­na­tional Lan­gar week from 2-8 Oc­to­ber this year, salut­ing the lan­gar is my chance to say thank you to God for en­sur­ing that so many peo­ple are not let away hun­gry, wher­ever there is a Gu­rud­wara around. 

From celebri­ties to com­mon­ers, the mat at lan­gar halls has a place for every­one. A place that is of equal level and of equal re­pute.