Bangla Sahib Gurudwara visit

Bangla Sahib Gurudwara visit

By Shaweta Anand

The older Kids at Kilkari were so excited about the visit to Bangla Sahib Gurudwaraon 20^th May 2014. It was organised as a yet another value-education and life-skill development initiative here. I am not sure if children fully understood what exactly constituted ‘sewa’ (or selfless service) at a Gurudwara until they got a chance to experience it for real and reflect on it. Here is my diary entry from that day, as promised.

After a short metro-ride we reached Bangla Sahib and hurried through the crowd to deposit our shoes and get hold of scarves to cover our heads with. The summer sun was slowly heating the marbled floor, making it difficult to walk barefoot. Soon enough, ‘sewadars’(volunteers) were seen splashing water on the ‘tat-patti’ (jute-carpet strips) while chanting ‘wahe Guru’ ‘wahe Guru’ (‘the wonderful Lord’) for the comfort and benefit of others. And that was something Anubhav, CES representative and the main in-charge, immediately made children take note of.

After taking a round of the ‘sarovar’ (holy pool) that had enough orange and brown-black fish to fascinate the children, and after tasting the ‘karahprasada’ (sweet sacred pudding), we finally went to the place designated for people who want to offer sewa before distribution of ‘langar’ (free food to all visitors). Some girls quickly washed hands and joined the group chopping vegetables just outside the huge community kitchen. Others moved inside the kitchen where men and women prepared meals together, and later served them through a big common window that opened in the dining area.

Some people prepared the flour dough for making chappatis (hundreds of them!), some made just the ‘pedas’ (flour balls), some rolled them flat while others took turns to roast them on a huge gas stove. There were also those who ran between counters passing on raw food material and bringing back the cooked food stuff from there. Children blended in beautifully, doing whatever was required from them at that spot.

Accompanied by most girls, I sat down to roll chapattis, one after the other. The girls seemed very good at it. They were fast, efficient and were even able to joke and giggle occasionally while rolling out nearly perfectly-shaped circular chappatis. They performed the task without much impatience or complaining. The united effort was beautiful, even felt surreal for a few divine moments as the ‘shabadkirtan’ playing in the background filledour ears with the sweet words of gratitude to the lord. Some girls even went a step further by deciding to serve food to others first and eating later. That was quite a sight as these were young children after all, who insisted on serving others before they sat for their own lunch!

Langar food is tasty, period J. There was kali daal (black gram), laukikisabji (bottleguard), chole (white 

gram) and chappatis. Someone came along and served us cold water too. Gorging on langar food has only one disadvantage: you tend to overeat and feel sleepy! Anyway, after the meal got over, it was time to wrap up the trip and go back to Kilkari, but not without spending some time introspecting and sharing of experiences.

A memorable comment came from a differently-abled child whose hand is seemingly not properly aligned with the arm. She said that while serving at the Gurudwara, she felt absolutely comfortable in preparing chappatisand didn’t feel shy or reserved about doing it at all. This opportunity had made her very happy as she could contribute her bit. Another one said that she had come here before, but only with an intention of eating food so this behind-the-scene experience was a pleasant and a very meaningful eye-opener for her. One girl also shared how she felt overwhelmed by the many ways in which one could offer sewahere without feeling ‘less’ in any way. Another one was overawed by the sheer number of people volunteering at the Gurdwara.

Anubhav probed the girls further to facilitate more introspection among them. He questioned if anyone was treated un-equally, or differently at any point in time at the Gurudwara? The answer was a unanimous ‘no’. He asked them if they knew anything about who exactly made the food they ate during langar? ‘Was the food made by ‘Hindu’ hands or ‘Muslim’ hands, ‘Sikh’ hands or ‘Christian’ hands? And does it matter?’ He emphasised the importance of love, gratitude and the belief in humanity over and above divisive and undesirable categories of caste, class, religion, gender and disability.