It could well be a case study for management students, remarks Anand Diwekar, 45, a deputy collector-rank officer currently on deputation in Nanded
It could well be a case study for management students, remarks Anand Diwekar, 45, a deputy collector-rank officer currently on deputation in Nanded.
In charge of the Babapur transit camp on the outskirts of this historic gurudwara city, Diwekar was bereft of words to describe the spirit and swiftness with which hundreds of Sikh volunteers run the community kitchens at the campsites.
“It is a huge opportunity to learn about management and experience their devout volunteerism; look how beautifully and without fuss they run the langars,” Diwekar told DNA. “I have been very moved by it and have called my family from my home town of Aurangabad to experience the mood and enjoy the langar prasad.”
Not only Diwekar, but local Nandedkars are also astonished at the way langars work, each drawing hundreds of sevekars (volunteers) to perform different roles - from cooking to serving food to pilgrims.
Several babas from Haryana, Delhi and Punjab have spent crores of rupees to set up community kitchens in Nanded ahead of Guru-ta-Gaddi diwas, to feed the hundreds of sangats who arrived here from different parts of the world.
“It’s a legacy left by our gurus. Community kitchens are considered one of the important services in Sikhs,” informed DP Singh, superintendent of the Sachkhand Gurudwara Board.
District guardian minister Ashok Chavan said on Sunday that about 40 big langars are operational at full swing in Nanded. The Gurudwara Board estimates that at least 60 additional small and medium community kitchens, too, are in service, and all have enough ration (thousands of tons) for more than a month to feed devotees who have started thronging Sachkhand Hazur Sahib and other historic shrines.
Each langar management has brought non-perishables from Punjab with their jatthas. Emergency requirements of perishable items are fulfilled from the local market or from Hyderabad.
Community kitchens are a traditional and cultural heritage that Indians from different religions, castes and creed have inherited for centuries, Diwekar noted. “With time, many of us have forgotten it, we are witnessing it here.”
Not only pilgrims, but the entire police posse, the revenue retinue and the citizens of Nanded are relishing the cuisine at langars, which have a spiritual and historic importance from the time of Guru Nanak Debji.
Babapur is a medium-level transit camp - pilgrims come to this point first and then enter the city to join their jatthas around the gurudwaras. But the langar at this campsite, organised by Sant Baba Makkhan Singh of Amritsar, has a capacity to feed a million people every day for a month.
The dera brought truckloads of grain around Dussera, when the langar was started. There are taps pouring tea from huge cans around the clock, with a capacity to pour 1,000 litres at a time.
Baba Makkhan Singh said his dera had spent more than Rs10 lakh on the purchase of milk powder. More than 500 quintals of flour, 200 quintal of pulses and 1,000 tins of ghee would be consumed at this community kitchen.
And Baba Maan Singh of Pehowa, Haryana, said his dera would serve 300 dishes, including Chinese, gol-gappas and ice-cream during the celebrations
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