hirmMdr ik drbwr swihb - The Sikh Bulletin

The Sikh Bulletin mwG-Pgx 542 nwnkSwhI January-February 2011
LANGAR
THE POWER OF DEVOTION
SOME EYE-OPENING FACTS:
The spectacular Golden Temple of Amritsar
For a moment, if one pushes the religious fact aside,
it is no ordinary feat to serve a meal to thousands of
people in a day and that too round-the-clock.
Forty to fifty thousand people, on an average,
partake of langar every day at Harmandar Sahib.
"On Sundays, festival days and Masya, the number
exceeds 1 lakh," says jathedar Harpinder Singh,
who is in charge of the langar.
Serving such a huge gathering is not an easy task.
But, the devotion and selfless service of the sewadars
makes the job simple.
"We have 300 permanent sewadars who work at the
langar. They knead dough, cook food, serve people
and perform a number of other jobs. Also, there are
a good number of volunteers, both men and women,
who work in kitchen and langar hall. They also
wash and wipe the utensils. "In the washing hall we
have four sewadars to supervise the work," adds
Harpinder Singh.
Of course, an elaborate arrangement is in place to
cook and serve food at such a large scale.
The langar at Harmandar Sahib is prepared in two
kitchens, which have 11 hot plates (tawi), several
burners, machines for sieving and kneading dough
and several other utensils. At one tawi, 15 people
work at a time. It is a chain process - some make
balls of dough, others roll rotis, a few put them on
the tawi and rest cook and collect them.
It is all done so meticulously that one is surprised to
see that on one hot plate, in just two hours, over 20
kg of flour is used to make rotis. The kitchen also
has a roti-making machine, which was donated by a
Lebanon-based devotee. The machine is, however,
used only on days that are likely to witness huge
crowds. The machine can make rotis of 20-kg flour
in just half-an-hour. To get the flour, there are two
machines in the basement of the langar hall and
another that kneads one quintal of flour in just five
minutes. It is this fine team of man and machine
that makes it possible for the gurdwara to provide
24-hour langar on all days.
Chapati Machine
But, what about putting together the raw material?
K. T. F. of N. A. Inc. 3524 Rocky Ridge Way, El Dorado Hills, CA. 95762 4