To feed humanity
September 9th, 2008Topic: Sustainability Tags: Alternative Economy, Green Architecture, India, Sacred Sites
In the heart of beautiful Amritsar in Punjab, the jewel city of the Sikh followers, lays the Golden Temple, by far one of the most ambitious developments of the millennium. Over 750 years old, this temple was enacted by Guru Nanak, the first Guru of Sikhism.
The religion boasts a very humanitarian approach to life; to serve humanity is to serve God, as some signs around the compound will tell you. This feat is proven in its entirety on the sheer volume of travelers, pilgrims and devotees that come through the gates. All throughout the day and night volunteers are working to sweep the premise, to clean the temple, and enacting their duty to service the people of this sanctuary.
Most noteworthy are the eating grounds provided here. The Langar Khanna (Blessed Food) is a completely systematized wheel of food for the people. No cost for entrance and all are welcome. Everyone eats together in lines on the floor so there is no distinction in class here. Thousands of people come through these gates everyday, and everyday they provide this service. It is all funded by the amount of donations and volunteers provided.
First, you get your metal dish, a metal bowl for drinking and a spoon. Then you, like hundreds others like you at this time, enter the large hall where everyone will sit in lines, cross legged. Volunteers then come by with spoonfuls of daal (lentils), rice, curd, or halva (a sweet flour mixture) in the mornings. All vegetarian options. Water is poured into the bowls for drinking and the food is eaten with small rotis (similar to pita bread). After you are done, you carry your plate outside, hand over the spoon to these men sitting in chairs, and then you pass your dish and bowl down an assembly line of volunteers who take the dirty plates in large trolleys over to the dish washing area where even more volunteers are ready to clean all the dishes that come their way. Then you move along to the side of the Langar Khanna and take another metal bowl for chai (tea with milk) and enjoy it amongst a crowd.
The real magic is in the process and the speed with which they can get you in, fed and out without having to wait in any queues longer than a minute . The food is another miracle in the making. Behind the Langar you will find enormous vats bigger than the biggest cauldrons you’ve ever seen, with, you guessed it, a volunteer at the ladle. A group of women are rolling the rotis and cooking them in light vegetable oil. All of this is then brought up to the main hall and given to the hungry guests. It is truly a mechanism of wonder how it works so effortlessly and so accurately without any hang ups. One feels so overjoyed with the system afterwards, you can’t help but be so impressed that you end up donating a fair amount!
That is not all the magic of this place, for people also sleep on the tiles in the hundreds, families huddled together, rich, poor, travelers, you name it.
This whole system really got me thinking about how such a system can be, and to some extent is, being implemented in Canada and other countries. The problem with the soup kitchens in Canada is that they are for the poor only, and thus get little support to sustain themselves. Imaging having such an impressive device in your home city. How would you get everyone to sit, rich and poor, pilgrim and traveler? Is this kind of system only imaginable in a religious context? One wonders if the hymns of the Langar Khannas walls are right: To serve humanity, is to serve God.
I, for one, see a huge benefit to even spending tax payers money on such a system, for what else do we spend our taxes for if not to help those in need. What if there was a large enough soup kitchen-cum-dormitory for travelers and poor people alike, powered by volunteers that use the service. Imagine driving down the street and a beggar at your window asking for money for food, and you proudly being able to point him in the direction of the Langar Khanna. If the poor people are given food, accommodation, and a clean space, then what then would they beg for? They can spend their free time learning a trade, getting off their feet. Special needs cases can be involved in addressing the poor who suffer from mental illness. I believe such a design could exist, and would love to work with anyone passionate enough about this to make it exist.
The best part in my eyes, is that such a system can also be 100% environmentally friendly. The structure can be build in such a way that it uses organic food grown from the compost of its own waste, electricity can be powered through solar panels, static absorption technology, biomass gasification, heat from the cauldrons can become thermal heaters to dry laundry and bring heat into the building.
One can only dream of such a perfect design and its possibility. There are probably hundreds of factors to consider in such a design, and those can be overcome. That’s enough excitement for one night.
Cheers
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September 10th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
It sounds more efficient than McDonald’s, and served with real love! The Indian concept of “seva” – or service – is indeed replicable. The whole example just shows how service from the heart translates into benevolent operations.
I haven’t ever seen a Western Soup Kitchen, but some of the reports on the media present a picture of a mechanistic kitchen – which could be dismal. Food really needs to be served in a place that nourishes the soul as well as the body.
The best food bank I ever saw on TV was covered in the special American Idol Gives Back episode. The love and service of the volunteers even cracked open the tough heart of Simon Cowell!