In the langar at Golden Temple

THE volunteers at the world’s largest free community kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar come across not only a variety of attitudes among devotees, but also an array of eating habits. I have been volunteering for the past few years, at least two days in a week, and it’s a live experience which has stayed with me.

I adore the joy on the faces of the young and the old, men and women from almost everywhere, as they walk in, ready for the grand culinary experience — a slowly cooked lentil curry (dal), a vegetable dish, rice full of aroma, chapatis and the rich and creamy rice pudding (kheer). While some requests are common, some aren’t. ‘Can you please pour kheer on the rice?’ ‘Please pour dal into my kadhi (curry)’. While some want more, some are very particular: ‘not more than one or two spoons, please.’

Most foreign devotees prefer to roll their chapatis; some fill them up with the vegetable dish and slurp the spoonfuls of dal along. Most of them raise their thumb to flag the sumptuousness. The elderly always ask for the thin and soft chapatis, reminding the server “will be easy to chew.” Some even say no to the chapatis bathed in clarified butter. The day black grams are served — some only ask for its gravy, while some want just the grams. On the day the kadhi is served, the demand for pakoras soars. When it comes to the next servings, besides dal, the rice inundated with soya chunks or veggies is very popular.

While many eat with spoons, there are many who prefer eating with hands, especially those from Himachal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and South Indian states. Most rice lovers usually have the dal poured over the rice, many make a little puddle in the centre for the dal and point it out to the serving volunteer. Many come up with requests for onion or pickle — lemon and mango pickles being the favourites.

There are also those who share their plates — from the newly married couples to the mother and child sitting adjacent to each other. If a child has his or her own plate, it’s actively guarded by the mother who gives a green signal on what’s to be served. The delectable kheer prepared with very less sugar, however, never gets a ‘no’. Many don’t mind another serving of this simple dessert, often loaded with dry fruits and seeds. How can I forget those who only take chapatis and kheer — a blend uniquely theirs!

The satiated faces after the last bite and the quiet gratitude in the air are unmissable. It’s, of course, not just the palatable food that excites them, but also the spiritual energy of the community kitchen and the thousands of shared meals that flows through the premises of the Darbar Sahib.