From lassi to poorha... all on platter for protesting Punjab farmers

Tribune News Service

Aman Sood

Shambhu, February 20

“There will be no dearth of food supplies from Punjab as long as our brothers and sisters are protesting. We are the tillers and the growers. Everyone protesting at the borders will continue to get hearty meals as these will keep them healthy and strong. Dilli door nahin,” says septuagenarian Irwinder Singh, who was busy arranging langar counters on the stretch near Shambhu barrier.

‘Chibbar (a typical bitter seed) di chutney’ from Bathinda and Fazilka villages, kinnow juice from Abohar and Fazilka belt, lassi from rural farmlands, sugarcane juice from Hoshiarpur villages, ‘poorhas’ (fried sweet dough) from Amritsar are some of the delicacies from across Punjab being served at the langars here.

“I am serving black lentils to our brothers and sisters who are camping here,” says Paramveer Singh of Ludhiana. “It is a fight for our rights and food is one thing that one looks forward to before the tough day ahead,” he adds as his whole family serves the dal along with rotis.

“We have sent thousands of rotis and many drums of saag today. Tomorrow’s menu is karhi pakoda. The menu keeps changing at our langar stall as the last week has made us realise that this fight will continue for long. The BJP government will take time to budge,” said Veerpal Kaur, one of the protesters who hails from Ferozepur.

“We are serving kinnow juice to our brothers. We have tractor-trailers loaded with kinnows from Abohar. We have fixed a generator in our trolley and my friends also help me serve juice,” says Pushpinder Singh.

Apart from water bottles, tea, jalebis, sugar, flour, ghee, many villages have started sending cooked food items in huge quantities.

Food counters start as far as 500m away from where volunteers, mostly farmers, can be seen serving different varieties of food. Just near them, sitting around the chulhas, women and young girls from villages can be seen rolling out rotis.

“I have brought some 20 young girls and boys to see how farmers struggle. These kids will know how their father, grandparents, uncles and cousins protested while sitting on roadsides,” said Kusumlata from Mansa.

As The Tribune team was returning, two SUVs loaded with milk containers were on way to Shambhu. “We are taking turmeric milk and kheer for our brothers and it will be served all night as tomorrow is a tough day,” said Shambhu Ram, who owns a dairy in Sanaur.

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