A friend shared a beautiful post on Instagram this morning. A BBC reporter asked master chef Vikas Khana that as he didn’t come from a rich family, his sense of hunger ( a desired attribute for a chef ) must have come from India. To this Vikas replied that he came from Amritsar where everyone got fed in langars. His sense of hunger, in fact, came from New York.
And why single out Amritsar, when a great deed is visible right in front of my eyes ! Four Bungalows Gurudwara, right opposite my home, serves day and night langar daily to hundreds of hungry , who queue up neatly at the desired hour and then bin their disposable plates in a trash can. And I am told that similar daily langars are also organised at Seven Bungalows and Sion Gurudwaras, where hundreds get fed daily thereby escaping starvation.
Many a times we criticise when a new religious institution – a temple, Gurudwara, mosque or church comes up, lamenting that we need more schools, colleges or hospitals! But let’s not forget that many religious establishments are doing yeomen services by distributing langars, running charitable dispensaries, hospitals, diagnostic centres as also schools and colleges. This is one great confluence of religion serving society against the general perception of religion dividing the society.
Kudos to Vikas Khanna for great response to a representative of Western media that loves showcasing abject poverty and other social evils in preference to great strides made by India in the fields of space, science and technology. And kudos to all religious establishments that are fighting the great battle against poverty, starvation, illiteracy and lack of healthcare.
Arvind Arya blog 