Week 14: I Hunger for Langar

Last Wednesday, the Sikh Student Association (SSA) fed over 1500 people at the first-ever "Langar" (or free kitchen) on campus. Until recently, Langar only existed as an idea for the organization of Sikh students...but the hard work and dedication of a few individuals has made a dream come to life.

I'm very proud to recognize that my two Sikh roommates, Simaren Sandh and Amrita Bamrah, were involved with this project at its core, and I don't think Langar would have ever happened without their leadership. Months of preparation and planning have went into this event, and we all got to see it pay off on April 24th, 2013. Some may just remember this as a day where a huge white tent was posted near the Engineering quad, in which free Indian food was being served.

 People coming purely for the food was expected, but the experience that took place was so much more than that. Many people do not know that Sikhism is a religion - and the fifth-largest organized one at that. In fact, our awareness of Sikh culture is probably limited to the image of an Indian man wearing a turban. (Keeping hair long and covered is common within Sikhism) Yet because of ignorance, many hate crimes have occurred post 9/11 because the turban became synonymous with terrorist.

      

Those killed in the Oak Creek temple shooting were remembered. 

You may recall just roughly a year ago when a gunman opened fire at the Oak Creek gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Wisconsin, killing six individuals. According to reports, those present at the gurdwara had been preparing for that day's langar, a communal meal which happens every week usually. In many ways, the Langar which took place on campus was an effort to reduce the ignorance which has often lead to so many horrors in history. Each person who stood in line for food received a pamphlet about Sikhism to browse through while they waited. Many people were actually reading them. Even Gino took one.


Sikhism preaches that everyone--regardless of race, gender, religion--is equal in the eyes of God. A person of any faith is welcome to enter a gurdwara and participate in langar as well. Thus, traditionally everyone sits together on the ground as they eat their meal. Serving the community is another key aspect of Sikhism, thus many volunteers (including my roommates' family members) and members of various Sikh communities nearby attended to help make the day run smoothly. They seemed very much happy to lend a hand wherever necessary, even though some of the volunteers appeared to be elderly. 
Some of them, including my roommates, were busy with preparations as early as 6 am, and did not leave until the langar was over around 5 pm.

For the first of its kind, this Langar was hugely successful and it drew in people from all kinds of different backgrounds. It is presumable that another langar event will be taking place next year, in case you missed it this time around. It also made the front page of The Daily Illini. To read more about it, check out the article here: http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/article_3686276a-ad39-11e2-8d90-0019bb30f31a.html