Jul 11, 2012 - AMRTISAR: World will witness Sikhism's wonderful tradition of Langar (free kitchen) on July 21 when Sikhs will distribute free 'Roti Rolls Langar' to public to commemorate the carrying of the Olympic Torch by 101-year-old marathoner Fauja Singh (picture).
"We are proud to share with the public, the 500-year-old Sikh tradition of serving free meals, (langar), to celebrate the carrying of the Olympic Torch on July 21 by Fauja Singh," told Parvinder Kaur, project manager of Langgar 2012, Sikh NGO, United Sikhs on Wednesday.
Third Sikh master Guru Amar Das had formalized the institution of langar uniting the Sikhs by establishing two key concepts of Pangat and Sangat.
Project director, Langar 2012 , Mejinderpal Kaur said that branded in yellow t-shirts, specially designed with Fauja Singh's image, each volunteer, from the Sikh community and those invited from multiple faiths and backgrounds would come together to serve free meals to the local community of the five host boroughs of the Olympics.
The langar would be distributed at key points of the 30 mile Olympic Torch Route from Greenwich Park to Waltham Forest Town Hall she added.
She said: "It was expected that there would be several langar service points in each of the five boroughs that the route traverses, each serving at least 1,000 Roti Rolls within two hours. The Roti Roll Langar is anticipated to reach thousands of people who would have turned up to cheer the day the Torch arrives in Newham, where Fauja Singh will carry the Torch."
"Waheguru has given me all the opportunities to do all the other things in life both sporting and personal. I pray that Waheguru will allow me to fulfill this dream of carrying the torch in my home city in less than a fortnight. It would be the icing on the cake. To me this is as important as when I received a telegram from the Queen on my 100th Birthday last year," said Kaur while quoting Fauja Singh.
At present, 15 gurdwaras from South and East London had agreed to participate and five more Gurdwaras were in the process of deciding. "We are inviting Gurdwaras from outside London from as far as north as Scotland to as far west as Wales to partner the London Gurdwaras to set up more 'Langgar 2012' service points informed.
