Golden Temple Langar - Feeding 100,000 Daily

Dadi: "Guddu, what's the biggest meal you've ever seen served?"

Guddu: "At that wedding we went to! There were so many people!"

Dadi: "What if I told you there's a kitchen that serves one hundred thousand people every single day?"

Guddu: "A hundred thousand?! That's like... a whole city eating together!"

Dadi: "And it's absolutely free. No one is ever turned away. This is the langar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar."

Guddu: "The Golden Temple! I've seen pictures - it's so beautiful with all the gold!"

Dadi: "Inside that complex is the world's largest free kitchen. Every day, volunteers cook and serve meals to anyone who comes - rich or poor, young or old, Indian or foreign, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh - everyone is welcome."

Guddu: "How did this start, Dadi?"

Dadi: "It began with Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, about five hundred years ago. In those days, people of different castes would never sit together to eat. A high-caste person would be "polluted" if they shared food with someone of low caste."

Guddu: "That's so mean!"

Dadi: "Guru Nanak thought so too. He said, "We are all equal in God's eyes. Why should we not eat together?" So he started the tradition of langar - everyone sits on the floor in rows, called pangat, and eats the same simple food."

Guddu: "Like the story you told me about Emperor Akbar eating in the langar!"

Dadi: "Exactly! The same tradition. Later Gurus made it stronger. Guru Amar Das made a rule - before meeting the Guru, you must first eat in the langar with everyone else. No exceptions, even for emperors."

Guddu: "How does the Golden Temple feed so many people?"

Dadi: "Let me tell you the numbers, beta. Every day, the kitchen uses over thirteen thousand kilograms of flour!"

Guddu: "Thirteen thousand kilos?!"

Dadi: "Three thousand kilos of rice. Ten thousand kilos of lentils. One thousand five hundred kilos of ghee. Five thousand liters of milk. Almost one hundred gas cylinders every single day!"

Guddu: "That's incredible! Who does all the cooking?"

Dadi: "Here's the beautiful part - volunteers. Families come from all over the world and say, "Today, I want to serve." They chop vegetables, roll rotis, stir dal, serve food, wash dishes. No one gets paid. It's all seva - selfless service."

Guddu: "People work for free?"

Dadi: "For love, beta. Sikhs believe that serving others is the same as serving God. If you knead dough for the langar with a pure heart, it's like praying. If you wash a dirty plate, you're cleaning your own soul."

Guddu: "Even on holidays?"

Dadi: "On special days, even more people come - one hundred fifty thousand or more! And still, no one is turned away. The food keeps coming as long as there are hungry people."

Guddu: "Dadi, what kind of food do they serve?"

Dadi: "Simple, vegetarian food. Dal, roti, a vegetable dish, maybe kheer for dessert. Nothing fancy. But made with so much love that people say it tastes like heaven."

Guddu: "Can children help too?"

Dadi: "Absolutely! Children serve water, help clean, or just keep the elderly company. The langar is a place where everyone - women, men, children - works together as equals."

Guddu: "Why is this so special, Dadi?"

Dadi: "Because five hundred years ago, Guru Nanak had a dream - a world where no one goes hungry, where no one is treated as "less than" because of their birth. The Golden Temple langar proves that dream can be real. Every single day, a hundred thousand times, it says: "You matter. You deserve to eat. You are equal.""

Guddu: "I want to go there someday and help serve food!"

Dadi: "*smiles* We'll go together. You can roll rotis with the volunteers. And when you sit down to eat with thousands of strangers, all of you on the floor together, you'll feel something special - the feeling of being part of one big human family."

Guddu: "No VIP section? No special tables?"

Dadi: "No, beta. The billionaire sits next to the laborer. The politician's plate is the same as the homeless person's plate. That's the whole point."

Guddu: "Dadi, this is the best story. It's happening right now!"

Dadi: "Every day, as we speak. Tomorrow morning, volunteers will wake up at 3 AM to start cooking. By noon, thousands will be fed. By night, thousands more. The fires never stop, and the love never runs out."

Guddu: "I hope I can be like that someday - helping feed people."

Dadi: "*hugs him* You already have a good heart, beta. That's where it all begins."