Serving bread by the bucket at a Sikh temple

This large bucket of roti bread in the Gurdwara

kitchen will be served to worshippers in the hall.

How difficult must it be to put eyeliner on a baby? My friend and I contemplated this question while sitting cross-legged on large carpets with a mass of Sikh worshippers. We were waiting for the next serving cycle at the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, which, like all Sikh temples, has a kitchen that distributes free food to all comers. Many of the babies around us had eyes daubed with eyeliner and tiny wrists adorned with mini-bangles. Like the Sikh women carrying the babies, we covered our heads with scarves.

After we had waited for about five minutes, the doors to the huge dining hall opened and the crowd crushed forward. We all hustled to get seats on the floor in long rows. Then volunteers—including one boy who looked as young as six—walked down each row dispensing metal trays and spoons. Next came handfuls of roti bread from giant baskets. Volunteers ladled out servings of dal (lentils) and sabzi (vegetables) onto our plates.

All of the food we ate came from a huge kitchen in which volunteers prepare food for over 10,000 people a day. Unlike the centralized school meal kitchen I visited earlier, the giant spoons and vats of lentils in the temple were all used by humans rather than machines. Each of the roti on my plate was clearly made by hand.

Instead of using a machine, volunteers will make roti by

hand at "stations" marked by piles of flour.

At first I was surprised by how quickly the people around me in the dining hall were eating. Then I realized why they were scarfing down their food so quickly: another group of worshippers was waiting eager to enter the hall. My friend and I were taking too long to finish, so two volunteers came and stood in front of us encouraging us to eat quickly and make room for the next crowd. While processes at the Gurdwara may not be mechanized, they are efficient!

Volunteers make dishes in vats and serve them with giant

 spoons. The woman in the back left is making roti.