PUNE: Amid the nationwide lockdown, the Sikh community in the city celebrated ‘Baisakhi’ peacefully by offering prayers at their homes, connecting online through video conferencing and serving people who are needy or in essential services.

“Usually we go to Gurudwara and also participate in the langar, but this year due to the lockdown, we all offered prayers inside our home. Since there was no langar at Gurudwara; therefore, our foundation volunteered to distribute food to the needy people,” said Manjett Singh Virdi, Founder of MSV Foundation.

Narendra Pal Singh Bakshi, NIBM resident, said, “There is a group called Stree Satsang of the women of our community from NIBM, Salunkhe Vihar and Kondhwa. Since it is a lockdown, therefore all the ladies got ready and did prayer and keertan through video conferencing along with kada prasad.”

However for Rajbeer Singh Ghai a Lullanagar resident, it was a silent affair with family. He said, “This year because of lockdown, we offered prayers at home and cooked Kada-Prasad. Since we cannot go out for langar at Gurudwara, we cooked Kheer. We distributed it among the people who are part of essential services such as guards, sanitation workers and the needy.”

MS Khandari, Public Relation Officer of Gurudwara Guru Nanak Darbar, Camp said, “Since the lockdown, people are not allowed in Gurudwara, and we are strictly following it. However, the staff who lives in Gurudwara conducted the prayer inside, and since people are not allowed to come, we connected with few of them through video-conferencing.

Charanjit Singh Sahni, President of Gurudwara Guru Nanak Darbar, Camp said, “As nationwide lockdown is imposed in the country we should strictly follow it. Therefore everyone did prayers and Keertan at home. At Gurudwara, since the lockdown we are cooking food for the needy. Every day we are sending food packets for around 6000-7000 people and today since it was Baisakhi we also distributed Kheer. We hope and pray that the current pandemic ends soon and the world becomes healthy again.”