A sneak-peek into Mela’s pious kitchen that serves devotees

Prayagraj: Not only spirituality but also the pious and freshly prepared ‘kadhah prasad’ tempts pilgrims and tourists every single day at Magh Mela as it serves a wholesome meal to devotees during the 44-day long annual fair, also known for its scrumptious food and people from across India and abroad visit the fair to taste the food.
Thanks to ‘Om Namah Shivay’ sansthah that takes care of the meals to be offered to visitors at Mela premises. And, advanced hi-tech machines installed at Anna Kshetra for kneading flour and cutting vegetables are making volunteers’ job easy to serve thousands of devotees and pilgrims everyday during the 44-day long Magh Mela.
For organising the Magh Mela’s largest community feast round-the-clock, around two dozen advanced kneading and vegetable cutting machines are being brought from Gujarat and Rajasthan on ‘Om Namay Shivay’ campus, that is holding community kitchen at every Kumbh, and Ardh Kumbh and Magh Mela.
This year, the organisation has brought at least 40 big wok (deep round-bottomed cooking pan) , also known as ‘kadhah’ from Jhalandhar (Punjab) to serve at least 50,000 to 1 lakh pilgrims and devotees every single time.
The organisation is making these arrangements in view of 2025 Kumbh when crores of pilgrims and devotees will arrive to take holy dips.
Pujya Guru ji, head of the Om Namay Shiva says“ Around two dozen advanced kneading and vegetable cutting machines have been brought from Gujarat and Rajasthan to serve million of pilgrims”. He added “these giant machines not only knead around50 quintal flour daily while vegetable cutting machines can cut 100 quintalpotatoes, 300 kg tomatoes, 50 kg ginger and 10 kg chillies at the earliest.”
He, however, said “we aim that not a single devotee should return empty stomach if he or she has come to take holy dip and we are here to serve the mankind.” He also said “every devotee is a guest for us and we feel joy to serve delicious foodto him or her during their brief stay at the camp”.
He added, “ These advanced automatic and hi-tech machines have made volunteers’ task easy and weare able to serve more and more devotees.”
Guru ji, meanwhile, said : “Around 300 volunteers are being engaged to prepare food andmeals ( different dishes) for at least 25,000 to 50,000 devotees daily whousually wake up at 4 am in the morning and take out first meals at around 9 amto serve the food to the pilgrims”.
He alsoadded, “As many as five community feast camps are being run by the organisationat different sectors round the clock and all community kitchens would befunctional till Maghi Purnima on the mela campus.”
Volunteers claim “ The strength of devotees increasesmanifold on main snan days and reach up to one to over one lakh but we all feelhappy and satisfy to serve them food,”.The food menu includes, puri,kachori, pulav, rajma, boondi , and gulab jamun.