With temperature rising to over 42.5 degree Celsius in
Nautapa, even corona warriors including cops and healthcare workers missed ‘chabeel’
on Tuesday, a chilled sweetened drink served by gurudwaras in the city on death
anniversary of Guru Arjun Dev.
As the nation-wide lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19
continued in Indore, where the number of infected patients is rising unabated,
Sikh community paid respect to the Guru at home and small gathering in
gurudwara for path and kirtan.
Serving chhabeel along the roadside during summers is an
age-old tradition associated with the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan Dev. This
year, the guru’s martrydom day will be observed on May 26, but it is for the
first time that neither gurdwaras nor social workers could set up chabeel
stalls, courtesy the fear of spread of coronavirus.
A healthcare worker Naresh Shringi said, “During this time,
when the heat rises, we get a relief from chabeel prepared in Gurudwara, but
this year, everything looks stranded.”
Guru Arjan Dev was the first Sikh martyr in 1606 after he
refused to alter the Sikh scriptures as ordered by the tyrannical Mughal
Emperor Jahangir, in an effort to curtail the Guru’s growing influence in
India.
Surender Singh, president of LIG gurudwara, is one of the
many social workers had been setting up stalls of chabeel every summer for the
past 40 years. “There used to be a huge rush of commuters at the stalls.
Children travelling back home after school in buses, rickshaw-pullers and auto
drivers used to have chilled water from the stall to beat the heat. It is for
the first time I will not be serving chabeel to avoid the spread of the virus.
Nothing is the same this year,” he said.
Narender Singh is an active Sikh community member, who
coordinated and organised chabeel every year. “This year, we had organised
three-day Akhand Path, which concluded on Tuesday morning. There was no
hustle-bustle and decorations like every year. It is another lesson from Guru
Arjan Dev that nothing is stable and we must learn to flow with river and stay
humble,” he said.