Khalsa anniversary observed

VADODARA, April 4: An impressive religious procession of Sikh devotees and a grand langar community kitchen at a gurudwara at Chhani ma...

VADODARA, April 4: An impressive religious procession of Sikh devotees and a grand langar community kitchen at a gurudwara at Chhani marked the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations here on Sunday.

All roads seemed to lead to the Nanakwadi Gurudwara near Khanderrao Market in the morning with hundreds of children, women and men thronging the shrine. The devotees later took out a procession, which comprised 100 trucks and even more four-wheelers, all decorated with slogans and teachings of Sikhism.

The procession which began at around 11 am was led by three teams of panj payaras the five beloved of Guru Gobind Singh who joined his army in 1699. These teams which represented three gurudwaras of the city namely Nanakwadi, EME and Chhani were on foot, while the procession also included two aesthetically decorated elephants and devotees, most of them especially young girls and boys, in white clothes and kesri scarfs.

A group of devotees also sang shabads devotional song en route and most of them held placards which read, Proud to be Sikh8217;.

The procession also included several tableau devotees displaying the art of swordsmanship, besides brass band groups who played patriotic and devotional songs. A team of devotees also made special arrangements with the help of water tankers to wash the roads prior to the arrival of procession upto Chhani gurudwara, according to Harmit Singh Saini and Harmandeep Singh Kang of Tercentenary Khalsa Panth Celebration Committee.

The procession passed from Rajmahal Road, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk, Mahatma Gandhi Nagar Gruh, Raopura, Kothi, Sayajibaug, Fatehgunj and Nizampura before reaching Chhani.

As the grand procession moved at a snail8217;s pace from Polo Ground area, as many as 22 tastefully decorated gates welcomed them even as six stalls had been set up to distribute prasad among the devotees as well as public. The procession reached the Fatehgunj crossing at around 3 pm, Chhani naka around 7 pm and the Chhani gurudwara around 8 pm, where special religious discourses and bhajan recitals marked the conclusion of the celebrations followed by langar. More than 10,000 devotees had prasad at the langar.