Maharashtra: At 82, Khaira Babaji turns legend feeding 3 million on highway

From the crack of dawn today Sunday the sprightly 82yearold Baba Karnail Singh Khaira has been a busybee shuffling around at his modest Guru Ka Langar near Karanji village on NH7 hereWith folded hands and a welcoming smile the bespectacled Khaira Babaji warmly ushers in hordes of tired and famished travellers offers them a seat and orders his loyal team to serve them piping hot meals although today is very specialIts the 415th anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev the Fifth Sikh Guru today As per traditions I offer rose sherbet to all who come to my langar for a month the beaming Khaira Babaji told IANSWhen the national lockdown started from March 24 2020 Khaira Babajis ramshackle langar proved to be a lifesaver for millions mostly uprooted migrants or those stranded for weeks away from their homes and kin waiting in long queues for their fillAt that time the humble Guru Ka Langar was the only decent eatery on a 450km stretch serving meals free 24X7 to anybody who walked in migrants travellers villagers and even mute stray animalsNow a year later the worldfamous langar has started an oxygen bank with 15 cylinders given free to needy Covid19 patients in the pandemic second waveAfter IANS first highlighted his yeoman services May 31 2020 in this remote forested tribal corner of Maharashtra Khaira Babaji became an international celeb much sought after by the paparazziAlso Read How Mumbai citizen volunteers rose to organise hospital beds and hot meals in the second waveHis aweinspiring story is what legends are made of and he earned the admiration of millions from celebrities to stars to politicians or commoners and was featured in the TV series Bharat Ke MahaveerThousands worldover like USbased author Sabina Khan Amardeep Singh of Bengaluru Yavatmals Kishore Tiwari and Salim Khetani Narendra Narlawar Amritsar Gurudwara Guru Ka Baghs Baba Satnam Singh and Baba Kirpal Singh Amreek Singh Malli and many more sent big or small donations that kept the langar fires burning without a breakIn contrast many international TV channels came shot and telecast my filmsdocumentaries and suo moto assured to organise funds for my langar services They made billions of rupees selling me through sponsors However I am still waiting for them to fulfil their promises But Wahe Guru is great said Khaira Babaji looking skywardsLocated in a desolate area the langar is linked with the historic Gurudwara Bhagod Sahib in Wai around 11 kms away in a dense jungle visited mostly by SikhsIt was here that the 10th Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh stayed in 1705 while en route to Nanded some 250 km away where he was assassinated on October 7 1708Nearly 125 years later it bloomed as the worldfamous Gurudwara Takht Hazuri Sahib Sachkhand Nanded one of the most revered Five Takhts in SikhismGurudwara Bhagod Sahib is barely accessible so in 1988 we started this langar branch on the highway I was assigned to manage it with the blessings of Nanded Gurudwara Sahibs Baba Narinder Singhji and Baba Balwinder Singhji recalls Khaira BabaThe pandemic Lockdown 20 was a different experience for him he chuckled My photos and phone numbers are all over on social media Now people call me up hours before and request me to keep food ready for big or small groups 50 100 or 500 people This is Guru Nanaks blessingsThe langar serves breakfast of tea with hard bread or biscuits meals comprising rice rotis dal vegetables biryani with daily menu change providing soap and borewell water for bathing to the visitorsBorn in Meerut Uttar Pradesh the young Karnail left home at 11 to answer a mysterious call for service to humankind later travelled all over India lived in countries of the MiddleEast and Europe for nearly 10 years organizing funds for Gurudwara servicesThough semiliterate I speak fluent English Hindi Punjabi Arabic Dutch German and of course Marathi Khaira Baba said with prideAttributing his daily lonesome grind in the dust and blazing sun as marzi desire of Wahe Guru his sole possessions are 3 sets of clothes and travelling around in the three service vehicles donated by devotees to the langar He drove down to run langars outside Delhi during the ongoing farmers agitationKhaira Babaji calculated the number of persons fed based on the disposable plates count as 3 million plus for the past 15 months 2 million in the initial 75 days rest in the last 12 months June 1 2020May 31 2021 besides over 600000 takeaway parcels and still countingThe Guru ka langar has kept two donation boxes outside in which people drop coinsnotes but the collection is never counted and the money ploughed back into public serviceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever