By Pam & Philip Bishop

The man in the turban cut and rolled a ball from a large mass of dough, and flicked it onto a floured slab where a squatting woman patted it into a smooth round disc, before launching it toward a group of friends for cooking on a hot plate. Dhal was added and the chapatti, wrapped in a paper square, was offered to the dozen visitors sitting on their haunches along one side of the eighty- foot square kitchen. It was 8.15 am in the Gudwara Bangla Sahib Sikh temple in Delhi. Sikhism is a faith of hope and optimism - a religion whose practicality is revealed in the Pangat or community kitchen that accompanies all Sikh temples. The Explore bus had earlier nosed its way carefully towards the gates of the Gudwara through a mass of pavement dwellers, waking, stretching and preparing to visit the temple for their meal that is offered to all, irrespective of race, religion or caste. Leaving the kitchen, bare-footed and swathed in orange headscarves, we made our way into the temple to hear verses chanted from the Guru Granth Sahib - the Sikh holy book. Prayers were in progress for the dead and homeless of the Pakistan earthquake. Threading our way through groups of men, women and children sitting quietly on the floor listening to the readings, we joined the line of worshippers offering money to be blessed at the altar for the relief effort. Temple elders at the exits thanked us for coming and urged a sweet sticky cake into our hands. We left, impressed and silent. It was day two of our short Indian journey and the first of many thought-provoking experiences.