Art of Living meet looks to set Guinness record

AHMEDABAD: A mountain of mohan thaal is set to spring up near the Jhansi Ki Rani statue at Shivranjani crossroads on Tuesday. This will be the spot to witness a unique event, when devotees of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of The Art of Living, prepare 5,000 different vegetarian dishes as part of their Annam Brahma programme.

This will be part of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Diwali visit to Gujarat. A series of spiritual and social programmes have been lined up during this trip. The highlight of the visit is Annam Brahma which shall be dominated by this "sweet mountain" made of 1,111 kg of Mohan Thaal.

Annam Brahma is aimed at entering the Guinness Book of World Records. "Officials of the Guinness Book of World Records will be present to record the magnanimous event," said president of the organising committee, Pragnesh Shah.

The other cities that shall be contributing to the huge list of food items will be Surat with 1200 items, Saurashtra with 1337 items and north Gujarat with 327 items.

Shah added that it has taken them 22 days to finalise the huge menu consisting of 5,000 food items that represent all corners and cultures of the country. "We scoured the internet to draw up the final list. This is for the first time in the world that an annakoot on such a large scale will be held. Everything is being done voluntarily by devotees. The delicacies will be distributed as Bal Bhoj among 25,000 under privileged children who live in eight slums at Vejalpur and Satellite," added Shah.

No less than 280 kitchens in Ahmedabad alone - at Maninagar, Navrangpura, Vasna, Bapunagar and Naroda have been set up. Special arrangements have also been made for transportation of the food that will be packed in coloured baskets. "Ensuring proper, hygienic standards is our topmost priority. More than 8,000 people will prepare the dishes which include Gujarati delicacies like - Basudi, Doodh Paak, sweets made of cashew nuts, salads, mouth fresheners and of ice cream. Rehearsals were also conducted on Monday by the organising committee to avoid any glitches at the final programme that is scheduled to start from 6 pm on Tuesday.

Source: Times of India