Tucked between two ordinary houses in a street in Gillingham lies the only established Hindu place of worship in the Medway area.

Ubeknownst to most passers-by, for the past 30 years, Medway Hindu Mandir has been serving the local community by celebrating all aspects of the world’s oldest religion.

The terraced property in Canterbury Street almost blends into all the other buildings around it, but it represents a huge helping hand to those in the surrounding community.

The foundations of the mandir are based on the Hindu concept of Samatva, meaning that it believes in an all-encompassing state of equality.

General secretary Ajay Attra previously told Kentonline: “Typically, different states have different languages and different ways of worship but we’re bringing that all together.

“We have people from all over India, so people like Punjabis, Gujaratis and Kerelans to people from Bihar and Chennai, so it’s nice to bring everyone together.”

Since its establishment in 1989, the mandir has also been heavily involved with the wider community, becoming a member of Medway Diversity Forum, Medway Interfaith Action, and the Independent Police Advisory Group.

Every year, the mandir hosts dozens of religious holidays, group prayers and rituals to cater to Hindus from all over India.

Ajay said: “We celebrate all of the Hindu festivals and we usually do that on the actual day of the event, rather than at the weekend.”

Although the mandir had a record turnout for the festival Ganesh Chaturthi in 2015, popular events tend to be those originating from the south of India.

“We’ve got a big Keralan community here in Medway,” explained Ajay.

“We also have a range of different community events running here, so we have karate classes going on, we’ve got the South Indian chenda classes [a musical instrument] and we’re also starting the classical Bharatanatyam [dance] classes soon.”

The mandir often works with micro-groups Kent Ayyappa Temple and Kent Hindu Samajan, to not only serve local Hindus, but also support the wider community through charitable giving.

During the pandemic, the mandir committee provided freshly-cooked Indian meals to doctors and nurses at Medway Maritime Hospital to support their hardworking efforts.

Ajay said: “Although our temple was closed to worshippers, our kitchens remained open.

“The Hindu community and Gillingham were very generous, donating whatever they could from monetary donations to ingredients, which were transformed into delicious curries.”

Medway Hindu Mandir volunteers are no strangers to large scale batch cooking, typically preparing meals for hundreds of devotees during festival times and used those skills to serve up dishes to NHS staff.

Committee vice president Kulwinder Kaur led the team cooking, packing and distributing the food parcels.

She said: “The actions of our volunteers at times like these highlights the true essence of selfless service for mankind (Manv Seva).

“We were proud of the support provided by the community, enabling us to send out a total of 4,000 meals during the first lockdown period.”

Medway Hindu Mandir is open morning and evenings from 10am to midday and from 5pm to 7pm every day and welcomes all Hindus.