Superman lives right across your street!
I have many things to share with you. But let me take this chance to share with you something that grabbed my attention recently. This was a mail forwarded to me by my sister and believe me I was more than astonished! This is no fairytale. This is a true life story. I request all of your attention to this. Please read through carefully.
He left his bow-tie high paying 5-star job to feed the mentally ill. N Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai (A district in Tamil Nadu, India) three times a day, every day, all 365 days of the year. The 28-year-old has been doing this for seven years via a charity called the Akshaya Trust.
A look into the kitchen reveals a spotlessly clean room. Sparkling vessels stacked neatly, groceries and provisions all lined up in rows - rice, dal, vegetables, spices - all of the best quality. One would think this was the kitchen of a five star hotel. Maybe Krishnan achieves that effect because he was once a chef at a five star hotel in Bengaluru (Previously known as Bangalore, Karnataka, India).
"Today's lunch is curd rice, with homemade pickle, please taste it," he says, serving me on a plate made of dried leaves. The food is excellent.
"I change the menu for different days of the week. They will get bored if I serve the same food every day," he says with an enthusiastic and infectious smile.
Krishnan cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner with the help of two cooks. He takes it himself to his wards on the street each day. "I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money. They don't move around much. I find them in the same place every day."
That morning he put the food in a large vessel, the pickle in a smaller one and loaded it into a Maruti van donated by a Madurai philanthropist.
Ten minutes later we stopped near a man lying on the ground by a high wall. Krishnan put the food next to him. The man refused to even look at it, but grabbed the water bottle and drank eagerly. "He will eat the food later, looks like he was very thirsty," said Krishnan.
At the next stop, he laid the dry leaf-plate and served the food. He then scooped some food and started feeding the mentally ill man himself. After two morsels, the man started eating on his own.
We then crossed a crowded traffic signal and stopped the vehicle. On seeing Krishnan, four individuals moved slowly towards the van. They stood out in the crowd with their dirty, tattered clothes and unshaven beards. They knew this van meant food. But they did not hurry, knowing that Krishnan would wait for them. Krishnan served them under a tree and carried water for them. "They are not aware enough to get their own water," he explained.
And thus we went around the city till the akshaya-patra (In Hindu mythology there is a mentioning of an 'Akshaya-patra' which'd never get empty of food. When ever you take food from it, the vessel (patra) keeps refilling itself magically.) was empty. Of course, it would be full again for dinner later in the day.
The food costs Rs 8,000 ($ 175.21 approx.) a day, but that doesn't worry him. "I have donors for 22 days. The remaining days, I manage myself. I am sure I will get donors for that too, people who can afford it are generally generous, particularly when they know that their hard earned money is actually going to the poor. That is why I maintain my accounts correctly and scrupulously." He then pulled out a bill from the cabinet and showed it to me. It was a bill for groceries he had bought seven years ago. "This bill has sentimental value. It is the first one after I started Akshaya."
The economic slowdown has resulted in a drop in the number of donors. Earlier, they sustained meals for 25 days. Software giants Infosys and TCS were so impressed with his work that they donated three acres of land to him in Madurai. Krishnan hopes to build a home for his wards there. He has built the basement for a woman's block which will house 80 inmates, but work has currently halted due to a lack of funds.
He recalls with a little prompting how one day he saw a mentally ill man eating his excreta. He rushed to the nearest restaurant and bought the man five idlis. The man ate voraciously, and then smiled at him. The smile made Krishnan want to do it again and again.
Krishnan has not married and wonders if anyone would want to marry a man who spends his days cooking food for mad men. He is firm that his life partner has to agree to this kind of life.
His parents were initially shocked, but are now very supportive of their son. They advise him about the cuisine and also about how he can streamline the process. One wonders why he left his job in a five star hotel to bury the dead and feed the mentally ill. To this he just smiles and says, "I like doing it." For more information on N Krishnan's trust, log on to:http://www.akshayatrust.
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Mr. Krishnan is doing this
** not for a political motive, because they can't vote
** not to convert their religion - their "religion" is irrelevant
** not in expectation of a return from them - what can they give after all?
I was lost deep in my thoughts after reading this. I mean, I never had a job as lucrative as he had. But even if I had, would I have left it to feed the poor and bury unclaimed dead bodies? Do I have the same Superman in me to do such a thing? Had I done anything to make this world a better place to live in? I feel ashamed at the kind'a 'rat-race' life I lead, worrying about my future, complaining about my present, brooding and crying about my past...
