Extraordinary Lives

magnet

Active Member
#1
He gave up a 5-star job to feed the mentally ill



Image: N Krishnan feeds a mentally ill person on a Madurai street
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar


Image: Krishnan's wards often approach him when they see his food-laden van
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar



Image: Krishnan often feeds them with his hands
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar




Image: 'I like doing this,' says Krishnan about feeding the mentally ill
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar


He gave up a 5-star job to feed the mentally ill

'I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money,' says N Krishnan who has been feeding them thrice a day for the past seven years.

We proudly launch our Independence Day special series: Extraordinary Indians.

N Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai 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.

"Today's lunch is curd rice, with home made 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 feeds 400 mentally ill people every day

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 too. 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 Maruti van. They stood out in the crowd with their dirty, tattered clothes and unshaven beards.

They knew this Maruti 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 was empty. Of course, it would be full again for dinner later in the day.

A ritual for the past 7 years

As we returned, a startling fact hit me. Not a single mentally challenged person had thanked Krishnan. They did not even smile or acknowledge him. Still Krishnan carried on in a world where most of us get offended if someone doesn't say thank you, sometimes even for doing our jobs.

The food costs Rs 8,000 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.

It began with five idlis

This, however, is not the sum of his good deeds. Krishnan also performs the funerals of unclaimed bodies in Madurai. He collects the body, bathes it and gives it a decent burial or cremation as the need may be.

He gets calls, both from the municipal corporation and general hospital for the funerals.

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 others. 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: Akshya Trust

Extraordinary Lives: Rediff.com news

Do you know Extraordinary Indians like N Krishnan? Please send us their name, contact information and a description of their work at [email protected]

Source::Rediff.com
 

rajeshn2007

Well-Known Member
#4
He gave up a 5-star job to feed the mentally ill



Image: N Krishnan feeds a mentally ill person on a Madurai street
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar


Image: Krishnan's wards often approach him when they see his food-laden van
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar



Image: Krishnan often feeds them with his hands
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar




Image: 'I like doing this,' says Krishnan about feeding the mentally ill
Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar





Extraordinary Lives: Rediff.com news

Do you know Extraordinary Indians like N Krishnan? Please send us their name, contact information and a description of their work at [email protected]

Source::Rediff.com
Friends ! Need more appreciation for these kind of posts. Just post a few words of appreciation.
 

priyanvada

Well-Known Member
#5
Great Post!!!

... What words can appreciate this man? ... I just watch the pictures and the REAL meaning of LIVING life transpires automatically ...

Loads of thanks to the poster!
Keep doing such great job!

Thanks ... but your job is beyond any number of Thanks!
 

priyanvada

Well-Known Member
#6
Ok ... I will also share an All time inspiring story happening REAL & LIVE in front of my eyes ...

There is poor family which lives in a small home nearby by my home...
Family consists 5 members :- husband,Wife & their 3 Children...
Both Man & Woman are illiterate...
Sadly Man is has got injured in some accident and can not work now as before...
So Woman has taken the responsibility from last 5-6 years of feeding the family...
Although being illiterate they have set REAL HIGH standards for themselves ...
So now woman can not work outside in any body's house or shop, since everyone in their community would talk about it & it would put a stain on their life values ...
So woman works in her mothers house which is few kilometers away from her home ... she does the all housekeeping job that any worker would do in her mothers home ...Takes rational salary for the same ... and feeds her children ...
She/her family doesn't take any help from other source since it would down their standards ...
There have occurred some situations when her mothers family went away for some work few days and she hasn't had any job ... and as a result she and her family had to fast consecutive 3 to 7 days! ... I tried to help her that time but it was rejected Thankfully! ... This is strange that her children are always prepared for such testing situations ... and they show no sign of hunger on their face ... they also show the values embedded in their blood which their parents bear ... I am friend of them and elder brother 10 years of age sometimes laughingly tells me, if there occurs a testing period in their life! ... with no intension of any help from my side!!

... it is probably not possible what original brightness they bear on their faces ... I always feel fortunate that I had opportunity to live in vicinity of them!
 

magnet

Active Member
#7
priyan give the kids or men small work and pay them..that way u can help...say tell the person to pay your light bills and pay them commisssion etc etc
 

priyanvada

Well-Known Member
#8
priyan give the kids or men small work and pay them..that way u can help...say tell the person to pay your light bills and pay them commisssion etc etc
... magnet! You absolutely spoke my mind!! That's why I have entered in stocks ... If I mean to pay peoples I must bear something of my own :)

... This is not a single case but there are many which are needed to be given close Attention, deserving peoples must be helped out directly or indirectly(politically) if direct doors are closed :)... not for satisfying our ego but for the sake of situation ...
 
#9
what to say about krishnan........it is impossible to think that people like this exist in the same times where people are killing innocents in the name of religion, i am really moved by the post, may god bless and support him in this great noble deed. Elsewhere also their is such help going on, but with an selfish intent, either religious conversion or to get funds and misuse them.....which is quite unfortunate.
 
#10
Their is one such story going on before my eyes also

Their is a cafe by name NILOFOUR at lakdikapool, in Hyderabad, which is quite famous for its 'chai'. i don't remember the exact name of the owner of that cafe. That person, has come from a small village long back, and took over that cafe with his hard earned money, when it was not so famous, and developed it later on to the present stage. Their is a government children hospital and a government cancer institute nearby to that cafe. Everyday, many poor people who cant afford costly corporate treatment, come to those hospitals from far away places with small kids in hands and suffering elders. During the course of treatment, they have to stay their, which may extend to many days depending on the treatment. As we know, about the facilities at government institutes, how good they are. The people struggle a lot to pass days, with the minimum money they bring. Looking at all these happening before his eyes, the owner of the cafe has decided to help them in some way or the other.

He now, everyday, supplies some amount of milk, vegetables and common kitchen with gas stoves, to those poor people and help them. He may not supply to everyone their, but still puts his maximum effort to do so. And this happens everyday. He also constructed a 'HANUMAN' temple near the cafe, whose offerings go to the noble work. And during 'GANESH' festival, for all the eleven days, he offers free night meal near his pandal to all the people their, no matter how many come.

This noble work of him has featured in news articles also I too donated some money, not directly but through the hundi of the hanuman temple, and decided to do so, whenever possible. He explained why 'HELPING HANDS ARE BETTER THAN PRAYING HANDS', hats off to the noble person. May GOD extend his full support to him in his great deeds.
 

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