Mr. Narayanan Krishnan
‘All it takes is just one moment to change
you forever’. This recitation is truly manifested in the story
of Mr. Narayanan Krishnan.
Narayanan
Krishnan, a bright young award winning chef of a five star hotel group was
short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. Being a proud bearer of a
renowned degree, he was all set to embrace the new opportunity, longing for a
bright future. Unaware of the subsequent destiny, he set forth his journey with
a high spirit. Before heading towards Europe, on the street of his home town
Madurai, he saw a very old man eating his own human waste. The sight of this
despairing act made him scandalized. The level of muddles one can confront just
to satisfy his hunger was frightening. This agonizing incident made him stop
and realize the impact of poverty on his fellow human beings at his own home
town, Madurai. Absolutely bewildered, he immediately purchased some idlis from
a nearby restaurant and gave it to the man. Within a few seconds, the man
gulped the idlis. After completing the idlis, the man glanced at him with an
admiring gratitude. The smile in the face of the old man revolutionized his
thoughts. It was a moment of self realization and the rationale behind one’s existence.
The satisfaction that he could bestow on the poor old man became the turning
point which transformed his entire life and made him decide to take up “Helping
the helpless” as his solo mission.
Disturbed
by that single incident, Krishnan quit his job within a week and
convinced himself that his destiny wasn’t to cook elaborate dishes for the rich
and famous, but rather it was to provide sustenance to those who needed it the most.
With this initiative in mind, he returned home to set a path
for his new destination. But the hastier it was to decide this move, the
difficult it was to convey his aspirations. His parents didn’t
support his idea at the beginning. His relatives told his parents to take him
to a psychiatrist or a priest. As stated by Narayanan, "They had to
undergo a lot of pain because they had spent a lot on my education." Despite
the recurring attempts of his dear ones to persuade him thereby reasoning his
religion and family background, Narayanan’s decision remained intact. He was
determined that helping all those in need would surely be a life well-lived, which
would provide him with all the happiness he ever needed. Even being a Brahmin, an
upper class Hindu destined to lead a life of luxury and comfort, Narayanan
decided to give up everything for dedicating his life to help those who were
not capable of helping themselves.
One fine day,
he asked his mother to see what work he was actually doing. He asked his parents
to give food to the people on the street. Her mother was surprised to see so
many people being fed by her son on a daily basis. Those poor people touched
the feet of his mother and blessed her saying that because of her son, they are
getting three meals a day. After all this, his mother delightfully said, “You
feed all those people, the rest of the lifetime I am there, I will feed you.” From that day, his mother started thinking of
him as her teacher, philosopher and guide and also took pride in introducing
him as her own son.
In 2002, investing
from his personal savings, Narayanan Krishnan fed around 30 people. This
continued for some days until Krishnan founded his nonprofit “Akshaya Trust” in 2003. According to the
Hindu mythology, ‘Akshaya’ was the never depleting bowl used by
Goddess Annapoorani to feed the hungry ones. The name of his organization
is Sanskrit for “undecaying” or “imperishable”. This name signifies the human
compassion which can never decay or perish. Talking about the never ending
human compassion, the facts and figures reflect that, from 6,300 meals served in
2002, the number hiked to 36,000 meals in January 2010.
With the unconditional support of his team members, till now he has already
served more than 1.2 million meals including breakfast, lunch and dinner to
India's numerous homeless ones who were mostly the elderly people abandoned by
their families and who often fell prey to unending miseries and abuses.
A day in Krishnan's
life begins at 4 a.m. His daily routine includes cutting
vegetables, grinding spices and cooking breakfast, preparing mid-day
meals to be served. This schedule is followed by a small break, which precedes the
preparation course for dinner. He along with his team covers
approximately 125 miles in a donated van, working in temperatures topping 100
degrees Fahrenheit on a routine basis. He seeks out the homeless ones under
bridges and in the nooks and crannies between the city's temples. The hot meals
he delivers are simple, tasty vegetarian items that he personally prepares,
packs and often hand-feeds to more than 400 clients on a daily basis.
An
interesting initiative that Krishnan has undertaken is worth knowing. Once he observed
many of the poor under nourished people having long hairs. Then he asked to some
barbers if they could cut their hairs, but they refused stating they won’t lose
their customers for this sake. Though few of the barbers agreed to this but the
problem was handling the mentally ill people. They didn’t allow any stranger to
come near them. To solve this problem Krishnan went to a barber shop for hair
cutting training for 6 months and acquired mastery over 10-12 styles of
haircuts. Since that time, Krishnan always carries comb, scissors and razor
with him and till date he has carried almost 3000-4000 haircuts of people on
the roads.
Another
fact about him is required to be highlighted. In 2005-06, he observed that the
unattended dead bodies of many poor people lied on the roads. No one bothered
to cremate them. Hence he himself started cremating those dead bodies and so
far he has cremated more than 450 bodies. After some time, another issue
cropped up in front of him i.e. after a year or two around 2008, he witnessed
many mentally ill women getting harassed and sexually abused by the society and
this increased the ratio of babies lying abandoned on roads, crying. To solve
this problem, he purchased about 3.2 acres of land in the outskirts of the city
by selling all his assets and with support from a few corporate companies he
built a rehabilitation centre in that land. This action has been initiated with
mere support obtained from public donations by some well wishers from all over
the world. Narayanan strongly believes that when the project will get accomplished,
Madurai district will become free from mentally ill and old people on the
roads. An additional hurdle which Narayanan confronts is the difference between
the operation cost and the donations received. While the group's operations
cost about $327 a day,
the sponsored donations only cover 22 days a month. Krishnan subsidizes this
shortfall with $88 which
he receives in the form of monthly rent from a home gifted to him by his grandfather.
Krishnan has even faced situations where he had to sleep in Akshaya's modest
kitchen with his few co-workers. After investing his entire savings of $2,500 in 2002, he has
never entertained receiving any salary or subsistence due to the due help
extended to him by his parents. Still, because of lack of funds, the
organization has been forced to halt construction on Akshaya Home, Krishnan's
vision of a dormitory to provide shelter to all the people he wants to help. Despite
these impediments in life, Krishnan is very satisfied with the limited comforts
he can afford and avail. "Now I am feeling so comfortable and so happy, I
have a passion, I enjoy my work. I want to live with my people." He says.
He ponders
over the thought that many homeless people seldom know their names or origin,
and none of them even has the capacity to beg or ask for help or at least offer
thanks. They may behave paranoid and hostile because of their conditions, but this
only steadies his resolution to offer help. As nobody cares for them, so many
times they feel left out in the society. He believes that apart feeding their
starving stomach, they also want to be loved. While food can provide them
physical nutrition, love and affection will give them mental satisfaction.
Narayanan
Krishnan is known and appreciated for going well beyond the act of feeding
those in need. He also aims at uplifting their spirits and dignity. For those
helpless people whom he feeds grooms and motivates, the life turns into a
sudden unimaginable luxury. Krishnan believes that the suffering of humans to suppress
their hunger is the driving force for him and his team members. He gets all his energy from the smiling faces of the
people he serves. The enjoyment he gains by cooking makes him positive,
confident and energetic. He believes that his action is the outcome of the call
of his inside voice. The force behind this selfless motive is determination and
a single minded focus to face obstacles and his strong belief of never giving
up. He says “One always discovers ones strength at times of great trouble. Life
and its journey make you take help and you cultivate your strengths.” He also believes that any unaccustomed initiative is
always shadowed by thousands of obstacles. It requires courage to convince the
dear ones about the new ideas and convincing them to gain their support. Apart
from this, the bigger issues arise while dealing with the uncertain society. Any
good which comes free is always questioned accompanied by mistrust and
suspicion. But still Krishnan believes that only by establishing a belief in
himself and his dreams, he can beat all the accusations without worrying about
the faceless, nameless enemies that still lurk.
Narayan Krishnan is an inspiration to many,
and will continue to make this world a better place through his generosity and
desire to change the world, one step at a time! When asked about his feelings about
all the work he has accomplished, he replied that till now, he has not done anything
great. Hunger and poverty are two unsolved mysteries. Though these unending
miseries cannot be absolutely eradicated, still he hopes that via his work he
will inspire if not all, at least some, helping them to come out of their state
of demise.
Narayanan also supports his helping hands to
facilitate one who wants to help others. The single most important quality he
thinks that an individual should have is to persevere in the face of the
greatest odds. Narayanan believes that, there will be many barriers but the
passion should be capable of sustaining the onslaught of insults that are
thrown and still persevere. One should have the compassion and he should try to
do what little he can to help others. It is gentle to help heal someone, or
just lending an ear to hear someone’s troubles. One can use any spare time to
volunteer with some organizations that are helping others. He wants everyone to experience the joy of giving. He wants
people to connect with them who are in need and the people who can donate to
make this world a better place.
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