The stark poverty and homelessness in India overwhelms us Indians and Indian Americans alike. The sheer magnitude of the homeless frightens us – where do we start? How can I, just a mere individual make a difference? Our answers lie with Akshaya founder Krishnan Narayanan – the CNN Hero nominee of 2010. When he was just 20 years old, Krishnan Narayanan asked the same question and without allowing fear to cripple him he found a way to make an impact. For nine years now, Krishnan has been taking care of the mentally ill homeless in his home town of Madurai, Tamilnadu.

A hotel management graduate by education and a chef by profession, Krishnan was visiting his hometown of Madurai before leaving to Switzerland to take up a lucrative job offer, when he came across a life-altering event. He saw a homeless mentally ill old man eating his own human waste. He immediately bought some food and offered it to the old man. Haunted by that image throughout that day, Krishnan decided that his lucrative job offer from a five star hotel in Switzerland would just have to be thrown away. He had found his life’s calling. He decided to use his culinary skills to serve meals to the homeless and mentally ill people of Madurai. 

In the beginning, he used his mother’s kitchen to cook fresh meals for 40 people. The numbers have steadily grown since 2002 to 400 destitute in Madurai. In 2003, Krishnan created the nonprofit AKSHAYA TRUST. As on date, he has served over a million meals to Madurai’s homeless and mentally ill.

Krishnan’s day begins before dawn, preparing a fresh breakfast and delivering them in a van with his band of volunteers, and continues till a fresh lunch and dinner have been prepared and delivered. Some of the people he serves are paranoid and hostile to strangers due to their mental state, yet Krishnan seeks them out, under bridges and in the small lanes between temples, near gutters and garbage bins. Krishnan over the last 9 years has served these destitute and today knows each of them. These mentally ill do not know their name. Krishnan has taken the liberty to name them. Like the Old Faithful, Krishnan delivers fresh cooked meals to them three times a day – he knows they will go back to picking from garbage bins if he is even a few minutes late. He rehabilitates them in whichever way he can – giving them haircuts, a shave every now and then. More than food, he provides them with the dignity that their life circumstances have denied them. 

Everyday brings on a new challenge to Krishnan and his volunteers. An old man Krishnan serves everyday is seen lifeless one day when on his rounds. A mentally ill woman is pregnant yet again, raped by unscrupulous elements. A big burden for Krishnan as he has to worry about the homeless night and day – if he had a safe home for the homeless mentally ill woman, this situation would not have happened.
Along with the rising cost of feeding the destitute (Rs.15,000 a day), Krishnan hopes to build an Akshaya home. A 2.74 acre land has been purchased in Madurai and construction is in progress. 
More information about Akshaya can be found at www.akshayatrust.org.

       
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