Akshaya Trust - Madurai, India

Akshaya Trust

# 9, West Main Street, Doak Nagar, Madurai India

17359 East Caley Place, Aurora, Colorado 80016, USA

Nederland - Coming soon

Narayanan Krishnan
In 2002 when Narayanan Krishnan started feeding the helpless on the steets of Madurai, he envisioned that some day he would be able to give them shelter and be able to serve them meals under the roof of the Akshaya home. Akshaya home, inaugurated on May 9th, 2013 has a beautiful kitchen and dining.  The once destitue men and women reside at the Akshaya home and eat their meals in dignity and under the loving care of the Akshaya team. All three meals are prepared fresh every day and served to the 450 residents of the Akshaya home.

Several of the Akshaya residents who were till just 6 months ago on the street without hope or dignity today are able to lead a life that has some semblance of normalcy. One of our residents is seen here cutting 300 lemons that will then be used in the preparation of lemon rice. Other residents have been trained to clean the dining hall, set the tables and clean up after the meals.

Preparation

Cooking three meals a day for 450 people would be a major task for a well staffed restaurant with the best of equipment. For Krishnan and the volunteers at Akshaya Trust it is a routine done three times a day in the beautiful kitchen of the Akshaya home.

All meals are prepared using ingredients from local markets that are selected for freshness, nutritional value and taste. They are then combined according to local recipes with spices, rice, lentils and other appropriate ingredients. The recipes are also selected to ensure a healthy balance to help our resident recover from mental and physical agony that they have suffered from living on the streets of Madurai. 

Roti Preparation

Narayanan Krishnan won global recognition when he stood on the stage of the CNN Heroes and won the honor of one of the top ten CNN Heroes of the year 2010. This recognition brought to Akshaya the much needed help form several supporters world wide. This support helped Akshaya get good equipment for its kitchen. One of the equipment that was acquired was the chapathi maker. To spread 450 chapathis by hand is an ardous task but the machine that was purchased today makes that task a breeze.

The Menu

The food prepared by Akshaya Trust follows recipes that are traditional in Madurai as well as many other parts of India. They include:

• Idli — A tasty cake usually about 9 cm in diameter and made by steaming fluffy dough of fermented rice and lentils. It is a traditional and healthy morning meal, especially in southern India.
• Pongal — Lentils are dry-roasted and steam cooked with rice. Fat, including cooking oil, and clarified butter are heated. Curry leaves, chopped ginger bits, pepper, cumin seed, and salt are added. The cooked rice lentil mixture is added and thoroughly mixed.
• Upma — Cooked semolina seasoned with green chili, curry leaves and ginger. Vegetables may be added.
• Oothappam — Made with an idli-like dough but instead of steaming it is oil roasted. Vegetables may be added.
• Dosai — A crepe made from fermented rice and lentils. A typical south Indian dish served for breakfast or dinner.
• Biryani — A dish of great variety, often rice cooked with a lot of vegetables.
• Parotta — A layered flatbread of India cooked in a frying pan using edible oils.
• Roti — A flatbread often made with wheat flour.
• Sambar — A sauce prepared with tamarind, lentil, chili powder and fenugreek powder. Vegetables are cooked in the sauce.

http://www.akshayatrust.org/index.php
http://www.akshayatrust.org/feeding.php
http://www.akshayatrust.org/akshayahome.php#

Story:

Narayanan Krishnan was a bright, young, award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group, short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. But a quick family visit home before heading to Europe changed everything.

“I saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food,” Krishnan said. “It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked for a second. After that, I started feeding that man and decided this is what I should do the rest of my lifetime.” Krishnan was visiting a temple in the south Indian city of Madurai in 2002 when he saw the man under a bridge. Haunted by the image, Krishnan quit his job within the week and returned home for good, convinced of his new destiny.
“That spark and that inspiration is a driving force still inside me as a flame — to serve all the mentally ill destitutes and people who cannot take care of themselves,” Krishnan said.

Krishnan founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003. Now 29, he has served more than 1.2 million meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — to India’s homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused. . . Krishnan said the name Akshaya is Sanskrit for “undecaying” or “imperishable,” and was chosen “to signify [that] human compassion should never decay or perish. … The spirit of helping others must prevail for ever.” Also, in Hindu mythology, Goddess Annapoorani’s “Akshaya bowl” fed the hungry endlessly, never depleting its resources.

Krishnan’s day begins at 4 a.m. He and his team cover nearly 125 miles in a donated van, routinely working in temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He seeks out the homeless under bridges and in the nooks and crannies between the city’s temples. The hot meals he delivers are simple, tasty vegetarian fare he personally prepares, packs and often hand-feeds to nearly 400 clients each day.

Krishnan carries a comb, scissors and razor and is trained in eight haircut styles that, along with a fresh shave, provide extra dignity to those he serves.
He says many of the homeless seldom know their names or origins, and none has the capacity to beg, ask for help or offer thanks. They may be paranoid and hostile because of their conditions, but Krishnan says this only steadies his resolve to offer help.

“The panic, suffering of the human hunger is the driving force of me and my team members of Akshaya,” he said. “I get this energy from the people. The food which I cook … the enjoyment which they get is the energy. I see the soul. I want to save my people.”

http://mormonsoprano.com/2010/12/09/christmas-every-day-in-india/