Influential Figures

Narayanan Krishnan: Serving Humanity Through Food

Someone from the lands of Madurai, who was initially a chef, has changed into a social worker. On the other hand, his way of perceiving life is very different and inspiring. Despite being a known and popular chef, one awarded in the walls of the Taj Hotels in Bangalore left his job and gradually started helping the poor and needy. Krishnan got short-listed for one of the elite jobs in Switzerland, but one of the distressing events in 2002 led him to change his decision and turn his hands towards those in need.

The chef, by profession, becomes the social worker. He started feeding the homeless, needy and mentally disabled people. He had a valid reason for changing his mind, and he shared it as a story. He accepted and said that he saw a very old man eating his human waste out of hunger. This view touched him, so he immediately rushed to the nearby hotel and asked them what was available on their menu. The hotel owner gave him a parcel containing idli, and he returned it to this old man.

He again described how the man ate away the idli and was amazed by the speed of it. He describes that the man had tears in his eyes when he was eating and that he was happy because of the man’s tears which were out of happiness.

Since then, Krishnan has been in the news for his various actions and activities. He takes social work as a serious job, and he does want to do better for society. He is always searching for that one opportunity wherein he can serve people experiencing poverty and feed people in need.

He founded the Akshaya Trust Organization and has served 425 people of Madurai breakfast, lunch and dinners. The number did reach 425 since its foundation in 2003. And he ensures that every homeless and mentally disabled person is being helped and fed in every way that he can, and they should not be leaving his place without his help.

Not only the food, but he also provides for the haircut and shaving of the people he serves. This allows him to stand in front of himself. He never did ask for publicity and the media limelight, but because of the deeds that he is doing, he has grown into a good brand name. He even got selected as one of the top ten in CNN’s Heroes 2010 list. And his name and character were adopted in one of the Malayalam films, “Ustad Hotel“, played by Jayaprakash in 2012.

The hero of CNN has been in the news not only for the good deeds that he has been doing but also over controversy from one of the inmates of the foundation Akshaya Trust wherein she says that she was being raped. Be it true or a rumor. The face remains in the media and gains popularity. The chef becomes a social worker and feeds the needy rather than the rich.

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