V Venkataraman – The Provider of Erode
In the small town of Erode, about 500 km from Chennai, lives V Venkataraman. A man who has become a beacon of hope for the daily wage earners and the financially deprived.
Venkataraman, an ardent follower of the Gandhian principle of serving humanity, has been running a small home-based canteen named Sri AMV Homely Mess near the Erode General Hospital for a decade, and where he provides meals to the poor and needy. What makes his service unique is that he provides healthy meals at just Re 1 per meal. This is unbelievable in today’s world where prices are soaring and Rs 100 seems like Re 1, but Venkataraman is still able to provide meals to the needy at Re 1.
It all started when one day a poor elderly lady came to Venkataram’s mess. She inquired about the prices. She wanted to purchase some eatables for her husband, who was hospitalised in the Erode General Hospital. She looked at each item, took a long time to think and then was about to leave the canteen empty-handed. Upon inquiry, Venkataram found out that she had only Rs 10 and had to manage three meals with it. He then gave her the meal without charging anything.
This incident touched Venkataram’s heart. The next day, Venkataraman went to the hospital to see the condition of the people. He had discussions with the attenders and the nurses, and realised that most patients and their relatives were daily wage earners who earned very little wages. Mostly the attenders would go hungry, and affording a three-time meal was beyond their budget. The patients also suffered a lot as they did not get a healthy meal.
Venkataram could not sleep the whole night. Seeing her husband in distress, his wife inquired about his restlessness. He narrated the entire incident of the hospital and the old lady. He wanted to do something for the people.
The couple came up with an idea. They decided to issue 20 coupons to the most needy patients or their attenders who could show the coupon and avail the meal at just Re 1.
They started going to the hospital daily and distributing tokens worth Re. 1 to 20 needy attendants. The attendants could then come to the mess in the afternoon and collect their meals for just Re 1. which included rice, sambar, rasam, one vegetable curry and curd.
As they would soon realise, it was not that easy, and many people wanted to avail of this facility. The couple then took the help of the doctors and nurses to identify the people who needed the tokens the most. The also started packing the meals in a take-away box so that it could be shared with more people if required.
With time, people around the place learned about the benevolent act of Venkataram. Local NGOs, community centers and like-minded people also would come from time to time to extend their support.
His wife worked as a yoga teacher, and the family was somehow able to manage their day to day expense. The hotel which earlier was giving them some profit went into a loss soon since the time they decided to come up with their new initiative of helping the needy. However, the family unanimously decided to keep it running as their means of service to society and the poor at large.
Venkataram believes in ‘do good and the universe will take care of you’ philosophy. His belief was made strong by another incident in his life. His elder daughter was married, and the younger one pursued an education. Though he was not well educated, Venkataram wanted his daughters to get educated. His younger daughter almost lost the chance to get admitted to a college as they could not afford the fee. However, looking at his selfless service, the Ramakrishna Math in the city came forward to take care of the educational needs of his daughter.
It is incidents like these that has helped strengthened Venkataraman’s belief in humanity.
He also wants people to respect food and not waste it. Hence, he decided to fix a price of Re 1 for the meal so that people, at least, do not waste it.
With support from his family, Venkataram has been able to increase the tokens from 20 to 70. His wish is to increase it to 100 soon.
Care and gratitude do not have to wait for us to have abundance. It has to start with what we have currently. We all can demonstrate these leadership attributes in our current role and current stage in life. We don’t have to wait to become rich or senior in an organisation to demonstrate these qualities.
Credits and suggested further reading:
https://www.thebetterindia.com/34486/v-venkatraman-giving-food-for-one-rupee-in-erode/
https://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/get-inspired/venkataraman-erode