THE GREATEST MAN ON EARTH
Friday, February 15, 2013 at 11:27AM
THE GREATEST MAN ON EARTH | NARAYANAN KRISHNAN
"In 2002, Narayanan Krishnan, a gifted young chef from Madurai, India, 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. Something he saw shocked him to his core. “I saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food,” he told CNN. Krishnan knew he couldn’t go back to the gourmet restaurants he’d been working in when his own countrymen were starving to death. So he decided to stay in India and begin fixing meals for that man, and for the countless others who could not care for themselves.
The following year 2003, he founded the nonprofit group Akshaya Trust in 2003. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a simple hot meal and then, along with his team, loads it in a van and travels about 200 km feeding the homeless in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He serves Breakfast, lunch and dinner to 400 odd people in Madurai. , and gives them free haircuts and beard trims when they need it. Since 2003, he has served more than 1.2 million meals. His recipients are nearly all mentally ill, and do not have the capacity to thank him. Nonetheless, Krishnan receives great pleasure from the work he does. “I get this energy from the people,” he said. “The food which I cook ... the enjoyment which they get is the energy. I see the soul. I want to save my people.”
AKSHAYA TRUST