“I’m Krishnamurthy, residing at West Mambalam, in Chennai. I’m now 73 years, running a business with my wife, Mrs.Mangalam.

My wife is my pillar of strength. She has been with me during my deepest downs and had sustained to live with me whatsoever.

I was born & brought up in Chidambaram. I neither had family, nor friends. Honestly, I visited schools only to have my regular meals.

In 1973, I moved to Vellore from Chidambaram, only to find a job. In my first job, I was paid only Rs.30/month, which was too little to run a family.

I shifted to Kumbakonam in 1984 where I worked at a textile shop for an income of around Rs.1k-3k per month. Consequently, I worked part-time on selling the Agarbathis in the evenings.

When the textile owner came to know that I was working in another place as well, they pushed me out and again, I had no work, no income. It was only my wife and me when we shifted to Chennai in 2000!

I only had this desire to always earn and live, so I started selling homemade Sambhar & Rasam powders in the streets of Mambalam. Despite being mocked, giggled and humiliated by many people around, we kept toiling on living our daily lives.

I started delivering the snacks and powders door to door and got used to the residents of the area. One of the residents suggested us to have a permanent shop instead of carrying the products by riding the bicycle.

Though we have worked really hard to develop the business and our passive lives, we never turned our faces to people who had approached us for any kind of help.

We have got two poor couples married. We own a house now and are peacefully settled in a warm, welcoming spot.

If we keep thinking about those negative incidents/problems, the emotions become intense and affect our life’s stability. It’s important to forget, forgive and move on. I learnt to be non-reactive, develop empathy and suspend judgments at all possible moments.

At many points in my life, I was zero, had no family, no friends, no vision, no work, not even a single penny! But I was never inclined to practise begging or seeking extreme bits of help.

I was consistently able to work dignifiedly no matter what!

This simple goal gave me the ability to motivate myself, persist in the face of frustrations, keep distressed from swamping my mind, fight inner battles in my mind so that I could focus on work and have a clear thought.

I live a very simple life yet I discover so much peace and happiness within. I never had any assets or family support but was charged with self-willpower.

I’m 73 & a successful entrepreneur now!”