“I was born and brought up in Chennai and I hail from a fisherman family. We were part of a fishing village when my dad transferred to a government job. It was probably this background which laid a strong foundation in me to give back to the society before I eat myself because from a very young age, I had my mind and heart set in helping people.
I started volunteering right from my school days and upon entering college, I became even more serious about doing something for the society. I used to volunteer with a lot of organizations and shortly after graduation, a couple of my friends and I started our own setup to feed the homeless people on the streets.
It started as a simple whatsapp message where we urged restaurants to give us the extra food for distribution. Every day, after my college, we used to assemble the different food items present, segregate it and distribute it to the homeless.
Through word of mouth, we got some event management contacts who would call us to take the remaining food in weddings and other events. This went on for a while where we made sure that at the very least, we could serve these people weekly thrice.
But once I started earning on my own, we set out to do this on our own. We started by pooling in our money and cooking food and distributing to people in several areas. The cause gained good momentum and very soon, we started receiving sponsors from different people.
Upon entering quarantine, our scope of buying food outside stopped completely in place and we knew that the people were hundred percent dependent on us. So, we make sure that we cook our own food and we distribute it in different areas three times a day.
No matter the hardships, when they bless us from the bottom of their hearts, I just know it intuitively that nothing else can give me this kind of happiness. We youth have an abundance of resources and it is upto us to use it for a greater cause and do well to the society. I hope my story stands out and appeal to everyone to do their part for the people who have nothing.”
#Fisherman #CoronaVirusLockdown #COVID19 #Inspire #Happiness #Hardships #Service #SocialWork #Lockdown #PeopleofChennai #Quarantine #Society #Youth #Food #StayHomeStaySafe #Madras #HumansofMadras