Man with a ladleful of love

KALABURAGI:  Every morning at around 8 near the Hanuman temple in Kalaburagi’s Vitthal Nagar, a frail old man can be seen seated in his house verandah, with a huge vessel and ladle in front of him. Soon, people begin to line up. And 75-year-old Veerupakshappa Jambanna Nagalikar begins serving them ‘uppittu’ or khara bath from the vessel.

The crowd begins to increase progressively. There are beggars, labourers, even middle class folks who queue up for a serving of Nagalikar’s uppittu. By around 10.30 am, Nagalikar wraps up the service, until the next day when he wakes up at 5am to get the food ready. It’s an offering, or dasoha as he calls it, and Nagalikar has been doing this for the past 10 years. Barring Sundays, uppittu is served every morning without fail. Nagalikar owned a cloth shop near Reheman market in Kalaburagi. He carried out his business for 30 years before calling it a day.

While running the shop, he would always give alms to beggars. That’s when a friend suggested that it was better to offer them food rather than money. This set him thinking and he decided to do the same. Initially he would distribute one spoon each of seeri (a sweet dish) and uppittu outside his rented shop. After he gave up the business at the request of his children who advised him to take rest, Nagalikar began the service at his home.

He himself would make the uppittu in the morning but in later years took the help of a maid Nagalikar stands near the gate of his house in the morning, greets those who come with a ‘namaskara’ and entreats them to have the ‘prasada’. Nagalikar recalls, “A decade ago, after my children advised me to give up the business and take rest, I decided to do this service from my home.” On an average he spend Rs 500 daily to make the food and reserves Rs 13,000 every month for this work.

A staunch believer in the principles of 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara and also 19th century saint Sharanabasaveshwara who introduced dasoha culture (mass feeding) in Kalaburagi 195 years ago to help people tide over famine, Nagalikar says his sons, who are practising doctors, and their families have never objected to his philanthropic ways. Regulars from all communities say they love to come every day and partake the uppittu served by Nagalikar ‘Ajja’.

Tajoddin, carpenter, says he has been coming to the Nagalikar household for the past five years. “In our house, the women wake up at 8.30 am but I have to go to work at 9. So I come here to take the food,” he says. Revanappa, a labourer working for the Kalaburagi Mahanagara Palike, says the uppittu is served with devotion and love. Shivabai, a vegetable vendor, says she treats the uppittu as offering before starting her work daily.