A family of good Samaritans prepares and sells variety rice for ₹5 a serving in the city, to help labourers and students.
C. Pushparani can be seen serving variety rice to her customers in Khajamalai Colony, near the Government Law College campus. A signboard says the plate of rice costs just ₹5. While serving, Ms Pushparani likes to ask her customers about their day, whether they work or if they are studying and if they are taking care of their health. “Many of them are so busy with their work that they forget to eat, forget to take care of themselves,” she says. The initiative to serve food was her husband R Chandrashekhar’s, she notes.
Mr. Chandrashekhar works as a welder, and says he understood the struggle for food during the COVID-19 lockdown period. He was on-duty welding at a site when the lockdown was announced, and was unable to get a bus home, or buy a meal. “I walked for an entire day to reach home and there was no food available anywhere. I decided on that day that I would serve food for anyone and everyone,” he says.
With the support of his wife and his eldest son, he set up the affordable food stall in Khajamalai near the Anna Stadium in September. “We did not want to distribute for free but also did not want to price the food too high,” Ms. Pushparani, who handles the stall says.
The menu includes sambar rice, lemon rice, pudina rice, tamarind rice, tomato rice, brinjal rice and curd rice. “We serve five varieties of rice a day. While the curd rice and sambar rice are available daily, the other varieties are made on a rotational basis,” Ms. Pushparani said. Food is served at lunch time from Monday to Saturday.
Ms. Pushparani begins cooking at 6 a.m., before which the vegetables are chopped and the masalas are ground to a paste. By 10 a.m., the food is prepared and ready to serve. “We set up our stall by 11.30 a.m. and by 2 p.m., we run out of all varieties,” she says.
The food is not served to earn a profit but as a service to society, says Mr. Chandrashekhar. “We are also struggling to earn money but when one’s stomach is filled, one can take on the world,” says Ms Pushparani.
Groceries used to prepare the food are purchased in bulk using the daily earnings. Shop-owners, wholesale vegetable vendors and grocery stores reduce the price when Ms. Pushparani goes to purchase. This is their way of contributing to our cause, she said.
On Friday, two more stalls, one outside the Tiruchi Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital and another at the Palpannai junction were set up. “We want to reach as many people as possible. Nobody should go to work or to sleep on an empty stomach,” Ms Pushparani says.