HYDERABAD: One fine morning as Mahadev Krishna was enjoying his coffee as he does everyday, and came upon a thought. “How much do I actually spend on coffee?” And thus he sat down to calculate how much he spends in a month just for coffee. “Don’t ask me why or how that question popped in my head! It just did and I went with it,” chuckles Mahadev. “So I figured that I spend something shy of 30 grand every month on coffee. All of September I saved the money that I would spend on coffee. Even if I had coffee it would be free, like from the coffee I had already bought the previous month or so. Now I figured that all the money I was spending on coffee I could spend on charity. And thus started Coffee and Humanity,” he explains.
This is how Coffee and Humanity works: He invites his friends and their friends for coffee sessions in places he is sure the coffee is great and treats them to it. And whatever the bill is, after paying it himself, he donates the same amount to charity.
“I usually don’t have a specific charity in mind. Depending on what cause or person I feel is in need, I donate the money to that entity. However, one charity I did connect with was an NGO to provide benches to a school in a rural area. It was just a little part of the amount needed but I felt i should pitch in.”
A food lover himself - he calls himself “Bhojana Priyudu” - Mahadev makes sure that his guests enjoy the best coffee in the Coffee and Humanity sessions. “I make sure that the place I set up a session is tried and tested; that it serves really good coffee,” says Mahadev adding, “I also make sure that every place we go to serves coffee that is manufactured in India.”
He has hosted sessions in places like Roastery, Falaknuma and Autumn Leaf to name a few. His friends who join him often insist on paying the bill he says. “They want to pay because they want to be a part of the charity. But I refuse outright because I don’t want them to be pulling money out of their wallets for something I want to do. That would defeat the purpose for both of us,” says Mahadev.
While right now Mahadev only has mostly his friends and the friends that they invite joining him, he still managed to put together over 25 sessions. “Sometimes there is just one other person joining me and sometimes more. I am planning a final and biggest session yet next week on October 16. It will be a hi-tea at Kaficko. We have designed a coffee based menu also for the snacks,” says Mahadev excitedly.