CHENNAI: As an old ragpicker trudges home, exhausted from clearing a polluted canal, a man on a red Honda Unicorn stops her. “Sappadriya (Would you like to eat)?” The hungry woman’s eyes say it all. A packet of warm food and a bottle of water look like manna from the heaven. “You must be hungry and thirsty after a long day’s work,” he said. With a weary smile and a nod of gratitude, she accepts the gift. The man whizzes past her, looking for other destitute people to deliver hot meals.
Not every day, you come across someone like K Satish. Every day, the 39-year-old mathematics professor dedicates his time, offering food to 60-odd destitute and homeless, beggars and abandoned elderly people in the area. Serving others and contributing to society is his life’s calling, for which he has dedicated significant money and resources every day for four years now.
Satish works from dawn to dusk with his day beginning at 5 am, cooking meals at his home in Andarkuppam near Ponneri which lies 30 kilometres north of Chennai. Around 8 am, he starts off on his motorbike to distribute it over the next two hours. He repeats this exercise in the afternoon after finishing up his work at a college. “I search for people who have not eaten for days. I utilise my days strolling around bus stands, temples, and other areas to make sure I could afford a decent meal to every homeless person.
Different meals are cooked every day; sambar rice, curd rice, tomato rice as well as sweet pongal and kesari on some days,” Sathish rattles off, in a tearing hurry over a call with TNIE. He started this initiative during the COVID-induced lockdown when he realised that the poorest of the poor in his town were finding it difficult to afford one meal a day.
With a meagre monthly income of Rs 15,000, Sathish balances multiple gigs to raise money. He organises weekend cricket matches, operates a sports equipment shop while his wife pitches in by running a tuition centre for the neighbourhood kids. When asked about the expenses he incurs, Satish shrugs off and says, “Rs 50,000 is not a huge sum for me as long as I see the happiness in their face.”
The professor is aware of concepts like global hunger, but his personal experience is what prompted him to start this benevolent act. Satish has seen poverty from up close while growing up in a thatched house. He was on the verge of dropping out as his parents could not afford his government school fee which was Rs 11 at that time. That is when his school teacher Mary Thomas stepped in and lent the money to ensure that he finished his schooling.
Mary had been an angel in disguise for Satish as after finishing post-graduation in Mathematics, he did not have `80,000 for a B Ed course in a private institution. This time, Mary pawned her gold bangles to help raise the money, he recalls.
The samaritan’s acts of kindness are not only restricted to providing food, but also helping out the villagers near Ponneri in case of a sudden death in their families. He sponsors freezer boxes, ceremonial tents and furniture needed for the funerals. His logic is simple. “People spend years planning weddings. But death is always uncertain and neither someone plans for it. Families might not have the money required to conduct the last rites and other ceremonies,” he affirms.
Spending a few hours with him, TNIE witnessed how much popular Satish is among the locals. This was apparent when the owner of an eatery refused to take money from him after serving him lunch.
J Slizzy Stott’s (Satish’s friend) describes the professor’s selfless acts as truly inspiring. What stands out to Slizzy is that Sathish does not just focus on areas covered by NGOs or other groups, but takes the initiative to reach those who are often overlooked. Despite all this, Sathish continues to say that he has just started his journey and that he aims to reach out to as many people as possible.
Satish’s ultimate dream? He wants to build an old age home for senior citizens who can call it their home.
(Edited by Srestha Choudhury)