BELAGAVI: Carrying on his father’s tradition of feeding the poor, Kunal Rao Kamle, a caterer, distributes free meals to more than 30 beggars a day, across various locations in Belagavi.Kunal can be seen distributing food packets to the poor taking shelter at the railway station at 8.30 pm each day. If you ask officials from the railway depatment, they’ll all narrate how Kunal has been feeding the poor and hungry every day for years. Some beggars, whom TNSE spoke to, say they consider Kunal family.
Kunal recalls how his father Suresh Kamle, who was a butcher, saw a group of his friends from the Muslim community shelling out some of their earnings for welfare activities for the poor. This helped him decide to do the same. Suresh then started offering food to the poor at the vegetable market in Camp Area of Belagavi. Soon, it became a regular activity for him, which sparked a tradition that has been in the Kamle family for years.
Kunal dropped out of school when he was in Class 9, and started working in a bakery. His older brother Pavan, who works in a garments shop, helps Kunal out too. Suresh passed away about 10 years ago, when Kunal was 16 years old. And now Kunal carries on his legacy. He lives in a small rented house, from where he takes catering orders from a few regulars customers, which helps him earn his living and also afford to feed as many as he can.
The menu changes on a daily basis, says Kunal. It’s usually two chapatis, one vegetable, tomato rice/pohe/uppitu that is distributed to the poor. Kunal cooks the food himself, with his mother Jayashri’s help, before packing the meals well. Then, he heads out to the railway station and bus stand and hands the food packets out to the poor.
Recently, Kunal has started ensuring that the poor are also kept warm. On one of his regular rounds, one beggar asked Kunal if he could get him a bedsheet to sleep on, which Kunal shared with a social worker D R Santosh. Santosh then shared this on social media and donations started to pour in. Dozens of bedsheets and blankets were then distributed among the poor.
Kunal told TNSE that just like his dad, he feels an immense sense of satisfaction by helping those in need. “I will continue the practice till the next generation takes over,” he says.Rehan Phirjade, an executive at the railway ticket counter, says that he has been watching Kunal distributing meals for the last several years. For some of the poor people at the station, Kunal is a permanent source of dinner. Arif Jatti, a rickshaw driver who was spotted at the station rickshaw stand, said he has seen Kunal distribute meals at the bus stand and railway station. “We autowallahs have been watching Kunal for years, but can’t understand how he affords to feed so many people, every day,” he says.
30 meals a day
Kunal says that he prepares a total of 30 meals per day for the beggars, for which he spends about Rs 300. Sometimes, he makes more food than needed, and has to return home with the packets. “Sometimes there will be more mouths to feed than meals prepared. But there’s not much I can do as going back home and cooking more meals is not an option,” he says.