SANGAREDDY: At Kedarnath, where breath turns visible and prayers hang frozen, a Telangana trust runs a guerrilla kitchen. Their manifesto? No pilgrim shall summit Shiva’s shrine without breakfast — or with a north Indian one. Since 2019, they’ve smuggled upma and idlis past blizzards and become a lifeline for devotees from the Telugu states. What began as a grumble over ‘tasteless’ aloo sabzi has proved that while other things might come and go, dosa and chutney shall always prevail.
For 45 days, from May to June, the Kedarnath Annadana Seva Samithi, a Siddipet-based trust, provides free breakfast, lunch and dinner to thousands of pilgrims visiting the sacred shrine of Lord Shiva. The initiative, which began in 2019, was inspired by the trust members’ own experience of struggling to find suitable food during their first visit.
“Though food was available locally, it didn’t suit our taste. Many south Indian pilgrims, especially from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, face a similar issue. That’s when we decided to start this programme,” Ita Ratnakar, general secretary of the trust, tells TNIE.
The trust, which began with 30 members, now has 107, including Siddipet MLA and former minister T Harish Rao, Dubbak MLA K Prabhakar Reddy and others. Every year, the team mobilises around `40 lakh through donations to run the programme. The initiative took a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic but resumed uninterrupted thereafter. Volunteers from Siddipet transport groceries, cooking equipment and staff to Kedarnath, where they set up temporary kitchens to serve meals till late every night.
The menu includes tea, coffee, biscuits, and a variety of South Indian dishes such as idli, dosa, upma, vada, poori, pongal, chapati and paratha.
Pilgrims typically travel up to Sonprayag by general transport, and then proceed to Kedarnath on foot, horseback or in dolis — hand-carried palanquins — for the steep climb. The Siddipet team reached Kedarnath on Thursday evening. “Devotees often arrive exhausted after a 20-kilometre uphill trek from Sonprayag. Our aim is to give them the comfort of home-style food,” says Ratnakar.
Local vendors in Kedarnath support the initiative by supplying milk, vegetables and other essentials. “This is not just about feeding the hungry — it’s about offering warmth and familiarity to those who have undertaken a tough journey for spiritual solace,” Ratnakar remarks.
