Three pals operating canteen in Kasaragod present free meals to homeless, migrant employees

Express News Service
KASARAGOD: Three weathered males had been squatting on the platform contained in the abandoned Bus Stand Complex in Kasaragod. It was 1 pm, and the solar was beating down. In a couple of minutes, extra males — younger and previous, wholesome and with disabilities, Malayalees, and Kannadigas, and Tamil and Telugu — began trickling in to type a crowd. By 1.10 pm, an autorickshaw with mid-day meals pulled up in entrance of the closed Hotel Swamy Koragajja contained in the bus stand. After a few minutes, the lads lined up in entrance of the eatery.

One of the primary males within the queue was Vishwanath Shetty, round 80 years previous with a extreme hunchback. Shetty — a local of Uppala, 30 km away — used to work for a restaurant in Kasaragod city until 5 years in the past. Now, the veranda of Badriya Hotel, one other restaurant within the city, is his dwelling.

Around 70 individuals in Kasaragod city are surviving on the meals served freed from price by the restaurant throughout the lockdown imposed to curb the unfold of coronavirus.

The restaurant — named after a god worshipped throughout Tulunad — is run by three pals Vinod Kumar of Mattanoor in Kannur district, Charan Raj of Adukkathabayal in Kasaragod city, and Shijoy Okay Chelery of Kannur.

Vinod Kumar, Charan Raj, and Shijoy Okay Chelery in entrance of their closed restaurant within the New Bus Stand Complex in Kasaragod. (Photo | EPS)

They additionally run canteens within the Collectorate and the Office of the District Police Chief.

In the afternoon of May 11, three days after the Kerala authorities imposed the lockdown, Charan Raj noticed Ramanna, a 65-year-old ragpicker within the bus stand. “Since I often see him near the bus stand, I casually asked him if he had lunch,” he mentioned.

With tears in his eyes, Ramanna mentioned he had not eaten for the previous three days. “I saw a handful of flattened rice spilled from his waist pouch,” Charan Raj mentioned.

Charan Raj requested Ramanna to attend and he would get him meals. “But he told that there were 10 more persons like him who had not eaten for days,” he mentioned.

So Charan Raj mentioned he would get them meals for all. “The 10 persons became 30, and 30 became 40 persons. Now around 40 persons wait for our meals in the afternoon and around 60 persons come for dinner,” mentioned Vinod Kumar.

Kolande Yesu M (43), a mason from Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, who was having lunch from Koragajja restaurant, mentioned he received simply two or three days or jobs in per week. “I will go home as soon as the lockdown is lifted,” he mentioned. He has two teenage daughters and a 12-year-old son again dwelling.

Mahantesh (19) from Gadag district in Karnataka mentioned he got here to Kasaragod 4 months in the past in search of a job. Basappa H (60) from Hubli in Karnataka, mentioned he got here to Kasaragod one yr in the past. “I thought I would make some money and return home. But I hardly get any job now,” he mentioned.

Moideen Kunhi Poliyil, a local of Malappuram, used to function a rock-breaking air compressor. He stopped working one yr in the past when a bus ran over his leg in Mangaluru. He made Kasaragod his dwelling. “The food they serve is like what I had eaten at home long years ago. Today, they served chicken, too. God will bless them,” he mentioned.

Vinod Kumar, Charan Raj, and Shijoy mentioned they had been hardly making any cash from the canteen enterprise. In March 2020, they received the bid for the canteen on the Collectorate. “But one week after we set up the canteen, the lockdown was imposed,” mentioned Shijoy, a BCom graduate. Charan Raj and Vinod Kumar had studied solely as much as class 10.

This March, the trio received the bid for the canteen within the workplace of the district police chief. “Now we are in debt of Rs 60,000,” mentioned Shijoy. “But we are also growing.”

They mentioned they might proceed to offer meals freed from price to all those that come to the restaurant until the lockdown was lifted.

“We are serving them the same food we are making for the officials,” mentioned Vinod Kumar, the principle prepare dinner of the canteen.