He brings hot meals to India's homeless

Narayanan Krishnan

If you had not heard of Narayanan Krishnan, as I had not, it is a collective failure. This is one of the most incredible stories of personal commitment.

Narayanan Krishnan, all of 29 years old now, does what he was professionally trained to do as a chef. Feed people. Only Krishnan does not do this in the swanky confines of a 5-star hotel. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a simple hot meal and then, along with his team, loads it in a van and travels about 200 km feeding the homeless in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Krishnan feeds, often with his hands, almost 400 destitute people every day. And for those who need it, he provides a free haircut too.


Eight years ago, this award-winning chef with a five-star hotel chain was all set to go to Switzerland for a high-profile posting. On a visit to a Madurai temple, he came across a homeless, old man eating his own human waste. That stark sight changed Krishnan's life.

Much to the dismay of his parents, Krishnan abandoned his career plans and decided to spend his life and his professional training in looking after those who could not care for themselves. He has provided more than 1.2 million hot meals through his nonprofit organisation Akshaya Trust, and now hopes to extend this to shelter for the homeless too.

Krishnan is the only Indian in a list of 10 heroes that CNN has picked worldwide to honour. One of them will be chosen CNN Hero of the Year, selected by the public through an online poll. If many Indians get together to vote for this inspiring man, he can win by a long mile.

If Krishnan wins he will get $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that he gets for being shortlisted for the Top 10. Akshaya Trust needs all the monetary support it can get to build on Krishnan's dream. Let's help him get there.

Vote for Krishnan here.

We are crawling the Web for more great videos, tweets pictures, blogs and people that just must be showcased. If you spot some that make you stop and stare,send them in here. We'll be happy to credit it to your spidery efforts on the WWW.

Viewers can go to CNNHeroes.com to participate in the poll, which continues through November 18 at 6 a.m. ET.

Classical Tamil Language History

Tamil language has the special claim of being at once classical like Sanskrit, Greek or Latin, and vigorous and modern like the modern Indian languages. Its history can be traced back to the age of Tolkappiyam the earliest extant Tamil grammar generally to 500 B.C. Among the Dravidian language it is least influenced be 'sanskrit' though there is a certain degree of influence.

The earliest extant literature of the Tamils is called Sangam literature and it is dated between 500 BC. and 200 A.D. Though a considerable part of the early poetry has been lost, some of the bards and patrons decided to preserve apart of it in certain anthologies (about 4th century A.D.). These are the Ten Idylls (Pattuppattu) and the Eight Anthologies (Ettuttohai). Four hundred and seventy three poets, of whom thirty are women, have been identified. These are mainly classified into two. Akam or esoteric dealing with love and Puram or exoteric dealing with war.

In this period, Tamil literature was considerably bound by literary conventions. The poets were keen on keeping up the tradition. The land was treated as five regions viz. mountains, forests, fields, coasts and deserts and the theme of love in five aspects viz. union, patience, sulking, wailing and separation. The poet dealing with a certain aspect of love restricted himself to a particular region, season, hour, flora and fauna. These literary conventions are explained in Tolkappiyam.

Purananuru is 400 verses on Puram themes. It serves as a window on the Tamil people 2000 years ago. Agananuru is 400 poems on love themes. The length of these poems varies from 13 to 37 lines. There are other collections like Natrinai, Kuruntogai, Ain-kurunuru, Paripadal, etc., which are quite well known.

Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural is acclaimed to be the greatest Tamil classic. It expresses the most profound thoughts on the many problems of life. Each verse is a couplet composed with great economy of words. The book is divided into 133 chapters each containing 10 verses. The chapters are arranged in three books dealing with virtue, wealth and pleasure.

Round about the 3rd century A.D., Tamil produced two epics Silappadhikaram and Manimekhalai which are considered twin epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The author of Silappadhikaram was the son of a Chera King liango Adikal. The title means the "Story of the Anklet" and the epic describes the moving story of Kannagi.

Manimekhalai is the daughter of Madhavi and Kovalan, the hero of Silappadhikaram. Kamba Ramayanam is an immortal classic in Tamil. Though Kambar based his work on the Sanskrit Ramayana of Valmiki, his rendering shows that he was a supreme artist. It is different in plot, in construction and in the delineation of character. Kambaramayanam runs to 10,368 verses.

Tamil is rich in devotional literature Nayanmars are the exponents of Saivism and Alwars that of Vaishnavism. Thiru jnanasambandar, Thirunanukkarasar, Sundarar and Manikkavacakar are the four great Nayanmars. The great Alwars are 12 in number. Kulasekhara Alwar and Andal are specially remembered. There are 5 major kavyams and 5 minor kavyams in Tamil. Jain and Buddhist works are in abundance in the language.

Coming to the period between 13th & 18th centuries, we notice Muslim and Christian impact on Tamil literature. Umaruppulavar has composed a long poem of 5000 verses on the life of prophet Muhammed. The Christian influence began with the Portuguese and continued with the Danes, the Dutch, the French and the British. Beschi, Caldwell, Winslow and Pope have made significant contributions to Tamil. The Italian priest Beschi (1680-1747) composed the magnificent poetical work Tembavani (The Insatiable Beauty) on the life of St. Joseph. Vedanayagam Pillai and Krishna Pillai are two other Christian poets.

Twentieth century has produced many talented men of letters in various fields, Poetry, Prose, Drama, Novel, Biography, Short Story etc. Dr. Swaminatha Iyer unearthed many literary works and edited them. Swami Vadachalam, Thiru V. Kalyanasundera Mudaliar and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai are great writers of the modern period. However, the greatest poet of modern Tamil is Subramania Bharati whose patriotic poems have inspired thousands of readers in his time. Personal freedom, national liberty and the fundamental equality of all men find eloquent expression in his verses. In some of his poems like Kuyilpattu (Song of the Cuckoo) Kannanpattu (Poems on Lord Krishna) or Panchali Sapatham (The Vow of Panchali) we notice a religious perception at work.

Rajam Ayyar, Madhavayya, Pudumaipithan, Kupa, Rajagopalan and Kalki Krishnamoor have contributed much to the field of Tamil fiction. These writers along with Bharati ushered in the new epoch of renaissance in Tamil literature.
The following is the basic Tamil script:














In the post-Independence period several writers have come to the fore. Among poets, the names of Kulothungan, Ka-Na Subramanyam and C. S. Chellappa may be mentioned. And in fiction the outstanding names are Akilan, jayakanthan, Neela Padmanabhan, Sundararamaswamy, Ashokamitran and Indira Parthasarathy.

Address proof along with your photo from India post

Now you can get an Address proof along with your photo from India post. Since the ID proof is issued by India post which is a central government organization, it is similar to Govt ID cards like Driving license, Voters ID etc. It can be used for opening bank accounts, for getting telephone/internet connections etc.
The scheme is already in use. In Tamil Nadu, this service is currently provided in Chennai and Coimbatore where number of industries are high. For other districts, you need to enquire in the head post office of corresponding district.

The total cost for getting this ID card is Rs.250/ (Rs.10 for application and Rs.240/- processing fee).
Inform everybody. This is very useful

For more details enquire in the nearest post office and the application can be downloaded for TamilNadu region from the following site .

http://www.tamilnadupost.nic.in/psvc/adproof.htm

Just Read it for Fun- Boss and employee

“Hello,
plss.. talk to me… y u r not picking the call?????”

“everything is alright?”

“wat alright.. noting is alright.. see the time.. its 11PM..n m cmng now frm office..no food for me.. now i will cook… frm past 3 days..m eating only maggie… n my pm eating only me..see the price hikes, everything is 2/- more frm yesterday.. except my salary…i think the begger in frnt of my office... earns more thn me.. wat i shud do…”

“wat happen.. wat r u talking”

“wat i m talking???? no, i m not talking.. manager dont allow anyone to talk except the client.. who always talk something.. from past 3 months i didnt take any leave..now from 3 weeks.. i m just begging for one damn leave.. n wat response i got….’why u want to waste an important day of ur life??’

i now finalize one more time… yes..i m gonna quit.. this project… but, i cant. no, i can.. but i wont..uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”

“ok.. now Relax…”

“How can i relax… for relaxation ppl do yoga, but its night so i cant, then else they watch movies… but see, in every channel all bogus movies r repeating, same.. ‘Welcome’, ‘Suryavansham’,Govinda’s movies… its really irritates… everyone is faking in TV, fake news, fake stories, fake swaynwars, fake reality…ahhhhh see the movies u will get to know…
in “Rock-on” last scene… Arjun Rampal’s wife says to taxi driver, that
“hurry up, we r going late for Airport…” Airport…??? i thought he find a job in Cruze.. not Airlines..

In 3 Idiots… starting scene… Madhvan does the drama to leave his flight, then what happened to his luggage??
same movie… Kareena is a doctor.. tht too a surgeon.. to bcame a surgon.. it requires atlest 5[MBBS]+3[MS] years..
so she shud be 28… n Aamir as a student.. only 18 or 20 ?? then after 10 years they decide to marry.. means she is 38??
i dont understand, how can spiderman reach to the church-bell in part-3, when he lost his power??
I still dont understand how could Rajnikanth fly without wings? i just…..”

“hey stop it now..”

“m i a train who will stop it, by pulling chain… ohh train.. i didnt saw last 3 months… how will i see,all the time monitor is in frnt of me.. in night also wen i open my eyes, i found username and password window..
i need to cool down..

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

but someone tell me howwwwwwwww.. everytime powercut is here..
except wen i m not in home.. home wat rubbish,its a damn single room.. where i m leaving alone with my pillow..

i also want girlfriend yaar, like my rivals have..
smita, rashmi, sujata, priti, komal.. anyone frm my odc is ok, but they all r engaged, u know y?? bcoz their boyfriends did not work in IT, outside girls do have chat wid me only on my salary day.. i got rejected 31 times.. u know y, each time i propose them, they ask where do u live.. i say in my Cubicle.. bcoz thats the only place u can find my soul all the time..”

“hey man, u better take rest, we will talk in Morning”

“Morning.. are u talking the same morning.. sun rises, bird flies, omlette fries, employee cries… damn, i didnt saw the Sun,from 3 years.. how it looks like… morning i catcing shuttle, reaching my birthplace ‘cubicle’ working n leaving when
Sun uncle is not there… i will hit my room-owner some days, every morning he used to cry for increasing room rent,i always tell him to go n meet my manager… i dont understnd how can i be so nice to my colleagues..
each time they want leave, they repeat the same dialog… “my sister’s marriage”.. my colleagues 9 sisters got married,
3 time grandpa expired,
5 times frnd’s went in ICU.. but my colleague is fine..
and favorite dialog “i need to drop a frnd to hospital, as he is not
feeling wel” later i find movie tickets in his purse…
then my pm’s motivational speech.. ‘u will work.. u will grow’.. means if i wont work.. i will shrink or what…

when i need hike, i m junior.. still need to grow.. when i do mistakes.. cmon man u r senior, u cant do mistakes.. ahhh
God gimme some power to understand the greatness of a super natural person known as PM in this world..”

“ok enough now, i m disconnecting”

“wait.. i called you.. n u r disconnecting.. u know previously i was normal, when i was in college, i used to talk continuosly watever i want, now i m talking only this much… ‘yaa its done’, ‘e-cube is filled’, ”Please..’, ‘good morning’,‘lunch’,'tea’,’snaks’..

i dont know wat i m talking abt, i shud b happy.. i have sunday saturday.. saturday to recover from the disaster been made
from monday to friday.. sunday to think about upcoming disaster from monday to friday.. cool naa..

u heard that 2012 earth will end.. then also my ODC and my cubicle will remain as it is.. u know why??
because thats not part of earth.. n we are employees not human beings… we are aliens, so better before u start getting headache… go have a nice dream.. me will again start my day tomorrow like i m starting everyday..
good night…”
beeeeeeeeep…beeeeeeeeeep…beeeeeeeeeep
****************************************************************

Next Day, in office:-

“Saurabh, Please come here”

“Yes Surya!!”

“I approved your leaves.. i think you should go and have some fun”

I happily came out, and checked my phone Dialled call..

“Ohhh my God, yesterday I called my PM only… s**t”