Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra group who is known for the knack of his entrepreneurship skills is active on the social media platform more often than not. He always chips in with interesting, inspiring and entertaining posts. Time and again, he has won millions of hearts with his gesture.
Anand Mahindra wants to invest in 80-year-old Idly-vendor’s business
Chairman of the Mahindra Group took to his Twitter account to share an interesting story with us. We all must have known about the 1-rupee idly vendor, who sells idlies to the needy daily.
Anand Mahindra tweeted the video of 80-year-old K Kamalathal with the caption, “One of those humbling stories that make you wonder if everything you do is even a fraction as impactful as the work of people like Kamalathal.
I notice she still uses a wood-burning stove. If anyone knows her I’d be happy to ‘invest’ in her business & buy her an LPG fueled stove.”
She sells over 1000 idlis per day and while speaking exclusively to India Today about her food she said, “Profits are not my priority but feeding the people is what drives me to work.”
After Anand Mahindra tweeted about the elderly woman and him wanting to offer timely assistance, Mahindra’s Twitter was flooded with tweets praising him.
At an age where people take bed rest and wake up late in the morning or sometimes in the afternoon, K Kamalathal wakes up even before the sun rises. She takes a bath, performs her daily prayers and then goes to the farm with her son to collect fresh veggies.
She brings out the traditional hand grinder all by herself and puts in fresh coconut, salt and other ingredients to prepare chutney. She cuts the vegetables required to make sambar and then puts them in a pot and then sets it on the firewood stove to cook.
At 6 am each day, this resident of Vadivelampalayam near Perur in Tamil Nadu gives space for customers in her house. Her loyal patrons line up to savour the fluffy and puffy idlis with hot sambar and spicy chutney for just 1 rupee per idli. She runs her shop from her house only.
“I started selling idlis 30 years ago in Vadivelampalayam. I belong to a farming family. Every day, my family members would work in the farm leaving me behind. I was alone, bored and wished to start making idlis for the locals. Now I have loyal patrons in daily wage labourers who stop by to have a healthy breakfast at a nominal price,” says Kamalathal.
Having grown up in a household where they used the conventional stone grinder to make batter and masalas, Kamalathal planned to continue the same when she started the business. She did not find the need to afford a wet grinder.
“As I was raised in a joint family, cooking for a large number of people was not difficult for me. I wash and soak the ingredients the previous day in a vessel and grind them in the evening.
It takes around four hours to grind six kilos of rice and urad dal for the idli batter. I let it ferment overnight and use it the next morning. I prepare fresh batter every day,” she shares.
Even at an elderly age, Kamalathal sells idlis till noon. She possesses a multi-tasking ability where she pours the batter in a three-tier idli maker to prepare a fresh batch of hot and delicious idlis, serves chutney and sambar to those who need. She says: “The vessel can make 37 idlis in one round. I sell around 1,000 idlis every day. Ten years ago, one idli was priced 50 paise and I increased it to 1 rupee a few years back.”
While the chutney changes regularly, Kamalathal makes it a point to only serve mixed vegetable sambar. She serves the food on teak leaves or banyan leaves, which are also taken from their farm.
“Most of the people residing near Vadivelampalayam come from a lower-middle-class background or are economically backward. They are all daily wage workers. In such a case, it is hard for them to pay Rs 15 or Rs 20 for a plate of idli every day for breakfast.
In other hotels, they serve three or four idlis per plate and that’s not enough for their physical labour. So, I focus only on satisfying their hunger. Hence, I priced my idlis at 1 rupee. This will also help them save some money for their family. I get profits, but the margin is less,” she explains.
She is not interested in hiking the price of idlies even after many people’s suggestion because she is doing it for the poor and needy people.
Anand Mahindra to gift a brand new SUV to a man who takes his mother on a pilgrimage
A man identified as Dakshinmurthy Krishna Kumar from Mysore has left his banking job in order to take his mom on a pilgrimage. That news spread like wildfire on the social media platform and it did even reach out to business magnate Anand Mahindra.
When Kumar’s mother in 70s wanted to visit Hampi, he didn’t even hesitate to quit his job to take her on a lengthy yatra of holy places, reports The New Indian Express.
In what appeared straight out of a movie scene, Kumar took off on his 20-year-old scooter with his mother riding pillion. Covering a wide range of distance of almost 25,000 kms, the mother-son eventually travelled through states namely- Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra respectively.
Kumar’s story and a video capturing a part of his wonderful journey went viral on Twitter and it managed to capture the attention of Anand Mahindra who is now keen on finding Krishna Kumar because he wants to gift a car to him.
“I’d like to personally gift him a Mahindra KUV 100 NXT so he can drive his mother in a car on their next journey,” wrote Mahindra.
“This is a Gap Year I wish I had! Dakshinmurthy Krishna Kumar from Mysore left his banking job and travelled with his mom on a scooter. A total of 48100 KMs. The reason? His mother had not stepped out of her town & he wished to show her India! #TuesdayMotivation,” a Twitter user wrote.
Anand Mahindra offers an internship to a Millionaire’s Son who was found washing dishes in Shimla
Anand Mahindra recently took to his Twitter handle to appreciate the efforts of a 19-year-old as he ran away to Shimla to live on his own and become something big in life. The leading industrialist of the country had offered an internship to him.
It should be noted that Dwarkesh Thakkar is the son of a millionaire oil trader Rakesh Thakker. Mahindra’s tweet read, “Doing a Sunday catch-up on my reading. I admire this young man. He wanted to strike out on his own. He may seem just like an eccentric runaway, but he could also be tomorrow’s successful, independent entrepreneur. I’d be happy to offer him an internship at @MahindraRise!”
When enquired about the tweet and the job offer, Dwarkesh in an interview with Times Of India told that it is a great opportunity for him. “It is a great opportunity for me and I will definitely take it up if I can get in touch with anyone from the company.”
Rakesh Thakkar also added in an interview with TOI that Dwarkesh his son has had just one ambition in his career which is to make it big on his own one day.
Dwarkesh, an engineering student was attending college in Padra on October 14 but he did not return home. With just Rs.1,250 in his pocket, he ended up taking a train to the national capital and was later found after a month by 2 Vadodra police officers during the Diwali holidays.
He was washing utensils in a hotel in Shimla and was sleeping on the roads. According to the report, he had been working in this hotel for over a month and Dwarkesh had no interest to continue with his engineering because he wanted to prove himself to his family. This is the main reason why he ran away from his