This telephone mechanic with a family of five reveals his monthly income as Rs.15,000. And yet, he claims, he spends almost a third of his salary on absolute strangers on the roads.
You may think he is crazy, and “so does his father-in-law” apparently, who has been asking him to quit the work -- he shares with a smile. But then, the 50-year-old man finds tremendous joy in “helping others.” He has been doing so for the past five years.
“I am only doing social service,” he tells me in broken English. Sitting with a translator-cum-friend to tell his story, he affirms he does not want publicity but wants all ordinary people like him to realise that “it is not at all difficult to help others if one is driven by sincerity and willingness.”
I can’t disagree with R.Ramaiah, a BSNL mechanic at the Ponmeni Exchange. Yet, his sheer passion to bring a smile on others’ faces is simply amazing. His simplicity and simplistic way of doing things are striking. It was so even when he was in school. He would go out of the way to help others, whether it meant helping a visually challenged person cross the road, or giving a push to a breakdown vehicle or guiding his juniors to better education opportunities.
“Money was never enough in my family consisting of ten brothers and sisters. My father was a daily labourer at Madura Coats. But you don’t need money as much as you need the feeling to help others,” is his simple and straight logic.
Today, Ramaiah pedals on a bicycle gifted by a well wisher daily from 6 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. distributing tea, biscuits and bread to abandoned old people, street urchins, destitute women and mentally retarded individuals whose niche is the city’s pavements.
Come what may, rain or storm, drought or heat, his or anybody else’s illness in the family, Ramaiah has not broken the record of interrupting his daily service even for a day since 2005. On the three km stretch that he covers on the Bypass road daily morning and around the Periyar bus stand every Sunday evening, he extinguishes – even though for a few moments – the anguish of at least a 100 people on each visit.
How and why are my next unstoppable questions to him. And he narrates that during one of his morning walks in 2005, he came across an old man, unkempt and in tatters, in front of a Hotel on the Bypass Road. Initially, curiosity took him closer and later pity overtook when the old man gestured for food.
“He was probably starving and looked very weak. I bought him tea and biscuits from a nearby kiosk. He feebly blessed me and went off to sleep but I lost mine that night thinking of him. Next morning I was back, with more tea and eatables which he willingly consumed.”
This continued for a month during which Ramaiah shared a strange bond with the old man. “He never spoke but I could tell he waited for me there every morning.” And then one day, Ramaiah found him lying totally still.
That day Ramaiah was restless on his 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift, till he executed a thought that dawned on him next morning. This time he carried two big flasks of tea, along with paper cups and biscuit packets on a bicycle and pedalled along the same route of his morning walk. Much to his surprise he came across more abandoned people on the road than he had expected.
“Mentally challenged people are unable to ask for anything. I feel a strange satisfaction is doing, howsoever small or inadequate it may be, something for the unloved and uncared for,” he says earnestly.
And that marked the beginning of Ramaiah’s “social work” which he continues till date without fail. He perhaps does it so discreetly that even other morning walkers or passers-by don’t notice him. But those who await him are the abandoned in growing numbers. On day One, he fed 30 people, today there are minimum 100 mouths.
For the past six months, a tea shop owner has joined him in donating tea. Ramaiah has added more snacks to his basket and now even goes around distributing special sweets on festive occasions and during holidays.
He also networks with a dozen orphanages and old age homes guiding them for further help. He is also working on his retirement plans. With his Provident Fund money, he dreams of building a home for the orphans and the needy. With “unstinted support from his wife, two sons and a daughter, a close circle of friends and friendly neigbours”, Ramaiah says he dares to dream big and believes in positive living.
Unrelenting Ramaiah, an SSLC pass from the city Corporation School, was presented the “Achiever’s Award” by the Public Welfare Guards in 2008. Touchingly, he quotes from Mother Teresa, “I am too small a man to do anything big. But I can do small things with great love.”
(Making a difference is a fortnightly column about ordinary people and events that leave an extraordinary impact on us. Email to somabasu@thehindu.co.in to tell about someone you know who is making a difference )
