At 85, Ramu S is unstoppable. He wakes up early to ensure that his Valli Tiffin Centre near Anna bus stand opens at 7 am sharp. His customers will be waiting to enjoy piping hot idlis, fluffy uttapams, and ghee-laden pongal with coconut or tomato chutney, and sambar for ₹10 each. After 10 am his focus shifts to preparing the afternoon meal consisting of rice, sambar, rasam, butter milk, a poriyal , and pickle. Not less than 300 people drop in daily between noon and 3.30 pm to either take away or sit in the eight-seater food shack and eat the simple and homely meal.
In a city like Madurai with a vibrant food culture, Ramu Servai stands tall with his hole-in-the-wall eatery located in a commercially prime area dotted with fancy hotels and restaurants. It is so because only in his eatery, you get a wholesome afternoon meal just for ₹10.
And Ramu thatha — as he is fondly called — has a heart of gold. He has no intention of making money by selling food to those who cannot afford a good healthy meal a day. “My wife and I started by selling idlis and vadais for ten Paise each in 1965. Then, she started cooking full meals and we had two regular customers. We sold it for ₹1.25 and offered the same for free to the needy,” he says. Soon, their customers swelled in numbers.
The death of his wife in 2015 has shattered thatha . “I promised Puranathammal that I will continue to run the eatery, come what may,” he says with moist eyes. His friend, trained by his wife, cooks the food now and Ramu thatha continues to sell it at the same nominal price. But the promise he made to his wife is not easy to keep. “I don’t buy the ration rice but purchase it in the open market for ₹43 a kilogram,” he says.
“Nowhere else will you get a full and tasty meal for ₹10,” says S Shakthivel from Karur who regularly visits Madurai for work and rarely misses an opportunity to eat here. People who can’t pay ₹10 for the meal are requested to pay at least ₹2. “This way, they respect the food they eat,” says Ramu. Many eat without paying at all, and he usually refrains from charging senior citizens unless they insist on paying. “I only want to see satisfied faces leave my place.” His story has spread wide, prompting well wishers to donate in kind. “Acts like these strengthen my will to keep going,” he asserts and remembers his landlord, who has kept the shop’s rent at ₹500 per month for more than three decades now, with gratitude. “Other shopkeepers around me pay at least ten times more,” he informs us.
His customers are an interesting mix. Medical college hostellers and other students from the vicinity, patients and their attendants, police personnel, and travellers in transit turn up in equal numbers, as do farmers and hordes of petitioners who come to meet the Collector, migrant labourers, loaders and rickshaw pullers, and the homeless.Staff from the Collectorate nearby and other offices regularly drop in for a take away. Many, he says, also offer to pay ₹50 instead of ₹10 for the meal. Despite his difficulties, Ramu refuses to take extra rupee from anyone.
Every day, he gets 30 kilograms of rice, five litres of sambar, four litres of rasam, 2.5 kilograms of vegetables cooked. Ramu thatha spends from his pocket on days there are no donors and if there is a shortage of items. And he distributes extra food among the disadvantaged who line the temple nearby. There is a silent determination and compassion in what he does.The world has begun to take notice of thatha . Several YouTube videos have been made on him but he remains unaffected by the attention.
What affects him is that he has outlived two of his sons and a grandson. And also for the first time in 54 years, he was forced to close his eatery last week. “I had fever and many customers came enquiring,” he says. June 9 was also his wife’s fifth death anniversary. “I renewed my promise to her: That I will continue to sell the cheapest meals possible and serve all without discrimination.”
