‘Love Keeps Me Going’: Why This 84-YO Grandma Sells Idlis for Just Rs 2
At Dhanam paati’s idli shop in Tamil Nadu, customers are served idlis for Rs 2 with ladles of love. Here’s how you can help this benevolent octogenarian build a permanent home.
“For me, what matters most is to see my customers leaving with a full stomach and a smile. We are here on this earth for a few years, let’s not run behind money. Love keeps me going,” says Dhanam.
As you enter Dhanam Paati (grandmother)’s house in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, you will find people across different age groups sitting down in anticipation of hot platefuls of idlis, chutney and sambhar. You see, this idli shop may not have chairs or tables, or a fancy entrance, but what it has in abundance are ladlefuls of the octogenarian’s love.
The mud house, held together by tarpaulin sheets and a thatched roof is a place where schoolchildren, daily-wage workers and office goers gather every morning to have a scrumptious breakfast that keeps them full till afternoon or more.
One needs to duck down to enter the house, which also doubles up as the shop. Customers sit down on the mud floor. The highlight, and what keeps the regulars coming back for more is the lady running the business for over four decades.
Starting the business out of a dire financial situation, in a house with two children and a sick husband, what Dhanam Paati has been clear about all through is the fact that the food must be reasonably priced. Starting with selling idlis for 3 paisa, she slowly increased it to meet the needs of her growing children. But even till four years back, one idli cost just Re 1.
It was after her husband’s death three years back that she doubled the price of her idlis. Ask her why not increase it further and pat comes the reply, “People should be able to have a full meal within Rs 10.”
Yet, in an endeavour to serve others, the 84-year-old ignores her needs. She survives on multiple cups of tea and benevolent strangers, who help her with some rice and pulses and sometimes cash.
All she wants is a pucca or a permanent house as the one she currently inhabits is in a dilapidated state; in danger of falling down anytime. Here’s her story.
‘All I need is love’
Paati’s day begins at 5 am with preparing the accompaniments for the idlis. The one-woman army does everything; from grinding the batter to fetching the sticks for her traditional clay stove and buying the vegetables for the sambhar.
By 7 am, the idlis are being steamed and she sits with a cup of tea and a huge smile, awaiting customers.
Hailing from Aranthangi, she moved to Pudukottai in 1960 after her marriage. Her husband used to run a tea shop but his frail health meant that Dhanam became the breadwinner of the family.
Starting with the tea shop, she ran many businesses to support her family.
“We had two children, and that was a time before the mid-day meal scheme. To provide for their clothes, food and toys, I worked day and night to ensure that their needs are met,” Dhanam shares with The Better India.
As the tea shop wasn’t profitable, she made snacks too. When that too didn’t suffice the family’s needs, she started selling idlis in the 1980s. Located in a busy street in Gandhinagar, Pudukkottai, she built a loyal customer base of everyone from school children to homemakers.
She uses ration rice and pulses for the idli batter and sambhar. While the ration items she gets aren’t sufficient for the quantity she makes, regular customers and well-wishers help her with their ration rice. This goodwill and her benevolent heart are the major reasons for her pricing.
“When I started, 3 paise for one idli was less than other hotels, but it helped everyone afford it,” she adds.
This principle is the reason that has prevented her from increasing the price even today, even as nearby hotels charge at least Rs 10 per idli.
“I am not doing this for profit, all I want is the love of my customers. That keeps me going. Will school children be able to afford more? Everyone is struggling for money, and this is my way of helping out,” adds the 84-year-old.
Another source of inspiration for her service are the people who do annadanam (food donation). When they can provide food and clothes to so many, why couldn’t she do something in her capacity, she thought to herself.
But why not increase it to enable a better life for herself? “Let it be. Why should an old lady be greedy?” she says firmly.
This love keeps her customers coming back. Saravanan, a regular customer, shares that he has been eating at Dhanam Paati’s shop since he was a child.
“The taste of her idlis, coconut chutney and kurma (mixed vegetable gravy) is unparalleled. If we ask for three idlis, she will always give two extra without charging for it. If one is short of money, she waives it off. All she wants is that we leave feeling full,” he shares.
‘Help me build a permanent house’
One might also wonder why she continues to work well into her 80s. Her son and daughter are struggling too, she shares, which is why she doesn’t want to burden them.
Her son works as a lorry loadman and hardly makes enough to provide for his two children, while her daughter is married to a tailor.
“They asked me to move in with them but I refused. Why burden them with an additional mouth to feed? I have no expectations and no complaints. I am happy with the way my life is today and I intend to work hard till my last breath,” she shares.
She makes about Rs 50 per day, which is hardly enough to buy the required vegetables or buy the masalas required for the sambhar. She manages her meals with a handful of rice and the remaining sambhar.
Another major worry she has is about what would happen to her regular customers were she to relocate.
“Business is not that great but people buy me a cup of tea and give me a handful of rice,” she adds.
Yet, this doesn’t bother her. What she really wants is for someone to help her build a permanent house she can spend her sunset years in.
“Many people tried to encroach our house. As my husband couldn’t do much, I visited the collector’s office several times to prevent that. I visited the tehsildar and ran from pillar to post to save my house,” adds Dhanam.
Today, the mud house with a thatched roof is in dire straits. The walls are leaking and the house is filled with cobwebs. Rainy season is especially difficult, as even a small shower entails water coming inside the house.
“The house may fall down anytime. I request the government to help me build a new house. A small one is enough,” shares the hardworking lady.
If you wish to help Dhanam Paati build a new house, you can do so by donating to her account –
Account number: 212086182
Bank: The Pudukkottai District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd
IFSC Code: TNSC0010900
Name: Dhanam S
Edited by Padmashree Pande, Feature Image Courtesy M Muthu Kannan.
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