Rashmi Bansal is also the author of a number of best selling books like "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" and this book "God's Own Kitchen" is simply fantabulous. The book is fast paced and well written while also conveying the message in the best way possible. The subject of the book is the "Akshaya Patra" programme which was launched on the day of the Jagannath Rath Yatra (3/07/2000) by a group of motivated monks and devotees of the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) at Bengaluru. The objective of the programme was to feed as many poor school children as possible all over India.
Ths story begins with Mohandas Pai visiting the Bengaluru Hare Krishna temple while he was at the top of the world by being the CFO of Infosys, the blockbuster among Indian technology ventures. One Ananda Teertha takes him to Madhu Pandit, the President of the temple that very day. It was Madhu Pandit and Chanchalapathi Dasa who had worked tirelessly for 8 years to construct the fabulous temple at Bengaluru and it had taken 600 skilled craftsmen, 10 million man hours, 32,000 cubic metres of stone, 1,31,250 tonnes of cement, 1,900 tonnes of steel blended with Krishna Consciousness of the highest order. Mohandas Pai and his good natured childhood friend Abhay Jain came up with the idea of feeding poor school kids from a central cooking facility and they put it across to Madhu Pandit who had done his B.Tech from the Indian Institute Of Technology, Bombay. They were actually inspired by the noon meal scheme for kids that was brought in by the Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandran in Tamilnadu. Finally thanks to Mohandas Pai, Abhay Jain and their friend P.N.C.Menon of Sobha Developers three vehicles were organised for distribution and the ISKCON temple's festival kitchen was made available for the project which just took of without any angel investors, or founders!
The programme took of in a simple way and extended itself throughout India over the years and began feeding more than 1.6 million school kids in over 11 states with 27 high tech kitchens churning out different recipes based on the climate, culture, geography and food habits of the region. It was the hard work and vision of the numerous monks under Madhu Pandit which made it possible. In fact on a certain occasion they were attacked by a television channel whose management and journalists were later part of a number of sensational financial scandals but they proved that the allegations were unfounded and also motivated. On certain days the life of the monks, volunteers and cooks became really difficult for they had to work under difficult climatic conditions, travel on pot hole ridden roads in order to serve food to the kids on time everyday. The then Union Minister Murali Manohar Joshi had given it the name "Akshaya Patra" after the divine vessel of plenty that was given by Lord Krishna to the Pandavas and Draupadi during their stay in the forest.
A lot of credit has to be given to Madhu Pandit the President of Bengaluru ISKCON for he got the task spun off into a different entity and understanding that it may be attacked because of its religious connections he suggested that students could pray or not pray to any deity or God before they partook the food. The author takes a lot of effort to make us understand that charity in the name of God is not something which has to be rejected . The good work of "Akshaya Patra" is recognised as the largest NGO led mid day meal programme in the world and our Late President Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was one of the donors who contributed a sum after offering his prayers to Lord Krishna. Bill Clinton was another of the numerous international admirers.
Infosys has been at the forefront of this project and Sudha Murthy has been a big donor who has given crores of cash for this project. Again the company pledged Rs.127 crores over five years for this project. The monks visited Veerendra Heggade of Dharmasthala to understand the true nature of mass cooking and hospitality. They use overseas techology from the best companies like Tetra Pak to set up the best of kitchens in this part of the world which helps them to offer good food at an amazing cost. Akshaya Patra has innovated the chappati making facility, visited to Golden Temple in Amritsar to understand the mass food making in the langar of the temple among other things. The team has worked with a number of vendors and manufacturers connected with mass made food.
On one occasion the study by the KPMG team made Akshaya Patra come out with flying colours. It was also endowed with the 100%, 35 AC exemption by the Income Tax department. The Akshaya Patra team has worked with several State Governments and underwent a lot of trouble only at Delhi for the system was ridden with corruption. In spite of all this Akshaya Patra is trying to do its best. The variety of sambars alone include one Kerala sambar, Coimbatore sambar etc., Perhaps a recipe book of Akshaya Patra could be published!
The people at Akshaya Patra have used unique fund raising models to raise money from around the world and used a lot of tools to work or create awareness among donors and the general public. Ajay Kavishwar went through Kevin Wilke's "Blue Pill/Red Pill" emailer which held the record for the emails being opened by 100% of its recipients. They conducted a Search Marketing Conference with Gillian Musig also known as "SEO Mom". The kitchens have a ISO 22,000 certification. The Jamsetji Trust donated Rs.55 crores and over 5,000 Kaizens and 22 Six Sigma projects saved Rs.1.8 crores for Akshaya Patra. Akshaya Patra helped at the time of the Nepali Earthquake by flying in 1,00,000 meals as the first installment. Akshaya Patra slowed down at the start of a new Government which came up post Atal Bihari Vajpayee but managed quite well later on. It has worked with several politicians, bureaucrats and administrators over the years and aims to reach 5 million kids by the year 2020.
Akshaya Patra has a huge team of ISKCON monks and devotess who help the programme. Besides their role a number of good samaritans, volunteers, employees and donors have been doing their best. The President of Bengaluru ISKCON and the motivator behind Akshaya Patra was awarded a Padmashri by the Narendra Modi Government recently. The role of each stellar volunteer should find a place in this passage but it has not been possible due to paucity of space but the role of the invisible will ever be seen by the Antaryami - Lord Krishna.
The author Rashmi Bansal has done a great service by englightening the reader about the wonderful yardsticks that can be implemented by Non Governmental Organisations while acting as facilitators and catalysts who have been funelling public resources for the betterment of the needy.