Over the last 2 years, 70 year old Sreeman Narayanan has been on a unique mission. Living in a tiny village called Muppathadam near the infamous Eloor-Edayar industrial belt (often in the news for pollution of the Periyar river) in Ernakulam, the man is a wholesale lottery ticket seller. But he is also so much more.
A Gandhian by nature, he works hard to ensure even the birds around him do not suffer from the scorching summers of Kerala. To do this, he has spent Rs 6 lakh from his own pocket in buying 10,000 earthen pots which he then distributes in localities for free. His only condition is that they be filled with water for birds.
This endeavour, titled 'Jeeva jalathinu oru manu pathram', which translates to ‘an earthen pot for life saving water’ was a huge success in 2018 so he continued it again in 2019. All this is in addition to 50,000 saplings worth Rs 15 lakhs that he distributed free of cost. Astounding as it sounds, prior to that he had planted over 10,000 trees across different houses in Muppathadam, his village. His only request to the families was that the fruits of at least one tree in each compound be left for the birds.
Sreeman's philosophy for spending so much money in this endeavour is unique too.
“I have completed my responsibilities as a father by taking care of my three children (3 girls he raised alone following the death of his wife 30 years ago.) They are living a peaceful life now. And I do not want to keep savings for the future ignoring the present destruction of the earth. So, I make use of the income that I get from my lottery business.”
Sreeman Narayanan received the SK Pottekkatt award in 2019 for his efforts to make the world a better place.
Heroes of Kindness:
Since 2017, every year, I take up the #BlogchatterA2Z & #AtoZChallenge and focus on showcasing lovely real-life heroes from around the world. The aim is to remind you that there is still plenty of good human beings all around you... to inspire you to smile once more.
Want more stories of compassion? I have Hundreds of 'Heroes of Kindness' to brighten your day here:
2017 edition (Articles - 40, Heroes - 67)
Heroes of Kindness - Indian edition
Heroes of Kindness - My Interviews
Heroes of Kindness - Indian edition
Heroes of Kindness - My Interviews
Caring for the ones which have no voice , depicts his pure heart . I was looking for your blog for last many days but somewhere it was lost in the crowd . Thanks for bringing such stories .
ReplyDeleteIndeed a hero!! Commendable !! Why no one knows much about these heroes? I just looked up on Google to fetch more info about him but only got one news coverage about him. The positive vibes these people are emitting should be spread everywhere, so that more people get inspired. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that we being Malayalis, don't know about him? Why aren't stories like this given more importance? I mean I know I'll find it if I go looking for it but I hear hundreds of news that I don't want to even when I'm minding my own business. I know things I've never been interested in. That there are roast shows and Big Boss. I haven't watched AIB, I haven't watched Big Boss but that's shoved onto my face and why not this? It shows that that's the culture around and if we try speaking out more about these aspects, we can have a generation that cares about kindness and compassion. But where do we begin? Us talkin' or sharing isn't really enough!
ReplyDeleteAnd he truly deserves that award. A natural born conservationist. Just goes to show that education isn't everything.
ReplyDeleteSuzy Someday Somewhere Letter S
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