feels great! Congrats Vithur and team. On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 3:28 AM, Gopal Srinivasan <catchg...@yahoo.com>wrote:
> > In their maestro’s FOOTSTEPS > > This group of AR Rahman fans feeds the poor every Sunday > > Lakshmi Kumaraswami | TNN > > For the past one year, a group of people on motorbikes have been > congregating at Kodambakkam > every Sunday. Laden with food packets, they hop off their bikes and > distribute it to anyone who > looks like they need a meal — rag pickers, sewage workers and beggars. > These good Samaritans > have one thing in common: they are all diehard fans of music maestro AR > Rahman. > > Last March, after meeting on an online group, some of the members — Vithur, > Uma Shankar, > Rakesh, Rasol Hanifaa and Somu — decided to do their bit for society. > “Usually, we post a > message on the site saying we’re going to meet and distribute food to the > poor. Subsequently, > many people turn up,” says Vithur. The group assembles at Shri > Mahaganapathy fast foods in > Kodambakkam and buys packed food — usually tomato or brinjal rice along > with an appalam — for > Rs 300 to Rs 500. Then they drive around the area, handing out food to the > underprivileged. “We > initially started out in Annanagar, but then decided to focus on > Kodambakkam. As Rahman lives > in the area, we feel like we’re doing a service and staying close to our > mentor,” says Uma > Shankar. Vithur adds that the students of KM Conservatory also often help > out and they end up > feeding at least 40 people. > The group is united by their love for Rahman and inspired by the AR Rahman > Fo u n d at i o n > , which works towards eradicating poverty and hunger. “His humility pushes > us to do something > good for society. This is our small contribution to a cause he supports,” > says Rakesh. On > special days like Independence Day or Rahman’s birthday, the group visits > orphanages and > distributes a special meal. They organised a similar meal on Rahman’s > return to the city after > his triumphant run at the Oscars. “Usually, when we distribute food, we > don’t mention Rahman’s > name. But this time as we gave away special sweets and food, we said ‘Ellam > pugazhum > irraivanake’ as a tribute to him,” says Vithur. He adds that the BlaaZe > joined the group when > they distributed free meals after H Sridhar, Rahman’s sound engineer, > passed away. > The group plans to continue this service as long as possible. “We would > like to expand but > with our hectic schedules this is the only way we can do it regularly,” > says Uma Shankar. > Rakesh adds that there isn’t a better feeling than seeing the happiness of > the people they > feed. “It would probably be their only meal that day. Sometimes I leave the > packets by their > side while they are asleep and when they wake up, nothing can match the > look on their faces,” > he says. > lakshmi.kumarasw...@timesgroup.com <lakshmi.kumaraswami%40timesgroup.com> > > GIVING BACK: The fan club before heading out to feed the poor > >
