Messiah to the poor - Jeweller to Social worker M. Balachandar -

We all have heard many times that thousands of people are feeding old aged and poor people. But have you ever came across a single person who has left all the luxuries of life for the sake of other people? 63-year-old M. Balachandar from Thoothukudi is one such amazing person who is providing lunch to around 250 tribal who are not able to go for work due to illness or old age on a daily basis.

M. Balachandar is into jewellery  business, which he left few years back, as according to him he has fulfilled all his responsibilities towards his children and family members. Now he along with his wife wanted to do something for the society. This is how Mr & Mrs. Balachandar started taking care of these tribal people. He states that this kind of dedication he got from a great saint Pattinathar. As said by Sh. M. Balachandar, Saint Pattinathar in the 14^th century was from the very wealthy family at that time. He had all the luxuries one even won’t think of. But wanted to serve society and thus to fulfil his dream he left his home and started working for poor people.

M. Balachandar always admired Saint Pattinathar for his social work. Till the age of 60 years M. Balachandar was into the jewellery business. His children are well established. Now he thought he had fulfilled all his duties as a parent, but when is he going to do something remarkable for the poor people. For this he visited tribal villages in Panappalli, Kondanur, Jambukandi, Kuttupuli and Thekkalur in Anaikatti Hill in the district. And finally decided to feed 250 tribal families who were not able to work due to their illness or old age problems.

Before he started his social work, M. Balachandar made door-to-door visit to tribal areas. After taking the details, he along with his wife and friends started serving food to needy tribal people by visiting their community. He is thankful to a woman who is preparing the food. He said that he spends around Rs 6,000 for preparing the food for these 250 persons. Along with this M. Balachandar along with his friend - Murugan of Anikatti, goes to these tribal areas with 250 packets variety meals between 11 am to 12 pm. Apart from this daily service, every third Sunday in a month, he visits Palamalai tribe area and donates 5 kg of rice and 1 kg of dal to 250 tribal families.

Isn’t people like M. Balachandar are making us feel proud? They are the true heroes of the society who are feeding those people living in remote areas and are not able to work for themselves.