How Business Turned Into Charity

(N Natarajan)
Our own Azim Premji and many others like him across the globe have been news – how from being a businessman, they all turned to philanthropist Warren Buffet, of course, is well known for his charitable acts by giving away his earnings from investments, which is sometimes more than 90%. In 1973, when I was still in college, I ventured to try a small business during a hot summer holiday. In the same year Delhi’s well-known “Sree Uttara Swami Malai”, Delhites gave a unique name, “Malai Mandir (not Cream Temple!) But, Mountain/Hill Temple was ready for consecration and Mahakumbhabhishakam.
When we came to know that His Holiness Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal from Kanchi Mutt would be performing the “Khumbhabhishekam” of presiding deity Lord Subramania Swamy on 7th June 1973, we were expecting a large number of south Indian devotees from all across Delhi and other parts of India to witness the rare occasion. Being peak summer, I floated the idea to my close family friend aptly named “Guru” for setting up a small stall to sell “Rooafza” with a small investment of Rs.25-30. We immediately bought a few bottles of “Rooafaza”, earthen pot (Gada), ice, etc, and managed to set up a stall. We thought offering the drink for a princely sum of 25 paise per glass to not only recover the cost, but also make some profit after all we are first time into small business and could not have acted like Premji or Warren Buffet to give away the cool drink for gratis to devotees. It all began well, we were able to sell just a few glasses and we were thinking all is going well and we would end up making a small profit. As the crowd increased, we thought we won’t be able to control the customers, but it so happened that some close neighbors noticed both of us dispensing cool drinks to devotees, just came and demanded the drink, just thanked and walked away even before we could ask them money.
Thereafter, all the hell broke loose, they seem to have spread word around that we two are doing yeomen service of distributing cool drinks for charity. The uncontrollable crowd thronged our stall near the stampede-like situation prevailed and in the process ended up dispensing everything free of cost. The oft-repeated quote “Charity Begins At Home, But should not End There” became a reality in our case, but we never regretted the act, after all our venture quenched the thirst of hundreds of devotees assembled in Malai Mandir which has now become a landmark India’s capital.