This man feeds 300 people outside hospitals

Serving compassion

Syed Gulab, an automobile spray painter by profession, is a saviour for many who live on the pavement outside NIMHANS and nearby hospitals.

He has been serving free lunches to over 300 people for the last two years.

People come from across the country to admit their family members at these hospitals.

But with very little savings they tend to skip meals for days to afford the treatment at the hospital. The hospitals only provide food for the patients and not their family. Unable to afford accommodation the relatives also sleep on the pavements or sheds outside the hospital. Pained by this scene while visiting a relative at a hospital in 2015, Gulab started serving the meals.

“The sight would pain me and I wanted to do something about it,” said Gulab who has set up the Roti Charity Trust for carrying out the initiative.

Gulab started it with the support of some of his friends. “We started by serving lunch on Sundays as the nearby hotels would remain closed at noon. I was inspired by Azhar Maqsusi from Hyderabad who has been feeding destitute people every afternoon for the last six years in the Old City,” he added.

When Maqsusi met Gulab on his visit to Bengaluru he was impressed by the initiative and said he will also support Gulab. He then started sending 30 bags of rice weighing 25 kg each to Gulab every month.

“It was due to his encouragement and support that we were able to make it a daily service,” Gulab added.

Gulab has now rented a small house near Jayanagar to store his materials. The lunch is cooked by 1 pm and a van takes the food to the hospital to be served by 2 pm.

They started serving breakfast — idli and chutney — a few months ago.

Gulab said they have never sought for donations but many people have come forward with donations.

Sharath Kumar from Kolkata has admitted his child at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health for a kidney disease for the last two months. “Gulab is a blessing in disguise. It is because of him that people like me are able to get our meals,” Kumar said.