Sundar Saralaya’s legacy of serving food at lower prices continues

Sundar Saralaya, the name synonymous for simple, tasty, affordable Rs 10 meal, is now a memory.

Sundar Saralaya, 82, breathed his last at his home in Sullia on Saturday.

Saralaya’s death came as a shock to thousands who had satisfied their hunger pangs by paying less than Rs 10 and those trained by him, to cook in his Hotel Ramprasad. Many among these trainees later became established cooks in hostels and hotels.

Sundar shot into the limelight in 2016 when Siddaramaiah’s government set up Indira Canteens to serve food at Rs 10, particularly to the poor.

The Twitterati had trolled then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and drew his attention to Saralaya’s hotel, Hotel Ramprasad, in Sullia, serving meals at Rs 10 to over 200 students and labourers for past 40 years without seeking any publicity.

Sundar’s father Venkatraman Saralaya migrated from Kerala and set up a thatched hut as a hotel in Shreeamapete in Sullia in 1938. According to elderly patrons, the meal just cost four annas (25 paise).

When Sundar took over, he shifted the hotel to its present own building. Though prices of rice and commodities doubled, Sundar had managed to strike a balance by keeping the prices minimal in his hotel.

“Until 2015, customers had an option of having a simple meal priced at Rs 5 or a meal with extra rice priced at Rs 10. In order to overcome a problem of coin scarcity, the second option, Rs 10 meal, became permanent since 2014,” Sundar’s eldest son Raghavendra Saralaya told DH.

The meal included rice, rasam, pappad, palya, sambhar and spicy buttermilk to wash it all down.

“My father used to wake up around 3 am and open the hotel at 3.20 am in order to serve hundreds of labourers proceeding to work in rubber estates,” says Raghavendra.

They used to serve meals all afternoon and close the hotel at 5.30 pm.

GAIL Deputy General Manager (O&M, Cochin-Mangalore gas pipeline) Vijayananda Sullia remembers having tasty traditional breakfast, along with his brother Indian Medical Association (IMA) Sullia President Dr Rangaiah at Saralaya’s hotel.

“Saralaya was a social entrepreneur who satisfied the hunger pangs of the poor with a solution of his own,” he said.

Will Raghavendra, a second-generation hotelier, continue the tradition?

Raghavendra says some years ago his father Sundar had suggested increasing the cost of a meal to make the business viable. Raghavendra recollects saying that he had no intention of diluting his father’s ideals and will thus continue the legacy of serving food at lower prices.

Sundar Saralaya is survived by his wife Vinoda Saralaya, sons Raghavendra, Shylendra and daughter Jyothi Achar.