No. I have no problems at all. You can write my name, Sujatha Natarajan, in your blog post. Ah. I’ve heard all this several times before. Lots of people applaud my efforts and my enterprise and tell me I am doing extremely noble work. I have got used to hearing that in so many years.
But the minute I am free one thought constantly plagues me. Why I am doing this? I mean, my husband and I could have easily bought a decent flat in Chennai, ordered food over Swiggy and lived comfortably for the rest of our lives. But here we are, both of us trying to fulfil our dream together.
Ah yes. Our resort for senior citizens is beautiful. And we love what we are doing. No two days are the same, you know. One morning you wake up to the news that the cook has not yet arrived, on another day it will be the gardener or the driver or a senior will fall sick and if everything is smooth sailing in our resort, my husband and I will have a fight that day.
Now, I just deal with the issue instead of expending my energy reprimanding the person or his behaviour. I go to our mess and make the coffee or just sweep the debris on the premises with a broom and solve the problem. Yeah. I guess that comes with age. And you know what? They prefer the coffee that I make for them because it is milkier than what my cook makes for them every day. So even the cook knows that he has to report on time if he wants to retain his job! Yes, these are the kinds of AHA moments that I experience all through my day every day.
We used to live in Oman earlier. My spouse worked for Jain Irrigation in Jalgaon for several years. We would use our savings to buy an acre or half an acre of land whenever we could. At that time land was not very expensive and our resort is on the outskirts of Chennai. So that was not really a big issue. We did have to take a bank loan to construct the resort though. And hopefully, by God’s grace, we will be able to repay it completely by next year.
I was working as a volunteer for the Family Planning Association of India. It is the largest NGO in India. I call myself a professional volunteer, actually. I loved working for social causes. I have been an active speaker in several forums in good companies too. I used to travel a lot to Mumbai, Delhi and all to give these lectures about the work that we were doing. So that way I got to meet and interact with quite a few people. CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility is now shaping up in a big way. Sometimes, I got to stay at home only for a week or so in a month. That was how hectic things were then too.
But again, that is only the good part of it. Even now, I have to travel a lot to Chennai especially to meet my potential clients. I make it a point to meet people personally before they decide to stay with us in our resort. There was this time when I was in Chennai and had no money, absolutely no money to return home too. We have hit rock bottom several times. It feels nice to say that money does not matter. A few years back even I used to believe that. But today, I know that nothing – repeat nothing – works unless you have money in your pocket.
We’ve been facing some setback or the other almost every year recently. First, we had the floods in Chennai, then the cyclone, then demonetization and now Carona. Not many people can see the flip side of the picture. We were planting trees when the cyclone came….
Whenever I get time to think – I only wonder about one thing – whether I am doing the right thing. Yet, I don’t want to give up either. Such thoughts never even occur to me. I wake up as early as 5 a.m. in the morning and listen to the Bhagavad Gita for an hour. That gives me the clarity that I need. I feel I am just a tool and I am just following God’s directions. So I take a deep breath and greet each day with a huge smile on my face.
I am living my dream, after all. Yes, it can get pretty scary at times. But I know we will get through this phase too. Ah. Yes. We do have an animal shelter in our premises too. I love animals. We have 10 dogs and a few cows too. A friend of mine knew that they would be taken to the slaughterhouses. So we brought them over to our premises. No, there is a lot of grass in and around our premises. So we don’t really have to spend much on taking care of them. Like I told you, I have always loved animals.
The most difficult part was this. It took me years to forge a bond with the villagers. They looked at us with suspicion and were extremely skeptical about our enterprise. They are simpletons. The smart ones have already migrated to the cities because they thought they had no future in their village. That is wrong. We need to correct that, isn’t it?
And for these simpletons, the politicians are Gods. They will blindly do whatever their Thalaivar says. Forging a bond of trust was the most difficult part; believe me when I say this. They think we city-bred people will set up an enterprise and go back there. They found it difficult to believe that we too were going to stay here in our resort. But now it is a bit better.
Yes, we do have a manager at Mannmuqi village. But he just takes care of the accounts. I can’t even say that we are working with a particular business model, you know. We have started something and it is evolving slowly on its own. Our senior citizens do not have to approach a professional management person. They directly come to us. We personally take care of each and everything. And that has been the best part of it all. We deal with all issues with sensitivity and concern. And the seniors – no – not appreciate – value that.
Our seniors are allowed to work in the kitchen if they wish to. We conduct free tuition classes for the village children. People from Prayas and L& T support us and help us conduct these classes. If someone is interested in hosting a function, they are free to contact us. People who are going on long trips prefer to keep the seniors under our care till they return. So that way we are open to everything.
We have twin sharing rooms and separate cottages too. Our seniors can even cook or make their own coffee if they want to. Such cottages have a kitchen and a living room too. Some seniors have a requirement for 24×7 assistants. So we provide them with that facility too. The requirements vary from person to person.
But we, at Mannmuqi village, live together like one big family. We know everyone’s names and call one another by name always. We celebrate festivals, draw rangolis and cook in the open on such days. We pay attention to a lot of detail. Our seniors openly say, “Can you tell the cook to make smaller idlis? The big ones are not as soft as the small ones? Can we have dosas made out of daliya instead of upma?”
In fact, I have to pack my bags in our car in the night after they all go to sleep and sneak out of the premises before they wake up if I have to go to Chennai for a couple of days. You cannot dupe them. That is for sure. And then they will shout at me when I come back saying that they did not like it when I was not around. That’s the kind of love they shower on us. And we are truly grateful for that. We share a great rapport with one another. Yes, come over to our resort to experience all that I say. I’d love that.
*Sujatha Natarajan has an elder care resort at Mannmuqi village.