Dhanam paati’s (grandmother) house in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, doubles up as a restaurant serving hot idlis.

Every morning, children and adults line up for delicious idlis, chutney, and sambhar. And what’s mindblowing is that one idli is priced at just Rs 2!

Being the sole breadwinner of her family for several decades, she started this business selling idlis for just 3 paisa in the 1960s.

She slowly increased the prices to fund her two children’s education and husband’s medical bills. Till three years ago, one idli cost just Re 1.

Even as bills piled up, paati refused to increase the price over what she considered reasonable. “People should be able to have a full meal within Rs 10,” she says.

After losing her husband three years ago, she started running the shop to fund her own needs, not wishing to further burden her children who she says are themselves struggling.

Her son works as a lorry loadman and hardly makes enough to provide for his two children, while her daughter is married to a tailor.

“They asked me to move in with them but I refused. Why burden them with an additional mouth to feed? I have no expectations and no complaints. I am happy with the way my life is today and I intend to work hard till my last breath,” she shares.

Paati makes about Rs 50 per day, which is hardly enough to buy the vegetables or masalas required to cook sambhar. She even manages her own meals with a handful of rice and the leftover sambhar.

She makes the idli batter and sambhar using ration rice and pulses. While the amount of ration she gets isn’t sufficient to make the required quantity of food, she says regular customers and well-wishers help her by giving her their ration rice.

“For me, what matters most is to see my customers leaving with a full stomach and a smile. We are here on this earth for a few years, let’s not run behind money. Love keeps me going,” she says.

Even as she thinks of others, the mud house that she lives is in a precarious state, held together by tarpaulin sheets and a thatched roof.

All she wants is a pucca or a permanent house as the one she currently inhabits is in a dilapidated state; in danger of falling down anytime.

“The house may fall down anytime. I request the Government to help me build a new house. A small one is enough,” she shares.

If you wish to help Dhanam paati build a new house, you can transfer any amount to her account -

Here are the details: Name: Dhanam S Account number: 212086182 Bank: The Pudukkottai District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd IFSC Code: TNSC0010900